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!