teamEggers

I drank a glacier. Really.

We’re wrapping up the alaska talk here on teamEggers. Bear with me, we’ll be back in the “lower 48″ soon enough.

After the denali trip, we headed back to anchorage to buy some authentic eskimo gear…

Wait. that’s not true! But I did come home with some pink fox-fur ear muffs that match my hot pink hair really well, and jon has a fancy pair of native-made otter mittens. I… dont have a picture of that for some reason.

Fortunately I do have lots of pictures from our trip to Whittier, where we floated along the Prince William Sound and got up close and personal with some glaciers.

But before we get to that, we have to get to that. So we boarded a train…

You can throw your camera in the woods and it will come back to you full of incredible pictures. Alaska is breath taking. The ride to the glaciers was no different – just lovely lovely everywhere you look.

Once we got to Whittier, I had a quick snack on some halibut…

…and we boarded our little cruise ship around the sound.

It was one of those “dinner cruises”, which Ann & Rick had previously done in another location and didn’t have super high reviews of.

We were all really pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food! Prime rib, salmon, and a wild-rice dish.

Gosh, this place was just magical. Even before we saw a glacier.

The glaciers were pretty spectacular themselves.

They told us that only 5% of people in the world have the chance to see one in person. We have a good life.

Yep. They fished that stuff out of the water and made me a margarita with it.

And I’m not going to lie. It was magical.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the extended anchorage-version of teamEggers:

Denali in two parts (part 2): land and sky

Feast. or. Famine.

We hop in this teeny tiny plane, don some headsets, and take off for the glaciers of denali national park. When I say “teeny tiny”, i mean it.

The “braided river” seems to be fairly common in the area (i posted one a few weeks months ago from denali state park) – something about the way the ice melts irregularly, etc. Actually, I think I’m just making things up now. Look! pretty!

It’s really hard to pick just a few photos to show you from this trip.

I’m only kind of sorry for how prolific they are about to get.

“Only kind of” because… dude, my life is awesome. Let’s be honest.

We landed on this glacier, just south of the Denali peak.

I’m wearing a fleece and a scarf when we start the trip because I was told it was *so cold* up there – midway through the glacier landing, I had stripped down to a tank top. Again, we were blessed with incredible weather.

J and I don’t wear sunglasses, but they know it’s wicked sunny up there, so they give us these sweet glasses to use. rockin.

I love this picture because it looks like the sun is ripping out of the sky.

This one’s my desktop image. It’s a keeper for sure. I might even print it.

Denali in two parts: land and sky.

Denali happens in two parts:  Land and Sky.  Grass and Snow. Animals and Snowmen.

Well. Maybe not snowmen.  More like sunburn. But I could have made a snowman while I was getting a sunburn, I tell you what.

Another one of my debbie-downer moments happens when I heard that we were going on an 8 hour bus tour through the park. eight hours. bus tour. Can I just < slash > my wrists now?

Turns out, the bus was spacious, nearly empty and also the only way to get that far into Denali state park.

And we matched that day. Which for some reason I seem to care about.

First critter of the day was a moose, about 10 feet from the bus.

Trivia: what’s a reindeer called when you’re not able to pet its fuzzy little head and feed it seeds out of your hand? It’s a caraboo.

A friend of mine asked about the increase in elevation that we did – really wondering about the change in scenery. We climbed about 1000 feet, and it was really cool to see how the vegetation and animals changed over that span. Because of the frozen tundra below, the trees started to become dwarfed: they grow much slower and smaller because of the diminished water and nutrients available in the rocky soil.

Because Denali is veiled in clouds so often, many visitors will come to the area and leave without glimpsing the mountain even once. We were not only blessed with perfect weather, but also very clear skies. Quite arresting.

Up a little farther and the trees are all but gone.

Dahl sheep…

Bears!

I am endlessly fascinated by jon’s curls. I started calling him “jondy locks” for a little while.

so. many. pictures.
This is a “ground squirrel”. They look / behave a little like prairie dogs or meercats.

And I haven’t even gotten to the snow part of our post today. We’ll have to get to that tomorrow, eh?  It’s all feast or famine here at teamEggers.

The road to Denali.

If you’ve spent much time around teamEggers, you already know that I’m a naysayer. To an outsider, it looks a little like jon’s a tyrant that not only won’t let me eat candy, but forces me to do fun things. Mostly, he just knows that I hate the idea of almost everything until it’s actually happening, and then I enjoy myself immensely.

Denali is a perfect example of how ridiculous I am. But we’ll get to that.

Not only did I not want to go, but I had somehow convinced myself that spending three days in nature would just be the worst thing I’ve ever done. Clearly, I tell you this to illustrate how ridiculous I am and to show you our super awesome pictures from what ended up being the highlight of the trip. But before we actually get to denali, we have to take the road to denali.

Reindeers. Real. Huh. Who knew.

Now I do! Superawesomevideo!!!!!

Did you know their antlers are fuzzy like velvet in the spring each year when they’re growing?

I generally take too many pictures. Compounding this problem is that we were hanging out with Rick who also generally takes too many pictures (and has a way better camera than I do). I have a lot of reindeer pics to share.

I have to say, I love me some petting zoo.  It’s my 3rd favourite travel activity.

Hm… What else can I pet around these parts? Musk Ox!

Come here you over grown goat. Lemme feed you some grass.

But really. Let’s get on the road already. 4ish hours north of Anchorage, we see denali clearly ahead in the distance.

Well, as “clearly” as one ever sees it, that is.

We perched that weekend at a little B&B just north of Denali state park. Generally, we think B&Bs are unnecessarily creepy (do I want someone to make me breakfast in their kitchen and talk to me about their cats? no. not really.), but this one was pretty awesome. Had a great view…

Hands down, this is my favourite way to enjoy nature. Behind glass, wine in hand.

Stay tuned. I’m two months late, but we’ll actually get to the park pretty soon.

A delayed take on Northern Exposure.

It’s not exactly like the show would lead you to believe. I’ve yet to see a moose wander down the road, and there are more t-shirts than flannels, no snow, and no log cabins. ….Though in all fairness, I am visiting the city in the summer.

We kind of split our trip into three parts:  city, mountains, and water.  So let’s start in the city, with a trip to farmer’s market.

It was more of a touristy kinda market than a farmers-buy-some-produce kinda market, fully equipped with an elvis impersonator.

I try to make it a point to grab a jar of honey wherever I’m at – Anchorage has a bunch of fireweed honey.

Rick tells us that everyone has two cars in Anchorage, the winter truck with studded tires that can rove over the snow, and then the summer car…

Speaking of odd transportation, Alaskans have the highest pilots per capita as well. 1 person in 64 has their license and 1 in 74 has their own plane.  Or at least my father in law tells me. Regardless, tons of sea planes.

Ann and Rick know us well, and made sure that we did the rounds of microbreweries in Anchorage. The beer was the first thing that reminded me that alaska is technically part of the sisterhood with oregon and washington in the pac northwest.

The Anchorage art museum was full of really interesting info about Alaska, as well as some both traditional and contemporary Alaskan art.

We jumped into a tour group, where the guide was so passionate and expressive, it was hard to not pay attention.

Contemporary take on the magpie…

…for comparison…

Anchorage:

Obligatory Selfie: