The weekend of the 24th to 27th May is Memorial day holiday here in the USA. For us that means Amanda gets a Monday off work (Bank holiday for UK people) Being as organised as we ever are in the Blades household we hadn't realised this was sneaking up on us.....
With a lack of planning comes problems like me not booking time off from work (I work Sunday's) and not being able to find a place to stay.
Late last week about the Wednesday night we finally managed to come up with plan of what we would do.
Friday evening I would spend some time racing my bike up one of the local hill climbs, the race was part of a weekend race series but at least I would get to test my legs out on one of the longer hill climbs in the local area.
Saturday morning would see us head up the road to Talkeetna about 2.5 hours away. While in Talkeetna we would ride the Huricane flag train and take in some of the town once we returned, we would stay overnight in Talkeetna and return to Anchorage Sunday morning so I could sell some bikes.
Pretty much everything went to plan. The
train ride was a huge success. We actually saw
Mount Mckinley (Denali)!!!! This is a pretty big deal, as most days of the year it's shrouded in clouds. Also seen were Moose, numerous birds and we even got to see what an Ice Jam looks like. Fiona was awarded a "Golden Spike" - really just a genuine used Alaskan Railroad spike - by the conductor of the train for being such a good kid on the trip.
We stayed at a local B&B up there called the
Meandering Moose which had a really nice atmosphere, so much so we have booked to stay there again with Grandma and Dennis when they visit in June. We had dinner at
Twister Creek Restaurant which was really good, Amanda had the brownie for dessert, and claims it's the best one she's ever had in her life (can't be that good, Nick had to finish it for her). Although we had to leave too early on Sunday to get breakfast at the Talkeetna roadhouse we brought sticky buns back to Anchorage with us and they were enjoyed by all who got to have some (especially at work).
Here are a couple of pictures from the train journey.
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| Turn around stop at Hurricane |
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| The train |
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| Train and Mount Mckinley |
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| Train Shadow at Hurricane Glutch |
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| Mount Mckinley |
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| Ice jam next to tracks |
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| Ice Jam |
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| Saying goodbye! |
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