Seward is a city of about 3,000 residents on the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula.  For years it was one of Alaska’s biggest ports but today operates by virtue of cruise ships and a thriving tourist community.  Throughout town, the walls of buildings are covered with striking murals.

One of Seward’s main attractions is the Alaska SeaLife Center where researchers help to save aquatic species while visitors get the opportunity to see the sealife present in Alaska’s cold waters.  Watch this blog tomorrow for a very special behind-the-scenes tour at the center.

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Alaska certainly has its share of eccentrics, perhaps none more than Mad Jack the taxi driver of Seward.  He attracts customers with both his artistically decorated taxi and by honking at them with a duck call.

Meet Brent the barber in Seward this morning, a retired sailor, state employee, fisherman AND orchid lover.  He wouldn’t let me take a photo of him (something about the CIA) but he did let me take some photos of the orchids that fill his tiny barber shop.

Here’s Dave, the owner of the Alaska Shop in Seward and also the town’s former mayor.  Knives are a big thing in Alaska.  All these are handmade by folks on the Kenai Peninsula.  The knives with the fan-shaped blades are ulu knives made by native Alaskans for scraping hides.  People today use them for chopping in food preparation.  Listen to Dave (in the post above) talk about ulu knives.

This afternoon it was back to the Sealife Center for the octopus encounter.  I was the only person to show up for this behind-the-scenes tour so I had Chuck (the guide) all to myself.  The octopus is an amazing animal and I had a chance to meet, feed and stroke two of the center’s eight-legged residents, Thumb and Dot.  Chuck explained that octopuses eat with a hard beak (which he’s holding in his hands) that’s nestled in the center of where their arms meet.  The females breed only once in their lives but can release tens of thousands of eggs (seen in the bottle).  We then went downstairs to meet Thumb and Dot.  What an experience.  They’re very smooth, soft and supple, except for the suckers that can grab very powerfully.