Anchorage itself is very industrial to me. I'm sure there is alot of Anchorage that we didn't get to see, but I wasn't too impressed with the city. We did venture outside of the city to see if we could find some scenery. I do believe that we found it!
We enjoyed the trip with Brian's cousins Kristy, Craig and Keith.
If you went anywhere outside of the big cities you were sure to find something breathtaking to look at.
Next we went on to Kenai, where we spend 5 days. Brian was taking a class in Kenai for work, so we spent the majority of our time there.
Kenai was not as mountainous as I thought. It was kinda flat and not a whole lot going on. We did do an awful lot
of driving since there wasn't much else to do here. Its funny, most of these areas "close down" for the winter months. There wasn't even a Walmart!
But we did manage to see some wildlife:
We did find a beach! Not that any of us wanted to take a dip!
From Kenai, we continued on to Denali State Park. Now, Denali completely closes down for the winter. It was like a ghost town, no people. Twilight zone! I guess we were the only crazy people to visit Denali in the dead of winter! ADVENTURE PEOPLE!!
On our way to Denali, we stopped for an overnight in Talkeetna. Very, Very small town. Brians friend recommended us to stay at a place called Lattitude 62. So we did, not knowing that it was above a bar. They rented the whole top floor to us. It was a little strange and definitely could use some updating, but we managed to make it through the night and decided to check out the next morning. We went to the mi
ddle of town, which wasn't hard to find. Talkeetna had one intersection, which I stood in the middle of and took a picture of the town. It was a very cute town, but where do these people shop? Where do they go to have a nice dinner?
These people have to drive a very long way to do anything. I could probably handle that for about a weekend, then its off to the city for me!
Next stop: Fairbanks! Fairbanks (what I saw of it) was just a typical city. With beautiful mountain views and snow! From there we went
to the North Pole! Where we were to stay through Christmas. The North Pole is right outside of Fairbanks. It was a cute little town. I'm told that there are alot of rivers there. But all we saw was snow and ice. We stayed in a cozy little bed and breakfast called the Riverbend. The cabin was so adorable! It was a tight fit for 8 of us, but we seemed to make it work.We got to see the "real" Santa Claus. The girls were beside themselves. It was awesome to see their faces. We even got to see the reindeer!
The city street lights are decorated like candy canes:
Snow angels anyone???
We had a fabulous time in Alaska. The girls and I got to spend 2 whole weeks with Brian, which is a huge deal and a wonderful blessing! Being able to spend Christmas in such a beautiful place with such wonderful friends was a true gift. Alaska is calling our names! The question is: Do we answer????? Hmmmmmm.......... Its a possibility.
We hope your 2008 has gotten off to a awesome start. We hope that those New Years resolutions are working for you! We love you all and think about you often.
We are not sure of what the remainder of 2008 will bring for us. But we started the year off with a little adventure, maybe we will end the year with a huge adventure!
I am going to leave you with a few of my favorite photos:
Take care and drop us a line from time to time. Love, Brian, Sue and girls
