Anchorage and Portage Glacier

Here we are exactly one year ago in Anchorage, newly wed and fresh out of college.

We're back at it again, ready to take on year two.  I think we've grown up just a little bit...  

Coming back to Anchorage was a really cool experience this time because we brought along my mom and Nathaniel's parents (my dad doesn't like to fly, and we made sure to tease him about it).

We took them to all of our favorite restaurants.

We hiked part of Flattop Mountain at Chugach State Park.

Nathaniel's parents, my mom, me, and Nathaniel

Two beagles not minding their master, running up the hillside.

That flat part at the top is why this mountain is called, well, Flattop.

My mom and I with the Cook Inlet in the background.

Our moms making the trek back down.

We found a new favorite place to eat called Local Burgerman Arctic Roadrunner.  They serve diner style food at cheap prices.

        

The Anchorage Museum is a great place to go to learn about Alaskan culture.

Gotta get a reindeer hotdog, mmhmm.

We rented a car for the week so we drove down the scenic Seward Highway on our way to take a glacier cruise.

Portage Lake at the Portage Glacier.

A tunnel carved though the cliffs.

The Portage Glacier Cruise boat.  You could stay inside on the bottom, or ride up on top.

Ice melting off the mountain side.

Portage Lake is less than 100 years old and was created from the melting ice on the glacier.

On the way back we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Bull moose

 Anchorage has a lot of unique shops, like this fur exchange store.  If you give them an animal pelt, they can pretty much make anything out of it.

Entrance to the shop.

Wolf hat

Walking around downtown

Good pizza!  Worth the hour wait.

Last stop, Walmart!  We shopped for our groceries and "pushed them back" to the back of the store where they package and ship our groceries to the village for us for a reasonable fee.

Our parents flew back home and we went back to the village the next morning.