Good food, good people, and a snowman – Alaska Day 4

After dropping off Celine at the train station for her to get back for field work way north of Fairbanks, Julie and I headed into the the big city of Anchorage. We had lunch at Humpy's with 2 of Julie’s former NWS colleagues in Anchorage. I had my first "Alaska" meal: salad with delicious seasoned halibut on top, and some beer. Yum. After lunch we wandered round the NWS office visiting the rest of Julie's former colleagues, and then we took off to Girdwood. On the way, we drove through the Turnagain Arm- yes, I did get to see the ocean on my vacation! Girdwood is the home of Alaska’s biggest ski resort, Aleyska (which is also the name of the pipeline. We’ll get the pipeline in later). There are plenty of hikes in Girdwood, and we took to hiking up some of the ski slopes. Pretty sweet hiking in the snow while wearing shorts and a tshirt. Julie and I had some fun sliding down the mountain too.

From one of the slopes at Aleyska in Girdwood

My first May snowman

For dinner we headed back into Anchorage and met Julie’s friend Oceana for dinner at the Moose's Tooth Brewery. Excellent homemade pizza, beer and root beer brewed on site. Good pizza? In Alaska?? I know, and I’m kind of a pizza snob since I grew up in NY in a town without chain pizza.

We caught some of the loooooong sunset at Flattop Lookout, and headed back to Palmer for our last showers and sleep in a bed for a few days.