7/2/17 Sitting in the rectory of the Resurrection Cafe once Lutheran church which turns 100 years old this year. It is the home of my nephew’s charming lady who has created a space that is both a snug, warm coffee house surrounding folks with local art and a place to relax in a community hub. Seward is dynamic. Besides the fact that it is surrounded by stunning beauty of twelve kinds keeping one trying to remember to stop head turn gawking on every corner,  the town seems filled with dynamic people, people with purpose with a magnetic warmth and friendliness. The kind of place where busy people stop and chat on their way to what they are doing…busy but seemingly not harried. A healthy, non-anonymous commute of people who know what each is doing … a human bee hive. Luann and I stepped into the middle of it with the ignorance of tourists but fortunate to get the inside skinny on local connections and how things work culturally. We have already hiked up to the (half way) view spot over the Exit Glacier, toured the town’s hot spots, picked up local history and not just the sunny summer snapshot of a place but a “what happens when the cruise ships leave” .... the day to day work that is done in a place that requires real work to live. That is the fun part of going places…. if you are lucky enough to get to see the real fabric of a place.My nephew Michael is a captain of a boat that tours the Kenai Penninsula National Park by boat. He has a wild collection of experience on ships in literally all parts of the globe, in all manners of sea faring work… a graduate of the Maine Marine Academy. It is a marvelous thing to be able to learn so much so quickly from hearing his tales of navigating these waters and those whose jobs/life is bound by the sea. It is a complicated, high intertwined collection of skills. It is also the fourth of July weekend and the town is gearing up for a celebration that only a small, tightly sewn town can produce. The kids are wired. Amongst the festivities run by locals are we tourists…the town explodes with visitors as it is also the famous race up Marathon Mountain that draws them here to watch. Frankly an insane idea. From a bar bet one hundred years ago, the challenge of running up a shale scrabble mountain, two and a half thousand feet up at thirty something degree angle to the top and then (!) down in under an hour. Okay … seems like an idea spawned in an alcohol environment with all the high probability of drawing blood… Incredibly there are those that do this and train for it. If you saw the mountain you would just snort… no way you could do it in ten hours.A leisurely day of roaming the town and The Alaska Sea Life Center. Alaska King crab for dinner tonight. Halibut and Salmon yesterday...whoa.