ALASKA TRIP- MAY 2018 - NIECE AND NEPHEW OFF TO THE AIRPORT TODAY

We are taking our niece and nephew to the airport today.  

Thursday, May 24th, 2018

5.04 p.m. We have recently returned from a birding nature reserve called Potters Marsh.  We had passed it many times and were curious. 

It was very cold and blustery and the birds were far away from the boardwalk.  Numerous gulls were sitting on their nests in the distance.  We saw them from the road but traffic, although not that busy, was enough that we didn't feel it was safe to stop.  

Pretty place though, loved walking the boardwalk and looking across the marsh.  I will put more photos of the place in another post.

We stopped at Turnagain Armpit Barbecue for lunch. 

 All kinds of positive signs on the walls. 

(Funnily enough, and we wrote this back in May, when we got back home we were watching a TV channel that was showing several restaurants we visited while on vacation, and this was one of them.  It was fun to see again.)

I forgot to take photos of our orders, but here are the menus.

This barbecue place was one our driver recommended when we were on the bus tour.  

One more photo.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a shopping area not too far away, and filled the car up with gas. We decided to browse around in a souvenir shop a few stores up from the gas station. A lady standing behind Gregg, when he was asked by the person behind the counter where he was from, laughed when she heard his answer.  It turned out that she grew up in the same town. It is such a small world at times. They had a great conversation about places they knew when they were kids. She was also on vacation but now lived in Alaska, and had been teaching here for many years.

This morning we had asked our niece and nephew where they would like to eat tonight.  It would be our last meal together for quite a while, and we would be taking them to the airport straight from the restaurant.

Our bus driver had also recommended The Double Musky Inn, which wasn't too far away from our hotel. Also it was on that TV show I mentioned above.

 Great place, lots of character...

and a great atmosphere. 

And then it was time to go.  

A young moose was seen chewing its way through small branches, just down the road from the hotel.  Its mother was nearby but tucked even further into the trees and hard to see, as this one was, a shape at least.  Not a very clear sighting but still a last parting gift for niece and nephew, who have fallen in love with all the wildlife they have seen. What a great time we have had with them, and I shall be sad to see them go.  

9.46 p.m. and the next phase of our holiday has begun.  We have just returned from the airport.  There were tears.  I told Gregg and nephew to stop blubbering.  Okay, so how can I joke about this?  My niece and I cried a bucket.  We hugged tightly and left quickly, to lessen the torture of a long goodbye.  And yes, we have already sown the seeds of when we will get together again.

I miss my babes, what can I say?