Official travel time from our front door, to our hotel room: 23 hours and 20 minutes. (Nearly 25 hours of being awake-ick)
By the time we were in baggage claim in Anchorage, it was 4 am our time. Hayden was laying face down on the floor in front of the baggage carousel, and I just didn't have the heart to move him, despite how dirty I'm sure the floor was. However, we never had a single melt down. For as much trouble as some kids had given me the last two weeks, they sure made it up with the trip out here. I wouldn't have blamed any of them if they had a full on screaming, rolling around on the floor, total embarrassing fit. I would have just said 'welp, they're (insert age here, it really doesn't matter), and they've been traveling forever. How much can you really expect'. It was some kind of amazing feat, though, really.
It never got dark yesterday. The sun was setting as we finally left Phoenix, but we kept moving with the sun set, and by the time we got to Alaska at midnight it was lighter here than when we left Phoenix. It didn't really help the 28 hours that was June 25th feel any shorter. We were really lucky though, it wasn't really cloudy or overcast at all, and we were able to see all the scenery flying in. The mountains are awesome, the grass is so green, and they have GORGEOUS flowers here.
The good part about the disaster that was yesterday was we slept really well once we finally got here, and because it was so late our time, we've found ourselves totally time adjusted. I'm really surprised how easy it was. We got up around 9 Anchorage time, and had an awesome breakfast at our hotel, even awesome-er was that it was totally free. I had waffles with some kind of amazing berry topping. Yum.
In the lobby there's all these stuffed bears and a moose head. One of the bears has been turned into a rug, this has fasignated Hayden. He said 'whoa, look at this. It used to be a real bear! And now it's a rug!'We walked around downtown for a bit this morning. It's really touristy down there, lots of gift shops and places to eat. For all of you know my families near obession with Moose, I don't even have to be on the look-out for Moose things. They are EVERYWHERE! I found myself only taking a picture of some of them, otherwise I would constantly be snapping pictures. Over by our hotel it's surprisingly just like any other place, there's an Applebees and a Friday's across the street, and a walmart down the road. I guess I expected a little more uniqueness. I'm assuming we'll find that other places?
On Saturdays and Sundays, they have a downtown market. There's lots of vendors, and homemade goods. I found some buttons made out of caribou antlers. I'm not sure what I am going to use them for yet, but it seemed super cool, so I'm sure I can find something to do with them. I also got a guitar pick made from conch shell. The boys each got a little trinket, and Asa got some coffee, and some salmon and reindeer jerky (that he has not tried yet). They also had street performers (some really awesome violinists), and sidewalk chalk for the kids, so we all wrote on the sidewalk.
We also got a reindeer sausage. It was served just like a bratwerst would be. I didn't taste that much of a difference between any other sausage type meat like that. Asa said he definitely could tell. Peyton refused to try it, but Hayden and Calib did. We didn't tell Hayden it was reindeer though, I think it would scar him for life if he thought we were eating Rudolph or someone.
.
We also got a reindeer sausage. It was served just like a bratwerst would be. I didn't taste that much of a difference between any other sausage type meat like that. Asa said he definitely could tell. Peyton refused to try it, but Hayden and Calib did. We didn't tell Hayden it was reindeer though, I think it would scar him for life if he thought we were eating Rudolph or someone.
Downtown is very pretty. It seems super green to me, maybe that's because it's summer in Florida and the grass is dying everywhere. The flowers are very unique and colorful. A lot of them seem really tropical almost. It's right on the water, and the mountains off in the distance seem absolutly huge. It was a beautiful day out, about 60 degrees and sunshiney. I was so happy to wear jeans and my hair down, since it wasn't 100 degrees outside.
The people here are SO friendly. To give you an example of the drastically different cultures when it comes to this:
Here's Florida: Oh, Stupid Tourists, I can't wait till they go back up north".
And Alaska: 'Oh, Welcome, Welcome, let me teach you some interesting facts and give you some free things. Is this your first time visiting? We hope it's not your last! Hope you have a wonderful trip!'
The picture is of us at the visitors center downtown. It's a log cabin with grass growing on the roof. Very cool. And the ladies there were awesome- Did you know it takes 10 Florida's to equal 1 Alaska? They even gave the boys some cute moose buttons.
This isn't just a few people either, it's everyone, everywhere you go. I love Alaskans. They are some awesome people.
I really wanted to walk around downtown more, and take the free trolley out to ship creek (I think that's what it's called) but the boys are a little more restless today. Since we'll be back in Anchorage as part of the cruise tour we decided to come back to the hotel.
Our hotel has an indoor pool. When we walked into the pool area, the guy told us the pool was 'so warm today'. Let me tell you, warm is a REALLY subjective term. I'm pretty sure the hot tub was about as warm as our pool at home. The boys, however, swam until their lips were blue. We just did some other lazy things, and watched a movie. Our hotel has a kitchen, so we got some things at the store downtown and are letting the boys unwind. I'm off to get our rental car tonight (we've been using the free shuttle to get around), and tomorrow we're off to explore.
Next Stop: Lots of cool places, en route to Fairbanks. Where we get to see Gwen and Garret! And, everyone else too.
No comments:
Post a Comment