Neat to hear from other Alyeska fans! I do find that this bike is a very comfortable ride. Seems to be basically my version of these new "comfort bikes", and for a lot less initial outlay. It's interesting to me how very differently it rides from my other bikes, a Paramount MOS and a pair of sport-tourers. The Alyeska seems to be very maneuverable without being too unstable. I'd be interesting to ride something like a Voyageur for comparison, since this is the only touring-style machine I've ridden.
I also noticed about the different height compared to a Schwinn. Not sure if the better Schwinns are different, but I have a '90ish Schwinn World that's 21" nominal (as is this bike), but IIRC, the Schwinn's 21" is to the top of the seat tube, and this bike's is to the middle of the top tube. I have an '84 Raleigh (USA) Record in 23" that I like really well even though I'm not very tall, so I may have been slightly happier if this one were 23" as well, but this frame is just short enough that I can manage a step-through when the child seat is preventing normal mounting.
I like the look of your bags and fenders, gr23932. That, and the leather saddle, seem to give it a rather elegant old-school look ... lots better than my current half-black scheme. I don't mind my black brake hoods, but black also on the saddle, bag, fenders, and chainrings all gets to be a bit much. I'm very interested to try a Brooks Flyer at some point, since for now the stock saddle offers about the best compromise of the ones I have on hand.