ALASKA TRIP - MAY 2018 - A VISIT WITH GREGG'S SECOND COUSIN - SUNDAY, MAY 27TH, 2018

Second cousins meet today - Sunday, May 27th, 2018

It is 4.25 p.m. and Gregg and I are sitting in the main room of the hotel, with the elk's head staring down at us.  The fire is keeping us nice and toasty, and once again I am drawn to the wrought iron screen with the wonderful design of salmon, which I fancy are swimming upstream.  The flames in the grate are spurring them on.  No one has let the fire go out yet.  It has always been very welcome when we sit down, especially after coming in from outside.

5.09 p.m. and we are having an early cocktail in the bar while a basketball game is going on.  Several customers are in here this time, showing their support by cheering loudly.  Even my sports' loving husband isn't paying attention to the game.  

Way too noisy for me. We are sitting at our usual table, the one by the window, and we have been spoilt by the previous days of quietness after a busy day of sight-seeing.  We move down to the coffee shop downstairs and order an individual slice of pizza and a salad for dinner.  It is nice and quiet down there. 

From the coffee shop we go outside, have our evening walk and see the bronze bear that stands outside of one of the large windows.  

It is one of my favorite sculptures on the property.

There are a few flowers around but it is still too early for them.  I have read that the place is awash with colorful blooms later in the season, and the hotel is well known for them.

After a nice walk we sit outside next to the fire pit. It warded off the chill in the air very nicely. (This is actually the firepit in the front of the hotel, but the one in the back is identical.)

Now we are in our room after deciding to have an early night.  Before I fell asleep, I decide to jot a few more things down.

Earlier today we spent a few hours with Gregg's second cousin and her family on the outskirts of Anchorage.  Her grandmother and Gregg's grandmother are sisters.  They met on Facebook as she is part of their cousin's group.  

It was lovely meeting them, and also a friend of theirs. They cooked us barbecue, and we were treated to fresh wild salmon and burgers, with all kinds of delicious side-dishes. We enjoyed talking to the family and the next door neighbor's dog came over to say hello.  A few neighbors walking by waved.  

We want to thank Gregg's second cousin and her family again for giving us such a good time. We weren't able to give a lot of warning beforehand.  Our schedule had been hectic and though they knew we were in the area and might be dropping by, we weren't sure on timing.  Gregg called to say hello and we were invited over, they made us very welcome.  It was a lovely ending to our holiday. 

(I finally got a photo of the white whale sculpture as we enter the hotel.)

But, it's not over yet.  There is actually one more day tomorrow.  We are getting up early and going back to Seward.  You guessed it, to see the sea otters, one last hurrah.  And I do hope they are still there.  Even if not it will be lovely to see Seward one last time.

We will be ready to head to the airport the following day.  It has been an amazing vacation, but once you know it is coming to an end, the old homing pigeon instincts kick in and you can't wait to get going.  We will have been away for a month.  Time to go home.

But first, the sea otters...and they will be in my next post.

ALASKA TRIP-MAY 2018 - SATURDAY, MAY 26TH, 2018 - ON THE MOUNTAIN AND BACK TO POTTER'S MARSH

On The Mountain and back to Potter's Marsh

Saturday, May 26th, 2018 

(The gondola can be found at the end of the hotel.  We took this to get up the mountain.)

9.36 p.m. We have just had a Facetime with our son and daughter-in-law.  How lovely it was to see them.  This is the longest in a long time that we haven't been together.  We have been playing catch-up all through the trip, but today schedules were aligned. Fantastic! It was fun to tell them what we had seen, and also to catch up on all their news.  We are getting together next week also.  Son will be picking us up at the airport, and then the four of us will have a meal together a day or two later.

We have had lots of texts from our niece letting us know that they are now home.  It was a very long journey.  They had to catch a train after they landed, and change to another.  Good to know they got back okay.  Her Dad picked them up from the train station.  They must both be exhausted.  

We are in our hotel room.  What did we do today?

(The photos above, the first as the gondola docked, another as we saw it coming down,

and the next two were taken out of the gondola windows, as was this one looking 

down to the hotel.)

We rode to the top of the mountain on the gondola. I didn't feel as nervous this time.  Weather was calm, no talk of not being able to get down the mountain because the wind was too high, no being packed into the gondola as tight as a sardine in a can, no talk about the caterpillar transport taking us down the mountain 10 at a time! It was a very nice, calm ride down.

It was also a very pleasant ride up. The driver told us that sometimes he looks below and sees bears and moose wandering the property, these in the lower elevations. As hard as we looked we didn't see anything. 

When we were at the restaurant a few nights ago, we noticed another building, the Roundhouse.  There is a gift shop on the second level (ground level for us) and a ski patrol office on the first level. I bought a few souvenirs, cards, magnets, that kind of thing.  There was also another restaurant nearby, one where we had lunch.

We walked out onto the snow with several other tourists first.  

It was incredible to be up there with all that snow .

And of course we took the obligatory selfie.

The views were absolutely stunning.

We had lunch in the Bore Tide Deli and Bar. 

The same scene in these two photos, cropping the one below to get a closer look at the sheep.

One more look at that gorgeous view before we made our way down the mountain.

After that we drove to Potter's Marsh again.  No eagles, a few ducks, a few Canada Geese, a few gulls.  Loved the boardwalk, pretty area and more posts ahead.  

Gregg wanted to drive up the hill at the back of the nature area and we saw a lot of very pretty houses.  

On the way back we stopped at an ice-cream shop not that far from the hotel.  We both had a milkshake.  A strawberry for me, vanilla for Gregg. This pretty dog was there.

  

Back to the hotel for a cocktail.  Tonight I had a raspberry mojito and Gregg a brandy and ginger ale.

It is 11.48 p.m. and there is still light in the sky.  Not bright, almost a twilight but I can definitely look out and see what is going on down there.  We are after all in the land of the midnight sun, and the days are getting longer already.  I am looking for bear and moose in particular. 

This is about it for today.  We are slowly winding down.

All is quiet, back to sleep I go. 

ALASKA TRIP - MAY 2018 - A QUIET DAY TODAY - FRIDAY, MAY 25TH, 2018

A quiet day today...

Friday, May 25th, 2018  

though there was great excitement downstairs this morning. Gregg went for my coffee and his iced tea while I was getting ready, and found a crowd at the window. He was told a mama black bear and her three cubs were just below. They had moved on by the time he looked, but a man let him take a photo of his photo which he showed Gregg on his iPhone screen, and there they were quite clearly.

12.26 p.m.  Today we decided it would be a laundry day.  

Gregg and I found a laundromat not too far away in Girdwood, and the ceiling was painted like the sky with constellations.  Of course I took photos!

It took 20 minutes for a wash cycle.  I brought my iPad to read while we waited, but rather than hang around for the dryer to finish with our clothes, we decided to check out the mercantile store nearby.

Next we had breakfast in a small restaurant next door, where we ate a breakfast biscuit with home fries.

and chatted with locals outside.

Very cute locals...

but they were anxiously waiting for their humans to come back, so we didn't want to interrupt.  Want to come home with me?  No?  Too bad, I would treat you like you were the center of the universe, and give you kisses as many as there are stars in the sky, and constellations in the heavens, just like in the laundromat.

After we ate we picked up our newly washed and dried laundry, then back to the hotel to see if my computer had soaked up some electrons. It had not! I am having trouble as the screen won't turn on, and we think my computer is kaput!  Ugh!  Of all the luck! 

(There are vases of flowers placed all around the hotel.  Very pretty!)

Fortunately I had downloaded everything to the portable hard drive before leaving home.  As for my photos, as a precaution I keep them on my camera card without deleting after downloading everything to my computer.  Breathing a sigh of relief because this is exactly why I am super cautious. I learned my lesson when it happened before a few years ago. You just never know when your computer is going to throw its hands up and say, enough already!  I am going to have to wait until we get home before I can do anything. 

(These are photos that are in our room.  Love them!)

1.44 p.m. Gregg just got off the phone to a cousin.  They connected through Facebook.  Her grandmother and Gregg's grandmother were sisters.  We are meeting up on Sunday as she lives in Anchorage, and when she saw that we were heading this way she invited us over. 

(I say hello to polar bear when we come back from looking around.  He's always a welcome sight.)

5.31 p.m.  It has been a quiet day.  I had a text from niece to say that they were about to board their flight back to Germany.  They had to change planes in Seattle and had a 12 hour layover.  

We have been taking walks in the evenings on the hotel grounds.  Many of the trails are closed due to avalanche warnings.

We have seen a gradual snow melt since we arrived, but there is still of lot at higher elevations.

These warnings are in strategic places all around the hotel.

On our walks we talk loudly and don't wander too far, especially because of the sighting of the bear family earlier. We have seen people park (not staying at the hotel) and walk on the trails which are open to the general public.  Some of them have bells tied to their walking sticks. Also they often have one or two dogs.  

We went for a cocktail later and Gregg asked the barman if he had seen the bear family again.  He told us no, but when they were there this morning, he saw people outside getting their photos taken with their children, with the mama bear and her cubs not that far away. He could tell even at this distance looking down through the widow, her body language was showing agitation. Oh dear, they might seem cute and cuddly to some, but they are still wild animals.  The barman was trying to give us a gentle warning not to get too close and we thanked him, even though we would not have.

(This is the view from where we are sipping on our cocktail.  There are two large fire-pits, one here and the other at the front of the hotel.  They give off lovely heat as you walk by, and it is a relaxing place to sit for a spell as you can see with this lady and her dog.)

We leave for home next Tuesday the 29th.  Three full days left after this one.  The countdown has begun.