Tuesday, June 22

On Tuesday, we had a nice breakfast at the Edgewater Hotel and walked across the street to the Alaska Sea Life Center. The Alaska Sea Life Center is a non-profit marine science facility dedicated to understanding and maintaining the integrity of the marine ecosystem of Alaska through research, rehabilitation and public education.

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Settlement Fund provided $26 million to help build the $56 million facility. Other funding was provided through grants, revenue bonds, and corporate and private donations. The city of Seward donated the seven-acre waterfront site.

As a result of the determined efforts by many individuals and organizations, the Alaska Sea Life Center opened in May 1998.

The following pictures are of the center: Just click on thumbnail for larger picture.


Center	Interesting Fact	Nice Fish	Star Fish	Puffin

After visiting the Sealife Center, we went to Ray's Waterfront Restaurant for a nice seafood lunch. Since Bill likes to go to so many restaurants, I suggested he change the name of his tours from "Reeds Goodtime Tours" to "Reed's Eating Tours."


Restaurant	Part of Group	View of Harbor	Lora Jenkins Dessert	Free Parking promotes tourism

	Portage Glacier was hard to see but it's much easier to see where it has been. In the last few years the glacier face has begun retreating from the lake it created. A small section in the center has exposed bedrock but much of the glacier face is still in the water and extends down more than 100 feet into Portage Lake. Portage Glacier is still considered a valley glacier.
Large chunks of ice are seen in Portage Lake just below the glacier
	It sure was hard keeping that Kayak upright and not get wet prior to getting on the plane and heading back home.

Since Bill could not get 40 tickets for everyone to travel together, twenty six of us were in Group A and fourteen were in Group B, with flight times being about 12 hours apart. After, seeing Portage Glacier, the bus took Group B back to the Holiday Inn in Anchorage where they would catch a plane early the next morning. After dropping off Group B, we went on to the airport leaving Anchorage at 8:20 pm and arriving back in Knoxville at 9:00 am on Wednesday, June 23. It was a great trip covering a lot of Alaska in 11 days.

Chicago at 5:00 am

We arrived back in Knoxville at 9:00 am on June 23, tired but glad we had a chance to see this very interesting state.