Weekend in Anchorage
For Valentine’s Day, we planned on a fun trip to salt lake city. however, we weren’t thinking when we made our plans because it was also president’s day weekend. so, i didn’t get onto any flights to utah! i was so frustrated and disappointed and said that i never wanted to go on a trip again! riley knew that we should still try to go somewhere, so we hopped on a flight to anchorage instead. i’m glad he “forced” me to go because i would’ve just wallowed at home all weekend if we didn’t go somewhere!
it was my first time to anchorage and riley’s third. i knew how awesome alaska was from our trip to juneau last year. riley always tries to get me to go back but i never want to! i always want to go somewhere warm instead haha. since it was so last minute, we didn’t make any plans, but we were able to stay at riley’s friends’ house which was really nice! We spent our time eating yummy food (what’s new?) and enjoying the fresh snow! we visited alyeska and made pit stops on our road trip to see the frozen ocean and watch the frozen chunks of water floating around. somthing i’ve never seen before!
What I loved most about anchorage was that the locals were all outside enjoying the snow even though it was 15 degrees out! It was something else. It made me excited to be outside! We saw people biking with fat tires, cross country skiing, ice skating on frozen ponds, and playing pick up games of hockey! It was a real winter wonderland. It was interesting to see the way these people lived in the winter- not even snow and freezing temperatures would keep them indoors. There wasn’t much else going on in the city- it was clear all they need is some outdoor recreation ;)
^^^we stopped by the temple and went to church on sunday! we’ve been trying to go to church wherever we travel if we are gone on sundays. it’s always fun going to church in unique places because it gives you a look into what their life is like, plus we get to talk to the locals who are usually really friendly!
Our favorite part of the trip was walking across a giant frozen lake that we found! We didn’t know anything about it but we saw groups of people walking/skiing/biking on it and so we wanted to check it out. As we started our trek on the ice, we noticed that the lake led to a glacier! it didn’t look too far away, so we just went for it. after a while, it felt like we hadn’t made any progress! we looked forward and the edge of the lake still looked just as far as it did in the beginning! we had been walking for at least an hour! it felt like we were in that episode of rugrats when they are stranded in the desert without water haha! it felt like a mirage and like we would never reach the end. well, we didn’t reach the end becasue the sun was going down and we wanted to get back to the car before it got dark. we really want to go back so we reach the glacier and maybe next time do it on a bike! and if we go in the summer, we can take a boat to the glacier :)
^^^this was slightly unnerving but it was totally frozen so we were good ;)
we have yet to see a moose or bear or any other wild animal in alaska, but just another reason to go back :) here’s a list of all of the places we ate, just in case you’re interested. they were all amazing!! moose’s tooth, golden donuts, marco t’s, and girdwood picnic club.