Alaska: Day 8

We had another tasty breakfast at the Rowdy Radish in Seward before hitting the beautiful, scenic road back to Anchorage.

On the way back, we stopped at Hope (an old mining town that was basically closed) and also the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. As I look through my photos, hilariously I only have photos of lupine, but we did see bears (my first!), bison, porcupine, and others. 

Lupine

Afterward we hit a couple of breweries, including one I'd really been wanting to visit - Anchorage Brewing Co. - and one that Burt and Linda had wanted to visit - King Street Brewery.

Dave and Burt at Anchorage Brewing Co.

For our last meal, we went to the Crow's Nest, maybe the fanciest spot in town. We hit the mother lode of fresh veggies, seafood, and nice cocktails. We also teed up some ideas to travel together again in the future, and heartily invited Burt and Linda to Maine.

I would definitely visit Alaska again, and hope I do so. Every way you look, there is beauty. I hope that our country can preserve that for the future.

Alaska: Day 7

For our day in Seward, we enjoyed a tea, golden milk, and breakfast sandwiches at local spots, including the Rowdy Radish (which I kept calling the Randy Radish).

There were a lot of super cute arts and crafts stores in the Seward downtown with lots of work by local artists. I bought a lot of cards, including some new puffin cards for my work wife who wants to eat puffins (maybe) and also a magnet with a parody of the Dark Side of the Moon, replacing Moon with Loon. It was amazing.

We drove out of town to the Exit Glacier Hike in Kenai Fjords National Park. The park service had placed signs to show where the glacier was several years ago, or 50 years ago, or 100+ years ago. It was sobering.

You can always tell the glaciers apart from snow by their characteristic blue hue:

Exit Glacier

We had snacks and beer flights at the Tidewater Taphouse, which sold Burt and Linda's favorite type of smoked fish schmear. 

Then we headed to the Alaska SeaLife Center just before they closed for the day. Burt and Linda are members there and showed us the walrus they got to hang out with, as well as the sea birds they got to feed. The sea birds were super fun to watch, even if we were afraid we were going to get pooped on.

Alaska has two types of puffins, including one with eyebrows! You could also pet starfish and sea anemones, which I saw others doing but I was a'scared.

Then at the end of the day, we visited the Cookery for dinner, where Dave had the best oysters of his life. I couldn't believe he'd like an oyster more than the Maine or Rhode Island oysters, but there you go. Apparently next time we have to get to Homer, where they are grown!

Alaska: Day 6

On this day, we got up early to head down the Kenai Peninsula to Whittier, where we were to board a boat for a glacier sightseeing cruise. It was an extraordinarily scenic drive - as is everything in Alaska, I suppose - and we even had time to shop at the Prince William Sound Salt Company!

Burt and Linda had taken pity on us to bring some extra raincoats, and although it was chilly, it wasn't rainy (phew). The cruise company was the Phillips 26 Glacier Cruise, which I highly recommend. They fed us (salmon chowder and warm cookies!), we got margaritas with glacier ice, and in addition to the promised glaciers, we saw surprise sea otters!

A float of otters in Prince William Sound

They were super playful and mostly stayed away from the boat, but a few of them were curious enough to come over and say hi. We also saw seals, kittiwakes, and a bald eagle (which unfortunately had eaten one of the kittiwakes, haha).

Group photo!!

We visited College Fjord, which had a lot of glaciers named after colleges with which I'm now familiar (as well as some Ivies). The glaciers were interesting; many were receding, and we learned about ice fields and more.

We headed out of Whittier, "catching the tunnel," as they say - it opens every half hour, I think. It's a one-way tunnel built by the Army when Whittier was a base. More beauty on the drive, then arrived in Seward in time for dinner at our hotel, the aptly named Hotel Seward. We walked on the seashore a bit, saving the rest for the next day.

Alaska: Day 5

First up today was meeting Burt and Linda at the Alaska Botanical Garden, which my friends are members of and where there were beautiful spring wildflowers and orchids in bloom. The blue poppies were not quite ready, but there were some yellow ones.

Burt, who I have posted about before, is a good friend from college. Hopefully we didn't bore Linda and Dave with our reminiscing. Linda met Burt at grad school at University of Minnesota and was, until recently a Park Service employee. That's a whole sentence right there.

Afterward we got breakfast at the Spenard Roadhouse, where a lot of people were having Father's Day brunch and we all had cocktails to toast the trip.

Burt and Linda had not visited Hive Mind Meadery, which we had put high on our list after having been introduced to mead by Burt and Linda themselves at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. It was a super fun spot!

We made the drive up to the Overlook Trail, which boasts amazing views of Anchorage, but what we were far more interested in was the foliage. I loved all the wild lupines, and Burt and Linda showed us all kinds of beautiful wildflowers. Dave got some new birds for his life list, too! I really loved the flora. It was vibrant in its own quiet way.

For our last meal of the day, we visited My Shawarma, a restaurant Burt loves and which we all enjoyed despite the hijinx. First off, they gave Linda the wrong meal (a falafel wrap rather than a lamb plate) - but it was good! Second off, Burt ordered an injera lamb dish, which was absolutely enormous and which we all had to help with. But it was super tasty, and we got to enjoy a Dubai chocolate bar. 

Tomorrow off to the Kenai Peninsula!

Alaska: Day 4

We started the day with a food tour in the downtown area - we love to do these while traveling.

First stop was Snow City Cafe for a tasty yogurt parfait - they make their own granola. Mmm. Next stop was Biscuit Club where we enjoyed some biscuits with gravy. We also enjoyed a fireweed donut and samovar tea at a small shop, and finally a seafood sampler at Humpy's. We also learned about Anchorage and Alaska history, including the Iditarod, which begins right where we stood!

Iditarod map in Anchorage

We also visited some yarn stores, where I bought a little rabbit pompom to go with a hat I made from rabbit "wool" some time ago, as well as more qiviut. We visited Onsite Brewing and then headed to the coastal trail for a bike rental.

The "mud flats" on the shores of Anchorage are apparently quite dangerous, similar to quicksand. We rode along them and worried for the few people and dogs we saw, after the stories we heard!

It was a nice, sunny day, and we felt we worked off some of the calories from the morning food tour. At least enough to visit 49th State Brewing, one of the hottest dinners in town. We shared a flight, had a nice seafood dinner, and split a pair of king crab legs. They were about like disassembling some Maine lobsters!

Alaska: Day 3

Denali day!

We woke up super early for the bus tour of Denali - and it didn't seem that early because it was so bright out from the mid-June all-day sun! The buses are the only way to get into the park, which keeps the animals and environment safe from tourists running ramshod everywhere in their own cars. You can pick times throughout the day, but the early one is the best chance of seeing the best and biggest wildlife.

Dawn in Denali National Park

Within minutes of setting out, we left the treeline and entered the willow-bound tundra. We had had lovely views of Denali the previous day, but got to see her again here:

The white mountain is Denali

On the bus tour, we got to see:

• Dall sheep
• Moose (our first!!)
• Porcupines
• Willow ptarmigans
• Arctic ground squirrels
• Caribou

The caribou in particular were so close, numerous, and beautiful as they munched on the ground cover. I also loved the ptarmigans, which are the Alaska state bird.

The bus system really seems like the way to go. At first it's annoying not to have the freedom to drive around at your own pace, but the guide tells you all about the park, the animals don't care about the buses (the guide said the animals pay them not much more mind than a passing cloud), and each bus takes about 20 cars off the road. A few other national parks use the bus system, such as Zion, and I could think of others who would benefit. For example, ones that are so crowded that you can hardly find parking (Yosemite, Acadia) or ones where tourists injure or kill animals (or are injured by animals themselves).

After the bus tour, we took a hike around Horseshoe Lake, where I was thrilled to find a beaver dam!! We didn't see the beevs, though.

Beaver dam in Denali - Horseshoe Lake

The glacial water is always so blue and beautiful. Here are the beaver lodges, too.

Beaver lodges in Denali - Horseshoe Lake

On the way back, we visited Matanuska Brewing; I forgot to mention this was our first visit together to Alaska, so this was our first beer check-in within the state of Alaska. Only a few left to go.

My friend Burt met us for dinner at Alaska Chopped and Chowdered, where we enjoyed salmon and halibut. The salmon season is beginning, and everything was tasty. The restaurant was closing and it was still super bright out, which was disorienting. Throughout the trip, we'd be going, going, going, then suddenly tiredness would hit us like a ton of bricks around 10:30. The days of the midnight sun are beautiful, but disorienting!

Our road

Alaska: Day 2

We shut the shades last night and slept for quite a long time - a full eight hours! The hotel (Homewood Suites Anchorage) had a great fruit bar, and Dave brought up heaps of berries and tea, and we started to feel better after a long day of flights yesterday.

First up was a hearty Alaskan breakfast at Gwennie's, where we found tasty crab benedicts and reindeer sausage.

Gwennie's Old Alaska Restaurant

We stopped by the Alaska Native Heritage Center for the exhibits and a craft fair, then up to the Musk Ox Farm for a tour (!!!).

Glorious mama musk ox with lots of qiviut hanging off her

Most of the oxen had been brushed after the winter; they have two coats and the beautiful (expensive!) yarn only comes from the winter coat: qiviut. The four mamas had been reluctant to run through the barn yet, so they were still pretty shaggy with their adorable little babies.

A mama musk ox with a 7-week-old baby (!!)

Each year they name the babies with a theme; last year it was egg dishes, so there was Quiche and Benedict. I don't remember the babies from this year.

Next we visited Bleeding Heart Brewery, which is in the same town (Palmer) as the Musk Ox Farm, then up to Denali Brewing for a very tasty pizza, salad, and beer flight. I think this was my favorite brewery of the entire trip.

We were heading north to stay near Denali National Park for a tour the next day. We stopped for a hike on the Oxbow Trail, which boasted some stunning views of a river:

A lovely hike

We stayed at Denali Cabins, which were super cute and close to the park. We had initially booked a hotel in Talkeetna, but the company was able to transfer us up to their other property free of charge when we actually secured a spot on a bus tour. Gotta love good customer service!