The Ball Family: Trains, boats and birds, oh yeah!

We actually didn’t plan this next part well. We planned on driving down to Seward to go on our cruise, ok and the next thing was to go fishing and that also went out of Seward. It is 3 hours drive through mountains to get from Anchorage to Seward. Beautiful drive but too long for Glenn and Nathan to take off by 6 a.m. So, after thinking about it, we decided to stay in Seward on Tuesday night. The only problem was that July is the height of the tourist season and we called basically, oh the day before! We did get reservations at a bed and breakfast but then they called us back and said they had double booked the rooms. Sigh. The lady then suggested another place and Glenn said fine. So, after we arrived back in port from our cruise, we looked for some where to eat. I asked Glenn if we shouldn’t check into our hotel and he said we would do it after dinner. Umm. Then we had dinner and I again said “why don’t we check into our hotel”? Glenn said, “Well, why don’t we go find out where we can get some sandwiches for tomorrow.” Umm? What is wrong with our hotel? We went to the Safeway and arranged to have sandwiches ready by 5:30 a.m. and then again I said, “Hotel”. We had driven by a odd railroad car going in and it hadn’t looked very clean. Well, that’s where we were going. I promptly said – I’m driving back to Anchorage, have a good time!. Anyway, we agreed to check out the place. Didn’t look promising as we couldn’t get the door open as it had a number lock. This is what it looks like from the outside. The owners had developed it by buying 3, 1945 railcars and putting them in a triangle and building a porch in the middle. The car on the right, is a restaurant, left is a bicycle rental and repair shop and straight across the opening is a long railcar divided into two rooms. So, we stayed in the left side of the Whistle Stop Lodging. Once we actually got to the place and looked at it, we decided we would stay. Here is part of the railcar – You are looking from the front door. To the right is the first bed, on your left was a small refrigerator and microwave and heater. To the right, where many is sitting is a table that folds to sit 2,3 or 4 people. Farther back on the left is a queen bed and then you can see the bathroom at the back. It was clean, no frills but quite adequate. One thing was rather neat, when my Mother was little, her family moved into an area where there wasn’t any houses but jobs. Someone, moved railcars down and that’s where they lived. No indoor toilets, in fact no kitchen but that’s where they lived for around a year. So, this was kind of neat to see what it might have been like.

The view from our train car. They had blinds and you could pull them up and watch the harbor. So, all in all it was a nice place to stay.

There were three families that went out. Here is their catch. They were gone from 6 a.m. to around 5:30 p.m. Two very tired guys but they had a wonderful time. While the guys fished Mandy and I went to explore the rest of Seward. Which, by the way, is quite small. We ate lunch at a place called “Nellie’s Cafe” and went to the Sea Life Center which was very well done. The Center rehabilitates injured otters, sea lions, birds, etc. It was neat to see there wall of released animals, after they had recovered.