Anchorage

Imagine my surprise when I opened up my "Anchorage" draft blog and it was a blank slate. Wow, I really thought I had actually begun writing this blog a few days or maybe it was weeks ago. It seems every day things come up that I want to blog about but the time just eludes me. Well, at least I'm getting another segment of our Alaska trip (July) into the books now that it is October.

We arrived in Alaska after a truly enjoyable and relaxing day. It was nice to talk and hang out with Chris in the Delta lounge, travelling stress(kid)free through the airports, and sitting in first class for the long flight to Anchorage. It was also nice to have the opportunity to read a book. I so rarely get to enjoy a book these days. I actually only took one book with me, "Gifted Hands" the Ben Carson Story, and was over half way through the book in the first two hours of the flight so I put it down to save for the flight home. It really is an amazing book, detailing an amazing life story, and some incredible insight into the American Dream. My first impression of Alsaka: Such beautiful country if you can overlook the slums that make up nearly all of the city/residential areas. Anchorage is not a beautiful city and I kept wondering where all the newer homes were. I had flashes of images from my trip to the Dominican Republic ( a third world country ) during high school. There were piles of trash everywhere, and half built buildings etc. . . It was a bit disturbing. Such a tragedy that a beautiful land like that is marred by unkept areas and piles of trash dumped anywhere and everywhere.

When we arrived in Anchorage we were surprised with a lovely upgrade in our free rental car, as we were given a Chevy Tahoe to drive for the week. I'm not a huge Chevy fan, but it sure was nice to drive around in comfort rather than in the compact car we had originally selected. We Valet parked the car at the hotel and checked in. We decided to leave most of the bags (especially the hiking and camping gear) in the vehicle rather than toting it all up to the room for one night. After getting freshened up we headed to dinner. It felt like midnight but with the bright light outside (Alaska had 20 hours of sunlight per day during the time we were there) it seemed like it was 1700, and in fact it was 2100. Talk about getting your system completely messed up. We had dinner at a place in town that Chris had gone to on several previous business trips: Glacier Brewhouse. Even being 2100 on a Sunday night the place was PACKED and loud. The food was pretty good as was the service, but it was so loud and not at all what I wanted after a long day of travelling. In keeping with being in Alaska, we tried to eat things that were not readily available at home or were supposed to be "good" in Alaska. Chris had the salmon and I had Haddock. We ate and went back to the hotel to crash.

The hotel room was comfortable and we slept well, I was thankful for the black out curtains on the window. At this point I didn't realize just how awesome those curtains really are. Trust me, at other locations I was painfully aware of the need for those curtains. We slept til we felt like getting up and then packed up and headed out for the day. We were headed out about 0930 to go for breakfast at a place that came highly recommended: Snow City Cafe. Unfortunately we didn't get to breakfast until after 1000, as the valet parking attendant LOST our car. It turned into a big ordeal as they actually switched our vehicle for another and then couldn't figure out which car was whose. It cost us a bit of strife and some time and our valet parking for the night was free (imagine that) We were shocked to get to Snow City Cafe (a breakfast place) and find the line out the door. The place actually takes reservations for breakfast. Fortunately they have a to go counter where you can order coffee while you wait, and they have awesome coffee. So we drank our coffee and waited for a table. The service was good and the food was great but the food was in HUGE quantities. There is no way I could have ever eaten it all. It was one of those times I regretted not having a fridge or a couple kids (even a dog)to take the leftovers to. It seemed like such a waste. After breakfast we drove down to the bay to take a few pictures, and then headed north out of town towards Fairbanks. Fairbanks is quite a haul from Anchorage but we had time and nothing to do but see the sights.

Not a Chevy Tahoe, but what Valet parking brought to us

As we left town we chose to drive onto Arctic Valley Road on base property. We were over at the base to drop off Chris' suit for our "nice" dinner later in the week. It was a really pleasent drive and we took many pictures and were able to get an awesome view down over the city of Anchorage. So far lots of plant life, mountains, water, and beautiful views, but no wildelife, but the trip had only just begun. As we drove north, from over a hundred miles out Denali became visible. It was a beautiful sight to watch all day as we got closer and closer. It is so enormous. We also passed a place called Thunderbird Falls. I am a huge Waterfall lover so we determined that when we came back down from Fairbanks we would hike to Thunderbird Falls. One thing we noted and thought was pretty cool, was there was a bike path as wide as a car nearly the entire length of the highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks. As we got closer to Denali they had a couple of view points for picture taking. We got out and took a few pictures (we had no idea how special those pictures were, and if we had I would have taken more).  The day was filled with amazing sites.  We saw our first moose (they were not very plentiful), and a river that is incapable of supporting life.  After driving all day, we finally arrived at the Bed and Breakfast in Faribanks. What a beautiful cabin.

Anchorage from Arctic Valley Road

Valley picture from Arctic Valley Road

                                                

Part of the Alaskan Mountain Range

Alaskan Moiuntain Range

Funky old abandoned builing on the way to Fairbanks

Alaskan Mountatin Range

Alaskan Mountain range

River that contains no life -- Too much silt as it is run off from Glacier

Our first Moose and she didn't look very healthy

 More of our first Moose sighting

 We determined to stay in a Bed and Breakfast because it is actully cheaper to stay in them than most hotels in Alaska. That was another shock. It is incredibly expensive to live in or visit Alaska. We dropped our stuff at the B&B and headed to dinner at what would turn out to be one of my favorite meals of the entire trip: Silver Gulch. It is out in the middle of nowhere, and from the outside it looks like a big metal warehouse. The area it is in is not exceptionally nice and I would actually call it the "back-woods". I kept asking Chris if he was sure we were going to the right place, and at one point I think even he was concerned, however he answered that he new it was in the middle of nowhere. Sure enough there it was. Despite its exterior, it was amazing on the inside, dinner was AWESOME and I wished I could eat there every day. After dinner, we went back to the Bed and Breakfast to get rested for our busy day of sight seeing in Denali National Park the next day. Unfortunatley, as beautiful as the Cabin was there was an enormous window (you will see in the pictures), and it let TONS of light in all night long. It was one of the worst nights sleep I got the entire time we were in Alaska. These things, combined with the other guests being horribly loud and rude at all hours and the hot water never getting any more than luke warm (who wants to use a jacuzzi tub filled with cold water?) all led to the night at the B&B being a bit of a disappointment. However, there was a redeeming quality, the daughter of the B&B owner was wonderfully nice. She packed us two brown bags of snack/breakfast foods for the next day since we were not going to be there for the meal. There were bagels, and homemade cookies, and bananas, and granola bars, and bottled water and orange juice and more. It was awesome to have those snack bags with us that day.

Our room in the B&B

View from the B&B

Flowers  at the B&B

The B&B

                     

One of my favorites!