Time Flies

The rest of this week definitely slipped by.  Between spending time with family and friends and doing a little nostalgic sight seeing the last three and a half days just breezed by.  This week was our anniversary and my dad's birthday.  Since he also retired this year we wanted to treat him and my mom to a nice meal, so up-up-up we went along the gondola at Alyeska to Seven Glaciers for a truly wonderful meal.

Too Many Moose

We spent most of the time with my folks, staying at their condo.  It was mostly a day of resting up and nursing my horrible mosquito bites.  After dinner Hans and I excitedly went back out to Kincaid Park for a round of disc golf, or so we thought!

Lurvely 'laska

This morning it was time to head back to Anchorage for the rest of our visit.  Half-way along our route we decided to stop at one of many random parking lots where you can just hop onto a trail.  I hiked Mt. Healy with an outdoor adventure activity through UAF when I was an undergrad and I remembered it was a kind of scrabbly but worth-it trek.

Daylight Hangover and Memory Lane

Rough morning.  I guess jet lag gets worse the older you get.  Go figure.  We got some "meh" coffee and went for a mild walk around campus.  Most things haven't changed, but the Duckering and Bunnell buildings are being merged into one!  It will be very interesting when it's done.  It looks like the design will take advantage of the southern exposure and hillside vantage.  The Wood Center has a new cafeteria being built, which is going to replace the dreaded Commons.  I was willing to finish the job and burn the empty Commons down but then someone told us the Campus Catholic Ministry was still using the building.  Oops.

Friends and Baseball in the Land of the Midnight Sun!

Still jet lagged, we were unable to sleep in very much.  I vaguely remember having a light breakfast in the hotel room from food we picked up at the grocery store last night.  There was an annual classic car show happening on the hotel property, so we woke ourselves by wandering around and looking at the vehicles.  Some of them we'd seen on the drive up from Anchorage.

350 Miles North to Fairbanks

I awoke sometime around 4am, still on east coast time.  This morning was one of those precious clear summer days in Anchorage.  We felt extremely guilty for leaving town.  Before heading up the Parks Highway I took Hans to Kincaid Park so he could see my brother's memorial bench.  We were amused that there was already a green Subaru in the parking lot, so I made sure to park right next to it.  When we came back from the bench, a third green Subaru had shown up.  Ha ha.  We took our time getting out of town.  We had a nice brunch at Middleway Cafe (one of our favorite spots) and got a few road snacks.

Half a Day in Sunny......Seattle?

Cheaper airfare meant a long layover in Seattle, which we didn't mind since we had just visited about  year ago.  We took the light rail downtown and headed straight for Pike's Place Market.  We had a tasty lunch at The Pike Brewing company and then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the market.  There were Rainer cherries at a good price.  It was a clear 78-degree day so we had a little picnic outside with locals, families, and homeless people who'd come out to sun themselves.  Someone tried to sell us pot.  I didn't get a decent picture but you could actually see Mt. Rainer to the south!