The sun slowly sets in Seward

CINTHIA RITCHIE

June 26, 2008 at 2:00PM AKST

It’s just after midnight on June 20, and the sun set minutes ago. The sky is lavender, the water silver, the mountains across Resurrection Bay shadowed with blue tint.

It’s late, but very few are asleep. The twilight is too beautiful, and it’s filled with a strange, haunting energy that makes walking the beach or reading by a campfire seem perfectly normal at one or even two o’clock in the morning.

Groups gather on the beach to collect stones and watch a sea otter, which swims by on its back, its legs waving in the air. Two young men rollerblade on the paved trail that runs along the water, while a mother pushes a stroller and watches three children play on the swings at the nearby playground.

Down around the bend, RVs stretch as far as the eye can see, hundreds of them, one after another after another. Most of the passengers are still up, roasting marshmallows or hot dogs, playing the guitar and singing.

Everyone is friendly and relaxed, it’s like one party, one big family of people escaping city life and job stresses and family obligations and stretching out, for one night or two, in front of the bay to listen to the tide come in.

When it does, the waves are soft and lulling. The sky deepens but doesn’t darken, not quite and not yet.

It slowly quiets as people straggle back to their houses, RVs and tents. Soon, only a few of us remain. We sit by our campsites staring out at the silver gleam of the bay.

We know we should go to bed, but we don’t.

The air smells of campfire. The sky is lavender.

And the night is too long and beautiful to miss.

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.