Or at least, that’s what the bumper stickers say up here. Blogging at you from Seward, Alaska, where I’ve come to give a workshop at a teachers’ and librarians’ retreat. Did that yesterday; very cool, educators from all over Alaska. I spoke on using mysteries in the classroom. Title of the talk: “Elementary, Middle and High, my dear Watson.” Okay, I couldn’t help it.

Seward is on the eastern coast of the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage. It’s an important seaport, and also the place where the Iditarod trail starts. I went for a coastal walk starting from the Iditarod zero milepost. It’s about 45-55 degrees here, misty, rainy, and when not those things, very sharp and clear. The town’s population is 4,000 people, and this is the very end of the season. Some places that serve the tourists – mostly sport fishermen – have already closed for the winter.

Very few Alaskans were born in Alaska, it seems. In my hotel – the classiest in Seward, though Alaskans don’t pay much attention to their indoor surroundings – as many people on the staff speak accented English as the other kind, and the native English speakers have, some of them, suspiciously Southern accents. But I do remember from my previous visits – this is my third – that Alaskans are very friendly, native or not.

And the landscape, of course, is spectacular. Around here, and especially in this season, it’s not ice and snow, it’s spruce forest and deciduous trees turning yellow, on steep “pillow basalt” hillsides creating fjords and, farther up the mountain, glaciers. Today, took a harbor cruise. Saw sea otters, including one with a pup; Dahl’s porpoises, Steller sea lions, mountain goats, lots of different ducks and cormorants, seabirds of all sorts, but no whales. It's too late in the season, though apparently there’s a humpback still around that some boats saw this morning.

Going back tomorrow on the redeye to NY. Not looking forward to the flight, though the one out was fine. Will talk to you more when I’m back.