The Willimers in America

Alaska - Day 2 - Climbing Flattop

The debate over food last night ended up with 14 of us - the extended Hicks/Warren family (not counting Ryan's mum and grandma) and us - ending up at Moose's Tooth for some fabulous pizza and home brew. Ryan started a debate loosely about the difference between the casually styled Alaskan fashions, including Polar fleeces and practical but comfy footwear, and the more severe East Coast sophisticates, who according to Bob (predictably provacative) "dress mostly in leather and other black clothes". Whilst it is still early days, I had to pointedly ignore the woman in the smart red dress who walked behind him precisely at that moment, or the group at the table to our left dressed in standard office attire - shirts, ties and business suits for the ladies. Ryan has now rendered his theory unprovable, since my eyes will from now on always be drawn to the exceptions - just like when you are considering buying a particular make of car, and from then on it appears (to your eye) to be the most common car on the road.

Day 2 dawned with our hardy group of yesterday - plus Tom - determined to right the serious injustice of what has become known as 'The Flattop Parking Lot Scandal". We rose early, and were on our way back by 7am to ascend Flattop. "A reasonable 30-45 minute hike..." Ryan had told us. The climb got progressively tougher, the last 150-200 feet was little more than a frenetic clamber over a craggy rockface, and I was heart-bustingly proud of the way Thomas stuck at it to reach the top - 2 hours later. There are no words to describe the views, so take a look at some pictures instead.

Lunch was at the Arctic Roadrunner - I had reconciled myself that today was the day I would actually eat something healthy - a nice salad, maybe some fruit - I ended it with a fabulous cheese and bacon burger and some onion rings. Food is unsurprisingly and welcomingly beginning to be an important feature of this vacation. There are so many reasons to think long and hard about what and where to eat, and it's not just because we are in a unique part of the world. Linda had a Reindeer Dog (yes, a hot dog made with Reindeer sausage) at the zoo yesterday, while we look forward to Alaskan King Salmon, fresh halibut and moose meat. But then there is the nostalgic resonance of visiting Ryan's (and Shane's) old feeding and watering holes, allied to the fact that there is a far higher percentage of unique restaurants here, and a far lower percentage of chain restuarants. Having an abundance of 'local knowledge' with opinions we trust makes for a great opportunity, and I for one am relishing the 'fieldwork' ahead of us.

This evening Linda and Amy had arranged a Stamping Party, and somehow Linda had managed to smuggle supplies, card, stamps and stuff for 19 people to make 5 cards. Whilst this enjoyable social event was underway, the men were relegated to the basement with a case of beer and the Nintendo Wii. Unfortunately the after effects of this mornings climb rendered my knees unusable, so I sat nursing several beers while watching Ryan crush all-comers at Wii Boxing.

At The Zoo

Tom says - Today we went to the zoo in Anchorage and it, well... wasn't the biggest zoo ever, but it had a few bunch of animals. I did see some bears and a snow leapard and a lynx, hurrah ! But probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen I managed to captured on my camara. It's a video, and it uses Media Player. It involves a bear, a barrel, and a whole darn lot of abundance. So here it is !!!!

Alaska - Day 1

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.