Alaska, Day 1!

We arrived in Alaska Sunday night around 11:30pm local time….which to our tired body clocks was 3:30am Monday morning! Luckily the hotel we were staying at had a 24/7 shuttle service, and didn’t even bat an eye at our 2 big duffels full of quilts, one small suitcase full of books, my suitcase, my laptop bag, and DH’s suitcase, and HIS laptop bag.

Tired doesn’t BEGIN to describe how we felt. It’s just not easy to get to Anchorage from Greensboro NC! Continental airlines took us from Greensboro to HOUSTON to Seattle to Anchorage. But we caught all connections, and had a fun time.

So what did we do in Anchorage? WE SLEPT! And we didn’t sleep too late, there were things to attend to! First off ---BREAKFAST. We were starving. And we had to pick up a rental car…so that came first.

Get the car, find the food! So far, so good!

If you ever make it to Anchorage, GO HERE! It was fabulous! Eggs, bacon, and sourdough pancakes gave us the energy to start the morning! And I was wondering just WHAT else they put in DH’s french toast because he said “Do you want to hit some quilt shops?!?”

I quickly said yes, and put a message out to facebook for recommendations on where to go. He cracked up over the fact that within 8 minutes, there were something like 30 responses..LOL! He just does NOT understand quilters!

We picked two shops…((I’m not pushing this gift horse farther than he is willing to go!)) and started off here:

I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, but they had some really neat batiks with Alaskan motifs on it….and they found their way into my suitcase! I’m not sure what I’ll do with them yet, but I can’t come here and NOT get something commemorative! I also found some fun black on white prints for my “collection” ---

There was another shop we hit…oh, I’m drawing a blank! It was inside a shopping mall and was the local bernina dealership. Some fun fabrics were found there also…they had SCRAP BAGS! Why did I need scrap bags when I had so much at home? Well, I didn’t have THESE scrap bags. Easy answer, right?

From here we headed south toward Seward and Moose Pass! DH’s cousin NIkki and her family have been residents outside of Moose Pass for a long time, and we hadn’t seen them in over 25 years!

Along the way….we stopped at every turn out and scenic viewing place that we could find. The weather has not been very cooperative, but you know what? Even rainy raw weather presents such a beauty to the nature here, that I don’t mind!

We stopped here along the road at a view point….DH saw some “Other guys” with binoculars looking up the mountain side, and he wanted to see what that was all about so he got out his binoculars and we spotted goats wandering way up the side of this mountain! Further down the road, we did see a mama moose and her baby calf grazing in a marshy area, but we were driving too fast and there was no where to pull over and get pictures….

And the scenery continued!

This is the view from the car window on the way to Moose Pass!

I loved this sign! And we didn’t see any moose here, but it was a good place to stop for a break! We watched some float planes take off and land on the water..that was fun! And being the adventurous sort that I am, I had to give THIS a try:

I was wondering if it was Donner or Blitzen that I had on my bun, but it was VERY good! LOL!

I asked why the water is a funny milky silver color…and was told that it is from the glacier run off. It makes the reflections of the mountains in the water look so neat, because the water is opaque!

We wound our way back to where the turn off for NIkki & Curtis’s house is --- we had to wait until Nikki was off work to pop in on them, and the reunion was sweet! I can’t believe the view from their house! Can you imagine waking up to this out of your front door every morning?

This is the view from the side of the house across the front yard! GORGEOUS!!

And if that isn’t enough for you, this is the view of the FRONT of the house looking at the BACK YARD! WOW!!!

We really enjoyed our visit with Dave’s cousin and her family. Next post I’ll include more pictures of the hike we took--- where I’m staying now in Delta Junction doesn’t have the fastest internet and I don’t want to overload this post picture wise!

We are loving our Alaskan Adventure!