Home Again

Tuesday, July 6 - home again. So sorry I dropped the ball the last few days, but honestly there wasn't much to write about.

Friday was a slow day as Karen and I didn't have a car to use, Ben and Gretchen both needed their cars for work. Carrie came out in the afternoon after lunch and saved us. She took us in to town to meet up with Ben and Gretchen for Friday drinks and appetizers and then some shopping. Ended up at RCI, which took a lot of self-control to not go overboard.

Saturday Ben and Gretchen were up early for an 8 mile trail run up and over the mountains. Karen and I were up early and got to the first showing of Eclipse. Met back up at home and then Karen, Gretchen and I were off to the Forest Fair in Girdwood. For those of you local to Cincinnati, it is comparable to Summer Fair except much smaller and nestled in the woods. Spent the afternoon there and then home for dinner, Scrabble and the movie 'Blind Side'.

Sunday everyone slept in, had a big breakfast of homemade waffles, from scratch. Then Karen and Ben spent the afternoon working in the yard. Gretchen took the day off watching TV, snoozing on the couch, I kept her company!! Our final dinner was Salmon and Walleye and then it was off to the airport for a 11:15 PM redeye flight to Minneapolis. Left MSP airport at 10 AM and finally made it home at 3:30 PM Monday, July 5...just in time to celebrate Pete's birthday!!!

It was a wonderful trip. Visiting with Gretchen, meeting Ben for the first time, playing in and around Anchorage. Would love to have visited Fairbanks, but that just wasn't to be this time. Miss the cool weather already, but not the gloomy days, glad to be back to blue skies, no matter what the temperatures and humidity.

Thanks to everyone who read the blog. Hope you enjoyed!!!

Day 7 in Anchorage

Thursday, July 1 and the day woke to glorious sunshine...the most we've seen so far. Since we arrived the sun has either made no appearance due to low hanging clouds, or rain. If the sun did come out it was just in patches. But today, it is a glorious day. The clouds are out of the mountains so that you can actually see them and of course that makes it a little warmer so that it seems more like summer than early spring.

Gretchen worked from home in the AM so Karen and I kept quiet, we both were reading all morning, I finished my book 'Blink'. At Noon Gretchen put away her computer and was ready to go. We packed up and headed for the mountains for another hike. This time she did slow down a bit and we followed a trail up, up, up.

Gretchen & Karen with Anchorage in the background

There was a crew of Park Service employees working on trail maintenance. We asked them about the car we saw in the parking lot. A new Dodge Caravan completely wrapped in saran wrap!! They said it had been parked there for 3-4 days and had just reported it to the Park Rangers. A story we will never know the end to. Gretchen and I are guessing that it is a rental, that someone wrapped it as a prank, the drivers came back tired and then angry as a result of the prank, called for a taxi and left it there. Sure would like to know the end of that story.

Saran wrapped van

The mountains we finally got to see!!!

Dinner was a little late. We ordered pizzas from their favorite pizza place. Ben went to pick it up and learned that another Ben had cancelled his order and in error they canceled our order. So instead of a 7 PM dinner it was a 9 PM dinner. All ended well as we got the other Ben's order, our order and the pizza was delicious!!

Day 6

Was supposed to go to Eclipse today but the tickets sold out for the times we could go…so had to give that one up!!! Will probably wait until I get back to Cincinnati.

So, instead we went to Carrie’s house for a visit. Carrie is a friend of Karen’s whom Karen used to work with when she lived up here. She had been tied up over the weekend with Anchorage’s annual Highland Games event. She is the co-chair of the event. She is everything Scottish…very much involved with everything Scottish. Her home is an interesting blend of decorating…she is Scottish, her husband is ½ Japanese and they live in Alaska…so what you see are Celtic crosses combined with Japanese shrine pieces interspersed with Alaskan Native art pieces.

Arrived at her home around Noon, visited for a while, went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and spent most of the afternoon with her visiting. Left in time to pick up Gretchen for work and then headed to an urban park for about a 4 mile hike….at a blistering pace!!! Gretchen jumped out of the car and took off like a lightning bolt!! I could keep up, but didn’t have much of a chance to enjoy the scenery.

Not much of an adventure for those who are reading this blog hoping to get a sense of the true Alaskan experience, but it is one of the few places where you go for an urban hike carrying your bear spray….so I guess there is the potential for an adventure around every corner!!!