On land

We're back on land again after our cruise. I'll post cruise details over the next few days and a few pictures too.

Fishing in Alaska

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Sunday August 17th

Today we got up, had a leisurely breakfast and met a lovely family from northwest NJ. After a bit of unpacking and making ourselves at home we got in the car and did some exploring. First stop was a Tesoro Gas station to get a fishing license. Second stop was a nice local sports bar/restaurant called 5 chairs for lunch - very tasty. Next we trundled off the the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Preserve. While we were interested to see the wildlife close up - the feeling was too much like a zoo, so we spent a short time there then moved on to the Portage Glacier area. We did a lovely 2 mile hike to see the glacier and Val and Cal got to actually to up to and stand on a glacier for the first time ever in their lives. It was really liberating to take a walk in the woods and check out an ice cold glacial stream right after the long plane ride here. We also stopped at an area where y0u could watch the Salmon spawn - amazing. The little creek must have had 50 Salmon in an area of about 40 feet of stream. We then headed back to the b and b to change for dinner and went to the Aleyska resort for a fancy dinner at their top of the mountain restaurant 7 glaciers. The food was excellent and the vew just fantastic. Val and Cal split a baked Aleyska for 2 and declared it quite yumful. I had elk loin for the first time ever, Calvin had to die for salmon and Val had fresh caught Halibut. The food service and view were exceptional.

Hidden Creek bed and breakfast

We've arrived at Hidden Creek Bed and Breakfast at around 11:25 pm local time. It took probably 15 minutes to get to the rental car from the baggage claim and another 1/2 hour to check out the car. But we're on vacation so the only hurry we had was to find a nice comfy bed to crash on, and boy did our hosts here provide it! This is in the top 2 bed and breakfasts we've stayed at (Hawaii had the top one, but that one was pretty special). The facilities are wonderful, breakfast was excellent with a great variety of choices and the house and grounds are b do eautiful. Even the bathroom rocks! We'll post some pics once we've unpacked everything. Today is a day of relaxing, we'll do some sightseeing and eat at the 7 glaciers restaurant tonite at the top of the moutain.

Alaska here we come!

We're on our way to Alaska. The flight to chicago is a little late but we should still have a bit under an hour to make our connection. Calvin is playing gameboy, and I'm on my chibi.... Val of course is reading a book :) Rochester airport's internet is nice and fast and has a good signal. See you in Girdwood!