Our First Visitor Part II: This Time, It's Personal

One of two seafood dinners we cooked for my mom - dungeness Crabs

After returning from our day on the glacier and brief nature walk we stopped off at a local market for some halibut. Saturday was my parents 34th anniversary and I thought it'd be a good idea to make a nice dinner for my mom. I suppose I owe my dad a similarly delicious meal. I made the prosciutto wrapped halibut from one of my earlier posts. It was delicious again.

Sunday morning my mom and I got up early to head over to Eddie's Sports bar to watch the Eagles. Thankfully the Eagles won last week and we left the bar in good spirits. The weather, on the other hand, was quite grumpy. It was cold and raining. We hung around the house for the rest of the day until it was time for dinner. We were invited to dinner with the same couple who cooked us our first Alaska Salmon. Dinner this time was a wonderful Russian lamb dish.

My mom with Flattop in the background. It was a little cold.

Kelly had to teach on Monday, so my mom and I set off on our own. I wanted to take her up to Flattop mountain so that we could walk around the Anchorage overlook trail. It's a short little walk that offers a great view of the city. Once again, however, the weather impeded our plans. On our way up the mountain we passed through the clouds and into the sunshine. Unfortunately the city was still under cloud cover. The view was still pretty awesome. We even saw some snow flurries.

You're supposed to be able to see Anchorage on the left side of the picture.

Once Kelly was done working we took a little drive down the Turnagain Arm. We were hoping to see some whales, moose, or other wildlife, but we were denied once again. That's okay though it's a nice drive. We finished up my mom's visit Monday evening with some delicious dungeness crabs. It was a great visit and I'm looking forward to see my family over Christmas. I think we're getting the hang of playing host.

Our First Visitor

At the end of the Lightspeed Trail - Pluto!

My mom came to visit last week. She landed at Uncle Ted's airport on the 18th and set out right away to see the sights. We took her around to the coastal trail in hopes we'd get a glimpse of Denali, sadly my mom brought clouds and rain with her and the mountains were hiding. We then went over to Kincaid Park in hopes of seeing a moose. This time, Kelly and my natural ability to repel wildlife struck. No moose. We did see Pluto though.

Friday my Mom and I did the tourist thing in downtown Anchorage. We did a bit of shopping, drove around the city and had some reindeer sausage. We picked Kelly up after school and had a delicious pizza lunch at the Moose's Tooth.

The view driving up the Glenn highway.

Saturday morning got up early and hit the road, heading north, toward Palmer and then to the Matanuska Glacier. We planned on stopping at Musk Ox farm on the way, but it was closed for the season. We enjoyed a beautiful two hour ride up the Glenn highway to the glacier. 

Scenic overlook. This is as close as a real road gets to the glacier.

The road bends very close to the glacier. Just a short trip off the highway, down a gravel road on the edge of a cliff, is a pay station. After paying, we drove down another 3 mile gravel "road" full of ruts, divots, giant potholes and moose droppings. The drive was well worth it. When we pulled off the road, we were less than a mile from the glacier.

Panorama of the glacier. My mom and Kelly kept moving making it look like there are 4 of them.

Mmmm, glacial mud.

The walk was easy, but muddy. It was really thick, glacier mud. The kind that sucks your shoe right off if you aren't careful, as Kelly almost found out. Thankfully, there were some heavy duty pathways set out to keep us and our footwear together. Once out on the glacier we were careful not to venture too far from the end of the trail. We only had sneakers and were not equipped for walking on ice. That didn't stop a group of guys who came down the trail after us. All of them fell more than once. We hung out on the glacier for a while and then decided to head for home. Thankfully, the steep road we came down was not too much for the Yaris and we made it back to the highway.

We stopped off at the Eagle River Nature Center on the way home, in hopes of spotting some salmon and maybe a bear. We saw a few salmon, but no bears. We even managed to spot a moose on our way there, the only one of my mom's trip. It's just not Alaska without a moose. Too bad we didn't get a picture of one.

Me and my mom hanging out on the Eagle River.

That only covers about half of the trip. More to come. Maybe tomorrow?

Cold & Flu Season

Our adventures have been rather lame of late. First I got sick, then because I love to share, Kelly got sick. It's put a bit of a damper on our outdoor activities. We planned on hiking last weekend, but opted for something even more fun - shopping. My mom is coming to visit in a couple days and we thought it might be nice for the guest bedroom to have such luxuries as curtains and bed sheets. We have quite a few Alaskan activities planned for my mom, so stay tuned.