Tuesday and Wednesday in the Last Frontier

*Tuesday*
Part of traveling with a toddler is to try to keep them on a somewhat normal schedule so after the long road trip on Monday we had determined that we would relax at home Tuesday morning and then venture downtown Tuesday night for a little shopping and dinner.

Oliver woke up at 6am (ugh!) so we cuddled on the couch for a while and then his wild man kicked in as I was fixing breakfast. He was running circles in the living room/dining rooms - I jokingly said "Oliver if you have that much energy we can go hike that off" he replied very excitedly with "where?!?" So we got ready and jumped in the car to head down the mountain and down to the end of the valley to the Eagle River Nature Center. The Nature Center has been one of our favorite walking/hiking locations ever since we discovered it on our 2012 trip - it offers at least 3 different trail heads that go way deeper into the forest than we have ever gone so there is something new every time. Unfortunately when we got there we found that the trails are almost in as bad condition as our driveway (2-3" of solid packed ice) so we enjoyed spending some time on the picnic tables on the decks (they were still covered in ice) taking pictures and just enjoying the beauty of the valley. Oliver commandeered my phone and started taking pictures - this kid has a really good eye for pictures!!

We enjoyed lunch at home and afternoon naps before heading down in Anchorage that evening. We ran into one of my favorite stores, Cabin Fever (most of their products are made in Alaska so they are the only place I buy souvenirs and gifts when we are here) before our reservation at Glacier Brewhouse. Every year that we have come to Alaska I have purchases books that have been written/illustrated and published right here in Alaska for Oliver (even before we knew he would be ours) so it was pretty cool to take Oliver in with us this time and let him pick out his own Alaska books. The ladies in the store loved that he was so excited about the books!

We had a 6:15pm reservation and I walked in knowing what I wanted. Monday the Brewhouse had posted that they had flown in King Crab from Nome... to say I was excited was an understatement. The price blew me away a little bit but I splurged... you only turn 30 once right?!? Plus, Jason's parents had gotten us a gift card to the Brewhouse for Christmas so I couldn't say no to a fresh from the Bering Sea crab!! I could not believe how much meat was in that one crab - I almost could not finish it. Jason had their ribs and Oliver had a brick oven cheese pizza with fresh fruit (do you see why we love this place so much?!?) On top of all the great food and brews our waiter was the best - he seriously should hold classes on how to be such an awesome waiter! We spent the rest of the evening playing Jenga and Sorry (the closets of the house are full of puzzles and board games).

*Wednesday*
Oliver is finally starting to adjust to this time zone... he slept until around 7am. Since I didn't fall asleep until after 4am I stayed in bed and slept until 8. We left at 8:30am and headed downtown for our first stop at our favorite breakfast place - Snow City. Breakfast was delicious as usual - they never disappoint. We took coffee to go and headed South towards Portage - our first stop was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. We went there for the first time in 2014 and fell in love with the place. They are a rehab facility for local wildlife that have been injured/abandoned. A huge part of what they are doing is growing/releasing herds of Alaskan Wood Bison... they released a huge herd into the wild in 2015 and they are now thriving! It's a place that I love to support - they are doing great work and it gives us a chance to see Alaskan wildlife in natural habitats. I came nose to nose (with a grate between us) with a moose that had may scars and was missing an antler, we saw groggy bears in their den (they aren't sure if they want to be awake yet or not due to the unseasonal temperatures), a beautiful red fox, a very playful wolf pup and his K9 companion, herds of Bison and Elk - all in all it was another wonderful visit.

After leaving the Conservation Center we went across the road and into the Portage Glacier Valley. The intentions of going back there were to hike out to the Byron Glacier that we hiked out to in 2014 but as we drove farther into the valley we noticed that there had been many avalanches, some quite large. I started to worry a little bit because the glacier is wedged in between 3 very large (and steep) mountain faces. As we got closer we could see that one of those mountain faces had had a few slides already so between that, the warmer than normal temperatures and the “Beware: Avalanche Zone” signs we opted not to make the hike. I would have been a nervous wreck the whole time anyway. So instead we parked down by Portage Lake and walked out on the shore. This was perfect for Oliver – he loves throwing rocks into the water so we had a blast throwing rocks and ice into the lake and climbing on the larger rock scrambles.

Standing on that shore was very humbling. I was standing at the base of mountains and looking out across a lake that had mountains rising up out of it, and the very glacier that had carved that valley in its new position up on the mountain. The wind often whips through that valley at crazy strong speeds, we have experienced this in years past. There was no wind today but you could clearly see how the wind had shaped and molded the snow on the mountains. Every time I stand in this valley I stand in awe that something as simple as ice can be so powerful that it carved out these mighty mountains – we truly serve an amazing creator!

Oliver and I napped this afternoon – I chose to nap in the loft under an open window with the fresh Alaskan air blowing in – best sleep I have had in a long time!
We have spent the rest of the evening playing board games and watching toons in the living room. Not sure yet what tomorrow holds as Friday will kick off a busy weekend all centered around dog sledding!!

*Pictures will be in the Alaska 2016 – TuesWed folder*

P.S: We have encountered 2-3 people in the past two days that were shocked to find out that we don’t live in Alaska – our goal to blend in and not be “tourists” is working!! J