Had a leisurely morning and left the hotel about 10:30am for the drive down to Anchorage. Today is a glorious day ; the sun is shining, but with cool temps. It’s raining at the coast so we’ll enjoy this sun while we can; we may not see it again for the next 2 weeks!
Our route takes us up the Nenana River valley where all of the bridges seem to be undergoing repair work; 2 years ago there was a magnitude 7+ earthquake in the area and all of the bridges sustained damage that is still being fixed.
We are getting fantastic views of Mt. McKinley/Denali now that we are south of Cantwell. One of our neighbors at the beach was stationed in Alaska for 4 years and NEVER saw the mountain, we have been very fortunate.
Around every turn and over every brow the views of the mountain get better and better. Stopped at Hurricane Gulch, a very deep and steep river valley and took some impressive photos?
We stopped at Mary’s McKinley Lodge for lunch with an amazing view of the mountain from the dining room. Mary Carey came to Alaska from California in 1962 after the death of her husband and homesteaded in this spot, in the middle of nowhere! She became an advocate for building a road from Anchorage to Fairbanks to improve access to National Park, but had strong opposition from Governor Egan who declared, “Alaska has 2 roads, isn’t that enough!” Finally, Mary prevailed and the road was built. Mary wrote a book of her early days in Alaska and so we bought a copy! Today the lodge is still run by her family, she died in 2004 at the age of 90+. We got all of this info after speaking to her daughter, Jean Richardson, who is a successful author of children’s stories. Apparently, there is going to be a movie about Mary, based on her 2nd book, with Julia Roberts playing the role of Mary. The movie has been delayed as Julia Roberts is apparently pregnant again; just remember you heard that here first!
We arrived in Anchorage about 5:30pm and checked- in and Jill & I got upgraded to this huge suite on the 19th floor, the size of our first apartment in Montreal! I’m sure that it has great views, but can’t been seen as the clouds have now rolled in.
We arranged to eat with John & Vickie in the Crow’s Nest restaurant at the hotel; on the 20th floor; when we turned up for our reservation they took us into a private dining room! I guess when I said that I was staying in a Crow’s Nest suite they figured we must be important! We had a wonderful meal and we’ve really enjoyed John & Vickie’s company and their tales of Alaska!
Tomorrow we are off to Juneau to connect with our cruise ship; we’ll spend the next 2 nights at a hotel in Juneau before sailing on Saturday.
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