North (west) to Alaska!

Just spent a LOVELY week in Alaska with Duane! We boarded the plane on Monday afternoon, and arrived just TWO HOURS LATER (with FIVE hours of flight time) in Anchorage. This was our THIRD trip to Anchorage. It's such a great place to visit.

Me outside the Bank of Alaska!

A totem pole outside the courthouse in Anchorage

After picking up our rental car, we headed to Alaska House of Jade, the bed and breakfast that we "stumbled upon" on our first trip, when trying to get into another one down the street that was full. We've stayed at this bed and breakfast, with Dee and Yves, each time we've been in Alaska...it was GOOD to see them again.

Dee, Yves, and Duane

We were initially going to just stay the first night, as Dee was booked for the rest of the week, but, someone from Tennessee, who was trying to fly standby, wasn't able to get on their flight (we know how THAT goes!), so a room was available for our entire time there.

Monday night we drove around town a bit, found our FAVORITE grocery store (Fred Meyer), tried to figure out where everything WAS again (we haven't been back to Alaska since 2002!), and turned in early (the sun not going down until after midnight makes for a REALLY crazy first couple of days of "acclimating" to the place).

Tuesday morning, we got up, had a FABULOUS breakfast (Dee is an AMAZING cook)...scrambled eggs, reindeer sausage, fresh fruit, blueberry/pecan pancakes, and Dee's fresh rhubarb sauce...amazing!

After breakfast, we headed to a REALLY COOL bookstore that we saw the previous night, called "Title Wave". What a HOOT! Mostly new books, with some vintage stuff thrown in, as well. Lots of cool "Knick knacks", book-y gifts, novelties, an AMAZING cookbook section, etc. I found a vintage cookbook, circa 1979, called "Alaska's Cooking", published by the Anchorage Woman's Club, and a savory tart cookbook, as well as a COOL thing for part of Amy's Christmas present (can't say WHAT, because she's one of the FOUR people who actually read my blog!).

After TWO HOURS at the book store, we headed downtown and had lunch at the Glacier Brewhouse. We shopped for awhile, but didn't find anything. One of the highlights for me in Anchorage is ALWAYS seeing the visitor's information center (see picture below). The plants and flowers that they have planted around and ON the building are SO amazing!

The Anchorage Visitor's Center

After that, we headed off to various antique stores around the city. I wanted to find a recipe box (WITH recipes) for my collection, but didn't. In fact, I didn't find ANYTHING at any of the antique stores that we went to...sigh. Oh well...I'd just have had to figure out where to stuff it in my luggage!

After antiquing for awhile, we went back to the House of Jade to "regroup", then drove outside the city to climb Flattop mountain. We'd never been to Flattop before, and I'm glad Dee suggested it...it was CRAZY COOL! We TOTALLY got a workout though...higher elevation and steep slopes make for LOTS of work! I never realized how FLAT Minnesota is!

Flattop Mountain

Me BEFORE all the climbing (you don't get to see the AFTER pictures...NOT a pretty sight!)

Duane on the way up Flattop Mountain

The view near the point at which we turned around (we didn't go all the way up!)

After a couple of hours at Flattop, we headed back to Anchorage, found a CARL'S JR. (!!!) at which to eat, found a BASKIN ROBBINS for ice cream, then headed back to the B&B and collapsed into bed.

Wednesday morning, we got up, had another AMAZING breakfast (Dee said that at the bed and breakfast we were going to have to move to, they only serve a "continental breakfast", so we were REALLY glad that we got to stay!). Dee made an egg and green chile souffle, grape and rosemary foccacia, pecan sticky rolls, fresh fruit, and more reindeer sausage (as well as brats, and pork sausage).

After that AMAZING breakfast, we "waddled" to the rental car, and drove down the Seward Highway. Before leaving Anchorage, we stopped at Potter Marsh, and took the boardwalk out into the marsh. They've renovated, and built additional walkways, so we got to see some new parts of the marsh. We didn't see much wildlife, as it's too early for the salmon to spawn. We DID see two eagles perched in a tree in the distance, and there were a FEW red salmon (small ones) beginning the swim upstream, but definitely not the HUNDREDS of salmon we've seen jumping upstream in years past.

After Potter Marsh, we headed down the highway. We stopped at a few viewing areas along the bay, POSSIBLY saw a humpback whale out in the water, saw a moose along a streambed, and made a stop to take the tram up Mount Alyeska. It's evidentally been a cool summer so far...when we've gone up in years past, we've been able to hike further up the mountain from the tram. This year, it was covered with snow...deep snow...snow that we couldn't climb on...crazy. Part of it is the fact that we were there a month earlier than "normal", but the weather has been a factor too, I think. While we were there, the temperature never got above 61 degrees! It was AWESOME (but chilly!).

The tram to get to the top of Alyeska

Brrr!

It was very cloudy on Alyeska, so the view wasn't as gorgeous as usual, but it made for some interesting photographs! We also got to watch a few people "hang glide" (or "parasail"...I can't tell the difference) from the ski lift area (Alyeska was home to the 2002 skiiing competitions of the Winter Olympics).

The hang glider/para sailer!

After Alyeska, we drove on to Seward. Seward is a "quaint" little town where LOTS of cruise ships dock...many people then catch the train from there to Anchorage. We walked around the docks for a little while, and had a hard time finding a place to eat. We settled on a "mexican" restaurant (which wasn't very good), and, as we were heading out to Exit Glacier, decided to drive the opposite way down the highway, only to discover the actual "downtown" area. There were some FUN touristy shops, like "Once in a Blue Moose", and some WAY better restaurants...sigh...oh well...we'll know better next time...

One thing that always strikes me as "curious" about Alaska is that they produce oil, right there, but have some of the HIGHEST gas prices in the country. The driver from House of Jade told us that it's because they pump it there, but have to send it to the "lower 48" to be processed, so by the time it gets back to Alaska, it's WAY expensive. In Seward, a gallon of gas was $4.95!!!! Ouch!

We went to Exit Glacier after touring the "downtown" area. The glacier has receded a bit...even since our last visit! One of the coolest things (besides the FREEZING breeze off the glacier) is that the park has posted markers along the drive/walk to view the glacier. Each marker has a year printed on it, and this designates where the glacier reached at that time.

The earliest marker is "1816", and the glacier was ENORMOUSLY much larger than it is now. At present, the viewing area is a fair distance away from the glacier, so we couldn't actually touch it this time (I don't think we could last time either, but we were able to go down onto the "debris field" and pick up pieces of ice that had "calved" off the main glacier, which was COOL!).

Exit Glacier

We headed back to Anchorage after walking around a little while longer, and, when we got back, took the rental car to the airport (at 10:30, when it was still COMPLETELY light out...comparable to about 8:00 p.m. in Minnesota), then collapsed into bed again.

Thursday morning, we got up, had french toast, and scrambled eggs EARLY, then headed to the trian station for the eight hour ride to Denali National Park. What can I say? The train ride was a BLAST! We had assigned seats, but didn't spend much time in them. The train had "viewing bubbles" in several cars, in which you could go up, find a seat, and get a lovely 360 degree view of the countryside. The seats in the "bubble" weren't assigned, so you were only supposed to spend about 20 minutes at a time there (so others could take advantage of the scenery).

The train also had a "snack car", a dining car, a gift shop, and, my favorite part, half doors between the cars, so that you could lean out, get fresh air, take photos, and enjoy the breeze. We met a couple of really fun people from Atlanta and North Carolina, and a grandmother who was showing Alaska to her grandson...FUN people!

The scenery was GORGEOUS, but, like the rest of our stay in Alaska this trip- CLOUDY! The sun DID finally come out, just before we got to Denali, and the mountains were even MORE gorgeous in the sunlight!

Once the train arrived, we headed to our lodge, just outside the park. We took the shuttle into the "town" of Denali (really just a couple of gift shops, a few restaurants, and a hotel), had dinner at the "World Famous Salmon Bake", and then went back to the lodge to sleep (all of that fresh air COMPLETELY exhausted me!).

Friday, we got up, packed, had breakfast at the lodge, walked along the river bed and found some COOL rocks, and took the shuttle to the train station. We had about five hours to kill before our train to Fairbanks, so toured the visitors center, had coffee, had lunch, took a shuttle up to the Savage River to look around (saw a caribou), hiked a trail, and shopped at the visitor's center bookstore.

Me on the Savage River bus

We boarded the trian around 4:00, enjoyed more FABULOUS scenery and the amenities of the train (this one, instead of a "snack car", had the "Tiki BarCar"...complete with palm trees, grass huts, and other "native" frills...WAY cool)!

We spent more time in the gift shop, and met a LOVELY lady named Nancy, who was working the car. She's actually from Arkansas, but comes up every summer to work on the railroad. She was a hoot, and very sweet. I bought a pair of Alaska Railway pajama bottoms, and she tried her "darndest" to get me to model them in the onboard giftshop fashion show". I didn't...!!!

Nancy and me in the "gift shop"!

We got to Fairbanks around 8:00, hustled into a taxi to the airport, and were able to get first class seats back to Minneapolis/St. Paul. UNFORTUNATELY, it was a "redeye", so after a few drinks, dinner, and a little reading, we ATTEMPTED to sleep on the plane...COMPLETELY uncomfortable...I think I got about an hour of sleep total!

We arrived in Minneapolis at 5:30 Saturday morning, and I've spent the last couple of days trying to catch up on the sleep that I missed on the plane, and trying to readjust to the time difference...it's only three hours, but it really messes you up when it should be 8:30 p,m,, and it's really 11:30, and vice versa!

FABULOUS trip, but I'm a little sad that this might have been our last trip to Alaska...with the Delta/Northwest merger in the works, NO ONE knows what the "perks" will be for employees of the new airline, and (more importantly to me) the flight benefits for "spouses/partners" of those employees. Time will tell, I guess.