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.

Beware of Bears and Babies

I really don't know.

We originally planned on hiking the Albert Loop Trail in Eagle River yesterday, but had to change our plans once we found out it was closed due to bears. Another 10 miles up the road from Eagle River is the Thunderbird Falls Trail, an easy 2 mile walk out and back. The view of the falls from the observation deck was pretty awesome, but the view from the base of the falls was even better.

From the observation deck.

We couldn't get close enough to the base of the falls without wading through the water to get a good picture. If we had actually bothered to get proper footwear, we would have. Unfortunately, you'll have to settle for this view.

Walking back up the trail towards the parking lot we spotted the baby in the tree. Alaska is a weird state sometimes. On the way home, we decided to stop off at the Eagle River Nature Center to see if there was another trail we could hike with the Albert Loop closed.

We decided to take the Rodak trail with the hopes we could see some salmon in the water and maybe some beavers. We didn't see any beavers. Sometimes, I think Alaskan wildlife is keeping it's distance from us. I guess, in the case of bears, that's probably a good thing. The walk on the Rodak trail follows a bit of the Eagle River. The views in the river valley were spectactular.

The first mountain snows appeared last week

Finally saw some wild salmon!

Taking a Hike

This is Flattop. Took 1.5hrs to get up.

Yesterday we decided to hike Flattop Mountain. Everyone told us it's a great, easy, day hike. It's the most popular hike in Anchorage, due it's close proximity to the city and fantastic views. On a typical summer day the trail is packed with tourists. We figured since cruise season is almost over, there wouldn't be too many people out and about. It wasn't packed, but we had to wait a while in the parking lot to find a spot.

We took our time.

This was about halfway up.

The trail starts at 2000' and features a 1500' elevation change to finish at a cool 3500', and a walk of 3.1 miles out and back. The hiking book Abby and Brent gave us listed the hike as moderate to difficult, harder at the end when the hike changes from following a trail to scrambling up the mountain. Turns out the book was right. A mile into the trail the going gets rough. The trail essentially disappears into the side of the mountain, leaving us to pick and climb our way up the rocks.

The final climb only took about 20 minutes and was probably the most fun segment. I don't think I'll ever outgrow playing on the rocks. The views from the top were unbelievable.

Looking down towards the Turnagain Arm

This marks the top of the mountain

It was an awesome hike. Probably not the best one to start out with, especially since we're both out of shape, but definitely worth it. Next week we'll hike again, but something much flatter. Hopefully next week we'll see some wildlife when we hike the Albert Loop Trail.

To you it was a great view...

1 Fish 2 Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

As you may know, Alaska has a certain affinity for seafood. We've been trying to eat more of the ocean's bounty since we've been here (it hasn't been all that difficult). Nearly all the grocery stores and smaller markets have a great seafood selection. A few places even offer live shellfish - I'll be getting an oyster knife very soon. We've had two standout seafood dishes so far, one cooked for us, one I cooked. The first, and our first Alaskan Salmon was a fantastic dinner cooked by a member of the provost office (a formerly retired historian) and his wife (a retired archivist). They made us Green Shawarma Salmon. It was perfectly cooked and delicious. Our hosts insisted on seconds; I felt rude asking for a third helping and held off until dessert.

Last week we bought some Halibut fillets. I put a few sage leaves on each fillet and wrapped them with prosciutto to bake. I melted a unhealthy amount of butter, fried some sage leaves, and covered each fillet with the butter-sage sauce. De-lic-ous. Next up - deadliest catch.

 

In Brett we Trust

Not sure if I missed the memo and I'm playing catch up or if I'm on the cutting edge (I guess the former) but it seems everyone is adding Brettanomyces to their beer these days. Russian River has been doing it for years, with delicious results. The fairly new, and a bit obscure Anchorage Brewing Company seems to be making a name for themselves doing the same. Their limited release  Bitter Monk 2IPA is fermented a second time in french oak chardonnay barrels and then bottled, where it is fermented a third time. The beer weighs in at a surprisingly mellow 100 ibu's nicely balanced out by the brett. The 9% abv is also a surprise in a beer with such a light mouth feel. The Bitter Monk is grape-fruity up front, with a sour finish, topped off with a nice bitter note from the 4 varieties of hops used.  If Anchorage Brewing ever starts running tours I plan on checking it out. If not, I plan on continuing to buy their beer.