So May slips away, along with it the opportunity to blog in a timely way about all sorts of things - Tom's first Choral concert, all the end of year stuff, travel soccer events. And no sooner has the two-week party period called 'End of Grade School' finished, when our vacation starts, and we are on our way to Alaska.
Our good friends Ryan and Amy who come from Alaska have often told us amazing tales of their home state, commonly ending with the phrase "we must take you there one day" Finally we called their bluff and said 'how about this summer ?' Plans were made, and we now find ourselves in Anchorage, staying with Bob and Mary, Amy's generous and welcoming parents in their wonderful home.
Yesterday we travelled. But since this Alaskan adventure is a journey in itself, it seems pointless to write about the journey to a journey. We got on a plane in Philadelphia, it took us to Salt Lake City, where we got another plane to bring us here, 11 hours and four time zones later. We were fed the usual airline food, and watched cheesy airline movies, all in the cause of passing both time and 4,353 miles beneath our wings.
Now we are here, among mountains and lakes, float planes and strip malls, large stuffed moose heads and even larger stuffed fish. It's the first day, and I can't hope to sum up what it feels like - but it certainly feels different. On our trip out this morning, we played with words and came up with 'Alpine Redneck' to describe the feel of the area we drove through. It summed up the mixture of fabulous chalet-type wooden houses, built sympathetically into the side of impressively wooded mountain sides (Ryan said the area was called 'Hillside' but that didn't do justice to the scenery), occasionally punctuated with discarded washing machines and the odd 'Gun Supermarket'.
Our trip (that's me, Ryan and his good friends Shane and Missy, who we met in New Jersey on their 'Round America' bike ride) was intended to be a 'quick hike' up a local mountain called Flattop - a relatively simple 40 minute walk, and scree-scramble, to the top of an impressive viewpoint. Unfortunately Man got in the way of Nature, and the parking lot was half-capacity due to roadworks. We couldn't park anywhere near this trail, so we headed to a lower trail, and made the best of it. We picked our way up a sodden muddy trail, stopping to check out moose footprints and various piles of droppings. I tried hard not to be to alarmed at the advice on how to avoid being mauled by a grizzly bear, gored by a moose or bitten to pieces by mosquitos.
From the highest point of our trek, we were able to get some expansive views across the city of Anchorage and out into the Cook Inlet. We often advise travellers to new places to take a bus tour - it's a very effective way of getting to know a whole city very quickly, and to get your bearings for future excursions. Going up a local mountain, and looking out over the city was the most effective way of doing this for Anchorage - getting our bearings, and providing some context for future outings.
Much of our discussions have revolved around places to eat. Today for lunch we visited one of Ryan and Shane's old haunts, called Wee B's, for a classic grilled burger and chees fries. We returned to spend a little time talking about where else to visit, and a lot of time talking about various eating places we have to include on the itinerary.
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