Doug got up early and dropped off my parents at the airport. Then he went for a 10 mile run. Then I got out of bed. Ha. Lazy girl.
We decided to go for a long hike to get lots of steps in. We parked about 2 miles from downtown and followed a trail to downtown Anchorage. The trail had very scenic views.
We found a lovely shop to take photos in…
and ate lunch at a little shop on the main drag. Then we walked around Anchorage and went to the Alaskan Museum for some flower pictures and relaxation.
We hiked back to the car and drove to Earthquake park (I think it is called that.) We saw where the Anchorage 1/3 of it’s land to an earthquake many years ago. The park had some walking trails around it. We went down to the water and decided to hike up the steep way back through the woods. The mosquitoes were terrible. There is one point where Doug made it clear that I was not to stop walking as there was a cloud of 100+ mosquitoes hovering above me.
I actually risked my skin to stop to take this picture. I literally had dozens of mosquitoes around me.
Then we accidetnly stumbled upon a lookout with quite a few people. It was there we realized we could see Mt. McKinley from this hilltop. I know that does not sound impressive, but when you think about it, it is like seeing LSU’s Death Valley from my house. It clearly has to be HUGE.
We headed to the airport around 7:30 pm for our 10 pm flight. We turned in the rental car and headed to our terminal. We had done quite a bit of walking and Doug was only a few thousand steps away from having a 40,000 step day. He got to 38,900 in the airport and stopped when I said he could not do it without me. Now, clearly, I have the best husband ever because when I told a few friends that he had stopped because it was our goal to hit together, they all said they would have done it anyway. THANK YOU DOUG!
We boarded our plane to Denver and got there 5 am. We had a VERY special guest visit us in Denver…
BECKY CAME TO MEET US! It was so great to see her. We hung out with her for about 2 hours before we had to go back through security. B, Thank you for coming to see us at 7:30 in the morning!! We love you!
We landed in New Orleans that afternoon. My parents had a terrible time getting home. They should have beat us by a day, but ended up only getting to New Orleans an hour before us. They had a terrible experience in Chicago. The weather had shut down the airport and they slept on cots for a few hours. Such bad luck!
THE TRIP WRAP UP!
Ok, so. The things I learned are…
1. Housing for the workers in Alaska leaves much to be desired.
This is where Alex lived:
This is where the unlucky lived. There is no running water in these…
2. The hotels are not super glamorous:
(unless you stay at the Princess lodge or the other cruise lodges.)
3. The mosquitoes are massive. You MUST bring bug spray.
4. The food is actually really good in Healy. We were all pleasantly surprised.
5. The sun being up is crazy. I actually appreciated the “night” when I got back to Nola.
6. People say odd things in Anchorage like “its the breeze off the glacier” and they mean it. I can assure you I have NEVER said that in regular conversation.
7. It truly is the last frontier. It is full of wildlife and open space. It is very quite and very cold in the winter.
8. It is beautiful. Alaska is untouched and natural. It is not made for scaredy cats or princess (of which I am both sometimes). It is rugged and wild. Go to Alaska at your own risk, but do not risk not going.
This concludes the Alaska blogs. What a trip!
Love and Hugs, Lizzie
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