home again

Nathan stayed with us at the B & B since it was to be an early start.  We fixed our breakfast and also made lunches to take with us.  Our flight was at 7 am.  Nathan dropped us off and then headed off to work.  We stopped in Seattle before our final leg to Portland.  That was one of those flights with a free glass of wine and 15 minutes to drink it. We took the MAX home and Giselle met us.  

So now we are home.  

We had a fabulous time.  Next trip Albuquerque to see Rebecca!! 

Tuesday in Anchorage.

After the museum we headed off to the airport. Uneventful flight to Anchorage.  It was a clear day again so we had a great view of the mountains.

Nathan's car was at the airport.  So we headed off to Kincaid Park near the airport.  It was a nice walk down to the beach.

only a few slippery muddy or icy spots

I asked Nathan about all the odd shaped rocks.  He informed me that they were chunks of ice.

Nice view of the mountains.  We went to check into the Copper Whale Inn.  We had a different room than last time.  After we unloaded all of our stuff we headed out to go to my cousin's home for dinner. Paul and Robin (who we connected with in Fairbanks) are siblings.  We had a very good dinner with salmon, couscous, roasted brussel sprouts, cantaloupe, green beans and home made chocolate chip cookies.  We had brought couple of bottles of red wine.  

Their snow shovel collection is pretty impressive.

Karen, with kids (Chelsea, Mackenzie) and Paul

What a day and what a vacation.  

Tuesday in Fairbanks

No wake-up calls last night.  They said that the aurora was not visible from the hotel and we would have had to drive somewhere to see them.  I am glad that they did not wake us up to tell us that. We went out for breakfast with one of Nathan's co-workers, Beth.  She happened to be in Fairbanks.

George had the Mediterranean, Nathan and Beth both had Nutella with fruit and I had cheesecake and fruit.  Mine was delicious

It was fun watching them being made.

 

Then we went to the Museum of the North.  This bike was parked out front.  Studded snow tires and hand warmers.

The museum was very interesting with a combinations of things; art, science and natural history.

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"Drifting Forms" - hand-dyed fabric quilt

Then we went back to the hotel and checked out and then ate our left-overs in the dining area before heading off to the airport to go back to Anchorage.

Monday at Chena

We slept in and had a small breakfast in the snack bar instead of in the dining room.  We went on a leisurely walk on a nature trail. and ended out at the dog pen.  We had signed up to go on a dog sled ride.  We watched them get the dogs for the ride.

George and Nathan got to mush for a while.

it was a very fun ride.

afterwards it was time for lunch.  George and Nathan split a seafood pasta and I had a chicken BLT with a beer and tomato soup.  I could not face the water. 

After lunch we went on a very long walk.  I was ready for the hot springs after that. 

2.5 miles is further when you are walking in boots and on snow. But it was gorgeous.  A perfect day.  Our free entry to the hot springs was up at 3 pm and that is just when we got there. After that we headed back to Fairbanks (about 1 1/2 hour drive).  We had decided to return to the same hotel we had been at before so it was back to number 2 hotel instead of number 4.  

we went out to the Asian Bistro for dinner.  It was good food but very slow service.  They lost my order.  Everyone was nearly done when my dish arrived.  We are saving it for left-overs for tomorrow.

Sunday at Chena

We ended out not needing to trade our rental car in like we thought we would have to do, so we got an earlier start. 

We stopped at the Alaskan pipeline view point.  That was interesting. 

Then we drove on to Chena.  The roads were a bit icey but luckily there was not a lot of traffic.  When we got to Chena it was too early to check in but we could sign up to do several of the tours.  We signed up for the Geothermal tour and the ice museum tour.  Both were very interesting.  Chena is gradually trying to be a sustainable place.  The ice museum was fun.  We got appletinis in ice glasses and we watched them make the ice glasses. 

This is all ice

everything in here is made from ice

They do some weddings in the ice museum in the ice chapel they have made.  After doing the tours we checked in.  First thing was to head over to the hot springs.  

That was fun. Very relaxing.  Then it was time for dinner.  They have a wonderful chef.  The food was fabulous.  The water on the other hand was awful.  We took a nap after dinner.

We signed up to go for an aurora tour.  They drive us out to a local mountain where you get an unobstructed 360 degree view. we left at 9:30 pm  It had been overcast all day so I was not optimistic. But when it was time to go it was totally clear.  At the top of the mountain we all went into a heated and very dimly lit yurt to wait for the aurora activity.  

That is me in the pink.  What an amazing experience this was.  We would go in and out of the yurt.  It was too hot and outside was too cold so we went back and forth.  They had free hot beverages all evening.  Someone would announce that there was some activity and we would all run outside for awhile.  We were up there until 2 am and then we headed down.  They transported us in 3 caterpillar type vehicles 

What a day.

Another 3

We got a call about the NL around 11 pm.  So we all went out.  I tried a different setting on my camera and got a few pictures which do not do justice to what it really looked like but it is at least proof that I saw something.

To explain the #3.  With the aurora borealis web site they rate the degree of intensity of the northern lights.  The day that it was visible clear down to the Portland area it was a 9 which was very active.  A number 3 is moderate.  It was a number 3 our first night up here as well.

proof that we were there

Saturday evening

Nathan took this picture.  See how close we were to the dog sled racers.  There were about 25 teams.  

After wandering around for a while after the races we headed back to the hotel to hang loose for awhile.  We decided that we had been eating too much so we went out to buy some wine, cheese and crackers for dinner.  We added a few other things.  We sat in the lounge area and ate our wine, cheese and crackers.  Then we played some games.  The hotel offers a free scoop of ice cream between 6 and 8 pm so that was dessert.  

I am hoping to get more sleep tonight but we have still signed up for the aurora wake-up call. Tomorrow we have to turn in our car and get a different one.  Such a bother.  Then we head out to Chena Hot Springs.  Once there we have no internet connection - AT ALL.  So no blog tomorrow.