Our Last Day
Photos - Alaska Trip - Our Last Day
As I sit here writing this it's hard to believe that tomorrow at this time we'll be at home (the good Lord and airlines willing). We have had such a wonderful trip, I hate for it to end. Our last day was another beautiful one. How nice it worked out that we had such good weather these last 3 days in Alaska. It'll make our final memories even better. We woke up in Homer, had our breakfast and headed out to Anchorage. A big part of the way was along the same highway (the Seward Highway) that we'd taken to get to Homer from Whittier. Again, the scenery was amazing.
We stopped at a little museum. The volunteer there had been in Alaska for 30 years working as a biologist with bears. There were pretty pansies on the steps that made me think of my sister Jan, who loves pansies.
The last leg of the trip is called the "Turnagain Arm." It's beautiful, too. One thing we went by was Portage Glacier, which I vaguely remember from when I was a kid. My parents would bring visitors to see Portage Glacier. Back then you could see the end of the glacier from the road but it's receded now, as have many of the glaciers.
It's still a beautiful scene, though, and all along that piece of highway it's very pretty. The trees growing from the rocks are striking. As we got closer to Anchorage we saw, too, that there are very nice facilities built for viewing nature. There are big rest stops with paths and nice viewing areas, and a long boardwalk over the waterlands in one area.
We stopped for lunch and dinner along the way. Lunch was at a little place called Sackett's Kenai Grill. It looks like a dive but the food was delicious. They bake their own breads and make everything themselves. It was cute, too, the way the workers all seemed to be having a good time. They laughed and joked with each other and the customers the whole time we were there.
For dinner we stopped in Girdwood, at a restaurant called Chair 5 that the Milepost book said was a popular with the locals. We were early, fortunately, and beat the rush. I had a small "Yukon Gold Potato" pizza that was delicious.
We spent about 2 hours by Quartz Creek. Randy went fishing and I read my book -- and sometimes dozed. There were lots and lots of salmon in the river but he wasn't fishing for those. The salmon were spawning, which means they don't eat anything. People can, in some places, just snag them but you can't use live bait and in some places you can't fish them at all. Randy was trying for the trout or graylings. He didn't catch anything but he said it was fun anyway.
My last big purchase of a momento was a beautiful quilt I found at a tiny quilt store around the place Randy went fishing. I fell in love with it and even though it was kind of expensive, I think I'll be really glad I bought it. Randy approved, too. It's completely handmade.
Now we're back at the Arctic Fox and have everything packed -- had to buy an extra box to hold it all. Tomorrow it'll be good bye to Alaska. Hope we'll be back again someday.
