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.