Alaska - Part Two

Day Two: We wake up bright and early around 7, and after taking my Uncle to work we decided to take the scenic ~2 hour drive to Seward. The Seward Highway (a National Scenic Byway and All-American Road) goes through Chugach State Park and even if we had just turned around and driven back when we got there, it would have been worth it. That drive was gorgeous! So much of the water in Alaska is bright blue or green. We stopped for a couple pictures, made it to Seward, and decided to head to the Alaska SeaLife Center before finding a good place to eat.

"Mama I cold!!!" It was very windy that day.

Did I mention it was cold?

The Center sits at the end of town on Resurrection Bay (also beautiful) and is a public aquarium, rescue center, and research facility. They got their start after the Exxon Valdez spill and settlement funds were used to create the research and rehabilitation portions of the center. They have a lot of information and many creatures to look at. One of the best things in my opinion were tide pools where you could touch anything in them. They also had sea lions, jellyfish, puffins and King Crabs. While we were there they had a photographer come and take pictures of some kids making "fish prints" and Sam was one of the kids so he got to paint two rubber fish, blue of course, then press paper on top to make a stamp. His favorite part of it though was a boat with a steering wheel, he couldn't get enough of it.

For lunch we headed to the Smoke Shack. It was the top pick by the guidebook we took, plus it's located in a refurbished train car. For my two train-obsessed boys what could be better? The food was indeed smokey, but it was very, very good. According to David, the best thing there was their pie, which that day was some sort of rum sweet potato with pecans on top. Sam was especially excited about the wheels on the train car, silly boy.

Enjoying pie and (Dad's) coffee

Sam was especially keen on the wheels of the train so I promised to get them into the picture with him :)

After lunch we headed up to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. Alaska apparently has hundreds, if not thousands of glaciers, but I'd never seen one and wow is it impressive. Heading towards the glacier and up the trail are markers with years on them showing how far the glacier extended in the past. It is retreating, like so many others, and has left a massive outwash plain. The glacial silt (a fancy term for the grey dust of rocks chewed up by the glacier) covers the plain. The hike up wasn't too bad, and though we couldn't touch it we got quite close. Enough that we could hear the glacier groaning and moaning and the runoff rushing beside it.

Once we got back down we decided we'd had enough (Sam was zonked) and headed back to Anchorage. On our way back in we took to exit for Whittier and stopped to see the Portage Glacier on Portage Lake.

 

When we got back to Anchorage Grandma Audrey (who had just gotten in town the night before) had made dinner for everyone and so we had a lovely, delicious supper waiting for us when we got back. She's such a neat lady and it was fun getting to finally meet her and enjoy her abundant hospitality. No trouble sleeping for anybody that night! :)

Alaska - Part One

We got home a week ago today from Alaska..."The Last Frontier". We were terribly fortunate that David had just enough frequent flyer miles to get us all to and from Alaska, that my sweet Uncle lives in Anchorage and let us stay with him, that he happens to rent from one of his best friends, "Grandma Audrey," who had her road trip cut short and happened to get into town the day after we did, and that tourist season had started but wasn't yet in full swing.

We landed around midnight (3 am to us) and jolt #1: it was just dusk, not night, jolt #2: it was COLD! Not below freezing or anything, but lower 50s headed down through the 40s. It ranged from just above freezing at night to upper-50s, mid-60s during the day depending on wind, cloud cover, etc. David and Uncle Eric thought I was funny with all of my layers, but for a Texas girl that's cold!

We got to bed post-haste and didn't wake up nearly late enough. We were also blessed to have the use of my Uncle's swank SUV, affectionately named "silver car" by Sam. The first day we used it to hike around Flattop Mountain. We stuck to the Blueberry Loop Trail instead of the rough 5 mile hike to the top of the mountain. I fell I don't know how many times just on the loop, but there were plenty of people with appropriate footwear, poles, skis, and one dog headed for the top! It's known for the views it provides and it was breathtaking, what a way to start the trip.

The (often slippery) Ascent

Flattop Mountain

The "Blueberry Loop Trail" is called that because the area is covered with blueberry plants and in a few weeks there will be blueberries everywhere!

The Descent - We saw a fellow do this by accident on his way down/our way up. When it was our turn to go that way we figured out that sliding is the only way you can get down!

After the hike we got back to the car and headed back into Anchorage for lunch. We ended up at a local place called Snow City Cafe and it was fantastic. Nice warm comfort food after hiking, sliding and falling though snow all morning. Sam was totally beat though considering he thought we were eating lunch at 4 pm so we went back to Eric's to rest up and dry off.

Dinner that night was at another local eatery called the Moose's Tooth. This place makes their own beer (the Hefeweizen was judged to be the best by Uncle Eric and David) and pizzas similar to California Pizza Kitchen but there are a great many more options than at CPK. Yummo and a great way to end the day!

First Post-school read...

This was a fantastic book I had been wanting to read since last fall.




Next up:



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Things I Won't Miss...

Commencement is Friday...I can't believe it. It only took me a decade to get it done! But all good things must come to an end (yay!) and so I'll walk across the stage and try really hard not to let pregnancy hormones get the best of me.

Everyone always talks about the things they'll miss about college. My experience being atypical, there are more things I WON'T miss than otherwise. I was studying late one night for finals last week and the list just started forming in my head. It was Thursday, the third day of the library being open for 24-hours. Some places can be open for 24-hours and not seem the worse for wear. The M.D. Anderson library at UH is not one of them. And thus the list was born:

I will NOT miss:

-Not having toilet paper in the restrooms; added to this would be dirty restrooms.
-Heaps of discarded fast food in trash cans every few feet and the smell that goes with it.
-Microwaves caked in exploded food (yes my microwave at home has splatters but not huge messes. Plus I can't reach mine to clean it!)
-The smokers that are EVERYWHERE on campus.
-Having to stay up 4 hours after everyone in my house goes to bed to get my studying done.
-Having to walk out the door when David walks in so I can go to class.
-Sam telling me he wants me to stay home
-Having to miss meals or pay for bad ones because I didn't have time to make dinner before I left.
-That nauseating feeling in the pit of my stomach while I'm waiting for grades.
-That condescending look I get from the people in my classes a decade younger than me. At least until they find out my grades are better than theirs and then they're my new best friends...
-The crazy wait lines for everything that are not conducive for people who work/have kids.
-The hand cramp I get when writing essay exams.
-Writer's block

Things I will miss:
-The joy that comes with getting good grades
-Dr. Vardy, Dr. Hallmark and Professor Wall
-The handful of good friends I've made in my classes

I'm sure the list will grow as things get closer to wrapping up and reality sets in :)