happy 20th!

feels just like yesterday....

daddy's day

we tweaked our usual father's day tradition this year by substituting waffles for pancakes in our annual breakfast "cake" - it sure did turn out tall & yummy!!

strawberries & whipped cream
*waffle*
bacon
*waffle*
hash browns
*waffle*
scramble eggs
*waffle*

i also presented daddy with his very own set of decorated cookies.  he usually just gets the oops ones or extras, so this was a special treat!  and what better theme than nba2k21 and xbox!!!

i hand-cut the controller shapes and followed a tutorial i found online.  for the basketballs, i tried a swirl tie-dye technique.  the colorful buttons are mini m&ms.  very fun!!

day 6 - headed home

 our last day in alaska was a long one.  

after a lovely meal of breakfast quesadillas, mashed potatoes & fruit, we packed up for our 10am check-out.

the mountains did not bother to bid us farewell.

with the skies still cloudy & 50°, i was unsure if it would be worthwhile to sightsee much along the drive back to the airport.  our b&b host suggested we drive through hatcher pass as it was only a slight detour back to anchorage.  it took about an hour to make it from where the road was less improved/unimproved to the hatcher pass lodge, where there were facilities and what looked to be like "civilization" - thankfully daddy was the driver for this leg of our adventure.

the higher we got, the more snow we saw up close.

we stopped to get a closer look at a frozen lake.  i can only imagine how beautiful this would have been if the sun were shining and the sky was blue.

big sister was happy with her front row view!

there were some steep drop offs and hairpin turns!!

every once in a while we would see critters running across the road ahead.  turns out they were arctic ground squirrels.

after the excitement of hatcher pass, we were hungry for lunch.  we stopped at the downtown anchorage location of 49th state brewing.  having a long wait for a table, we circled around downtown until we found the "greetings from alaska" mural as a fun photo op.

the restaurant was very crowded but had good service.  we were in no hurry knowing our next stop was the airport.  daddy ordered halibut n chips, i tried the crab cake sandwich, and the girls each got mac n cheese.

by 3:30pm, we were returning our rental car even though our flight was not until 8:40pm.

bye bye, mini van!

little did we know that the ticket counter where we had to check our bags would not open until 2 hours prior to our flight, i.e. 6:00pm or so.....therefore, we bought a deck of cards and sat around playing and waiting to check bags before going through security.  at least we were not the only people waiting for the counter to open....what a silly situation for an airport.  we had no issues boarding our flight.  the girls and i were in one row and daddy was about 4 rows back.  next stop - texas!

today's stats:

129 miles
8,270 steps

day 5

last night i snapped this photo around 12:30am.  sunset-ish over the mountains?

 this morning we woke to refreshing temperature of 55° and a little rain.  we had left the balcony door open to let some cooler air into the room overnight since the only cooling for the room was the ceiling fan.  i spied a small rainbow to the west, but still no mountains.

breakfast was a delicious sausage egg english muffin with hash browns, fruit, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.  we ate in the dining room and discussed what was on the agenda for today - mostly just exploring talkeetna.

we drove over to the talkeetna alaskan lodge to see the tallest stone fireplace in alaska and a giant brown bear killed by a 10-year-old girl in 2006.

then we moved on to kahiltna birchworks for a birch syrup tasting and tour.

we bought a jar of birch syrup and blueberry jam.

around 11am, we decided to explore a lake area on foot to see if renting bikes to explore the lake trails was something we wanted to do that afternoon. 

ummm, no.  the trail was FULL of mosquitoes and the only way to escape them was to constantly be moving.  we walked for about 30 minutes along the orange (shortest) trail and we were done.

at noon we headed to main street and put our name on the list for lunch at denali brewpub.  we explored town a bit waiting for our table.  we walked down a path to the railroad bridge that crosses the talkeetna river.

while crossing the bridge, big sister accidentally dropped a ring that was loose on one of her fingers.  luckily, it was just an inexpensive piece that can be easily replaced.  when our table was ready, we settled in for a nice lunch.  it was still a cloudy, damp 57° outside.  i ordered the aleutian (cod sandwich), daddy & big sister got fish n chips, and little sister had a burger.  

after lunch, we continued our exploration and window shopping.

some of us could not resist posing for a few funny photos....

we spent part of the afternoon lounging around the b&b, partly because we were out of things to do/see and partly because it was raining.  our host built a fire to cozy up to and we played uno & battle in the living room.  we ventured out again to main street and picked up chinese food takeout and ate it back in the dining room of the b&b.  we were all a little sad that our vacation was coming to an end, and the gloomy weather around us reflected that.

today's stats:

50 miles

9,671 steps