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