Dad's Visit

At the end of February my dad, Ken, decided to come and spend a few days and try his hand at "Alaska in the winter."  We had recently had a little snow and the weather forecast was calling for clear, blue skies.  This generally means one thing:  COLD.  My dad got in late on a Thursday evening.  The next day we spent rattling around Anchorage and at the Alaska Aviation Museum.  Dad is a flight fanatic...and WWII junkie, so he was in heaven for the 3 hours we were at the museum.  Alaska's has a very rich aviation history.  To this day most of the state is inaccessible by road, so planes are the only way in/out.  The museum sits on the shore of Lake Hood, the busiest float plane "airport" in the world.  Though the planes don't float this time of year, they come in on skis to land on the frozen lake. 

I didn't take any pics on Lake Hood that day, so I swiped on from the internet:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3344/3329001342_8dd50f8a25.jpg

The next day we went with several of my co-workers on a snowmachine trip.  We met our guides at a small, shack-like structure in Portage, Alaska south of Anchorage.  Just a side note, Portage doesn't really exist anymore.  The town of Portage actually slid into Cook Inlet during the 1964 Good Friday earthquake when the ground dipped some 10 feet into the salt water.  The town never rebuilt and when you drive this particular portion of the Seward Highway and look toward the water you can see the tops of old buildings and abandoned, rusted out cars.  These are the only remaining ghosts of what was once Portage.  Anyway, we met our guides and got suited up in all of our arctic gear.  The original plan had been to snowmachine out to a glacier, but there wasn't enough snow to make it to the glacier, so instead we trailered up the snowmachines and headed down to the Kenain Peninsula for a backcountry afternoon snowmachine.  We had a ton of fun, dad even managed to see just how cold Alaska creek beds are in the winter...and that's all I'll say about that. :) 

This is dad all geared up midway through our trip.

This is part of what remains of Portage.  There are dead birch trees that are just sticking out of the landscape in random, small groupings.  It's kind of eerie to see...just leftover ghosts.  After sucking snowmachine exhaust all day we went to Chair 5 pub in Girdwood for beer and burgers.

The next day we took a drive down to Girdwood and rode the tram up the mountain at Aleyska Ski resort.  Afterwards we ate dinner at the Double Musky.  They have a "famous" peppered steak there.  Jill Cordes, nationally acclaimed food critic and host of the Food Network's "The Best Of" coined it the best steak in the USA!  We asked the waiter how they made it and he said they coat the New York steak in a peppered flour mixture and then FRY it in oil in a deep cast iron skillet, then it is SMOTHERED in a peppered burgundy sauce.  We should have just split one...but where would the fun have been in that?   To top it off we got some beautiful pictures as it was such a clear, gorgeous day!  Enjoy...

The slopes at Aleyska from the top of the tram with Cook Inlet in the background.

The Aleyska Resort and tram station at the bottom of the hill.  The car was parked in the parking lot to the left behind the hotel.

The tram dock, and just a small view of the double black diamond slopes.   

Cook Inlet on the drive home.  A painting of almost exactly this image is hanging above my parents fireplace, it was done by one of our nurses in the orthopedic department.  Her name is Susan Watkins and she does beautiful work!  Check it out if you have a chance: 

http://www.susanwatkinsart.com/

Just some of the ice flows in Cook Inlet.