ALASKA (part I)

3 July - 7 July
Anchorage, Girdwood, Denali

If you'll remember, in my 2012 Christmas post, my cousin Beth and her boyfriend Matt had just gotten engaged.  Because they met in Alaska (a billion years ago) they decided to have their wedding celebration up in the Last Frontier!  Not only did they pick Alaska, but more specifically Juneau, so our RSVP changed from a "YES" to a "DUH."

Devin and I decided to make it a 2 week vacation in order to spend time with family and to see parts of the state we hadn't seen together yet.  We also decided to bring our favorite 4-legged character, as he loves Alaska too.

We flew into Anchorage and spent a day checking out the city and getting Yeti set up with the dog daycare.  That was an ordeal!  Note to self: ALWAYS bring most recent vet records when traveling with a dog.  I forgot them and luckily the daycare overlooked my mistake and boarded Yeti anyway.  I won't get into the specifics of this place other than to say we just kept reminding ourselves that Yeti didn't care if the place smelled like dog pee, and he was properly cared for.  He only had to spend 3 nights without us.  We would have loved to have had him with us, but because we were traveling over the 4th of July I had a difficult time finding lodging, let alone places that allowed dogs.

After saying goodbye to our guy, we drove southeast along the Seward Hwy to Girdwood, where we spent the 4th of July.  We stayed at a great B&B and spent the afternoon walking around town (which didn't take long), checking out the Alyeska Hotel, and then waiting to be seated and eating at a restaurant called the Double Musky Inn (I wouldn't recommend it.)  

Then next day, before leaving Girdwood, we wandered over to the Girdwood Forest Fair.  It's a great event with booths featuring everything from marshmallow shooters made by 5 year olds to beautifully crafted furniture.  We even knew a few people there: Leah and Nick, who ran on the Klondike team last year, had a tent for their organic seed company, Foundroot.  It was great to see them again!

After the fair we turned around and drove back toward Anchorage and then continued north, our final  destination being Healy, just north of the Denali National Park entrance.

At the Denali South View Point...

Denali is six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road. Travelers along it see the relatively low-elevation taiga forest give way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America's tallest peak, 20,320' Mount McKinley. Wild animals large and small roam unfenced lands, living as they have for ages. 

Solitude, tranquility and wilderness await.

The only way to really see the park other than hiking/biking is on a bus tour, which we did for my birthday.  It was quite incredible.

Mama grizzly and her 2 cubs…from the safety of the bus.

We were told to consider ourselves lucky that day - only ~30% of visitors see the entire mountain.

20 weeks pregnant...

…on my 33rd birthday.

On our way back to Anchorage we stopped in Talkeetna for some pizza and to have a taste at the Denali Brewing Company.  The pizza was great, the beer was fine.  In Anchorage we collected our little buddy and got ready for our flight the next morning to Juneau…