Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The day after the wedding we headed down to breakfast and met up with a couple of Peg's friends. We ended up chatting with them for an hour or so. It was our last day at the Millennium Hotel so we packed our bags and headed for lunch. Peg was nice enough to let us use her car over the next few days. Lunch was with the wedding party, about 20 of us, at the Moose Tooth pizza parlor. Quite a group of people. It was fun to watch the two families, Cory's and Peg's meld together.
After lunch Sue and I headed over to what will be our new home for the next couple of nights, the Copper Whale Inn, with a room on the third floor overlooking the water.
In the evening we headed about an hour north to Liz and Brian's for a great dinner at their place. Brian was master of the grill with caribou wrapped in bacon, oh so tender, and pork that melted in your mouth along with a noodle salad with halibut. We are really roughing it here.
The next day we were up early to head back up to Liz and Brian's but we noticed it was snowing pretty good. The roads were still clear so we were off on another adventure. Brian was taking Steve, Ann, Sue, and me for a ride up the river in his air boat. When we arrived, we hooked up the trailer, threw a few things in the boat, and were off for the river. The boat is a custom made contraption just like the boats in the Florida everglades except this one has an enclosed place to sit keeping you comfortable in the icy weather. We had left the snow behind in town where the prediction was for four inches. Once at the river, Brian was able to slide the boat off into the water, fire the engine up as we all piled in, then took off. What a thrill, the boat was able to glide along in almost no water at all. Brian even said they are able to take it over snow. We slid over the water and up the river like we were on a cushion of air with about a half inch draft. With the big propeller right behind us it was a bit loud even with ear protection on.
We made our way up the Knik River to the base of the Knik Glacier. The sun was trying to poke out with just a few sprinkles now and then. With no wind it was simply crisp out with all of us bundled up in layers of clothing.
After a little hike and plenty of pictures, Brian pulled out the BBQ and fired up some leftover kabobs from the wedding. Along with the halibut salad we were treated to lunch on the river banks.
We headed back down the river still not seeing the elusive moose, but spotted some wild sheep on the mountainside that stood out as white specks in the distance.
Back at the truck Brian slid the boat back onto the trailer and we headed back to his place. With the storm starting to catch up with us we hit the road, still clear, and headed back to the Copper Whale for the night.
Tuesday we were on our own. We were on the lookout for a moose. We headed south in the morning as the snow seemed to be coming down pretty hard. We were in luck though, by the time we were out of town the snow slowed and the sun started to show on the white mountains across the water of the Turnaround Again inlet. We had a wonderful ride with fresh powder everywhere we looked. Still no moose but we did spot a couple of bald eagles flying just above the car. once back at town we headed over to Peg's and enjoyed dinner with the two of them.
We were up early this morning to catch our plane ride to Fairbanks and simply laying around now trying to catch up with all the excitement of the last few days....more later..