Dr. Alison Marr

Most of our day today was spent driving up to Fairbanks from Talkeetna. The drive took about 4.5 hours. We really enjoyed our stay at the Moonflower! I can’t wait to post more pics from the cabin. Tonight, we’re using Jeff’s friend, Amy’s dial-up internet. So, pics are a no go.

The drive was pretty nice…it’s been raining most of the day today. We had lunch at a Subway outside Denali National Park…I’m sure Jeff will talk about our experience in his next post. We also got some pics of the Alaska pipeline today, so that was cool.

We’re staying at Amy & Doug’s place the next two nights. It’s a log cabin Amy’s boyfriend, Doug built by hand…ALL BY HIMSELF!! It’s in North Pole, AK and it’s amazing. I’ll post pics soon!

This afternoon, we went to Pioneer Park in Fairbanks (an Alaska themed amusement park) and had ice cream at Hot Licks followed by dinner at the Pumphouse.

Thanks for all your comments! We really enjoy reading them!!

Hope to post again soon!

Here are the pics from the drive. Check out what we paid for gas in Cantwell, AK. It’s not that bad everywhere, but it was pretty ridiculous! Also, there are more pics of Amy and Doug’s cabin.

OK folks, Alison and I are now in Talkeetna, we are staying in this super awesome place called the Moonflower cottage. We have been driving most of today, and by we, I mean Alison. She was a driving a machine, until the machine got an ankle cramp and I took over.

However, first let me backup by saying how many of you have started your day with a traditional Alaskan breakfast of farm fresh eggs, homemade raspberry jam and bread, bear sausage, and moose bacon? We still haven’t see any Moose, but I can safely speak for both of us when I say I hope they look as good in person as they taste. Moose bacon pretty much rules. After the awesome breakfast, we spent the rest of our morning in a 102 degree hot tub as cold raindrops splashed on our head.

We also stopped into Anchorage again and had lunch at my boy Rob Woodage’s old romping ground, Humpy’s. Alison tried to order a gyro and was bummed that they were all out. However, hang in here with me, fastforward to right now, we are in this Pizza Joint in Talkeetna and she has safely delivered her first bite of a gyro. She is actually “trying to figure out how to eat it right now.”

Anyway, Talkeetna (from what we have seen) is cool. All 3 streets of it, with wondering dogs everywhere (including the middle of the street). Time for me to eat this Reindeer sausage sub… ahhh yeah, the good life!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Yesterday was a pretty fantastic day. We started off leaving Anchorage and driving the 120 miles to Seward. The drive was wonderful and we took lots of scenic photos along the way.

We arrived in Seward in time for our tour with Kenai Fjords. The tour was UNBELIVABLE! In 6 hours, we saw humpback whales, black bears, mountain goats, all kinds of birds including puffins, sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals, killer whales (orcas), finback whales, and porpoises. PLUS, we saw glacier calving and had some yummy lunch. It was fantastic! Hopefully you can tell by some of the photos!

After the cruise, we had dinner at Ray’s waterfront. I had some halibut, it was fresh but nothing amazing. After dinner, we came and checked in at the Berry Patch B&B. It’s super cute, but no internet. But, hopefully this post will be up soon.

After check-in, we went out to see Exit Glacier. However, the road hasn’t been cleared yet, so we could only take a couple of pics from far away. It was still pretty.

Those were the highlights of an amazing day! You won’t believe some of the pics/videos we got during that cruise! Unreal!!!

After a not so good night’s rest for me (I guess I was too pumped up to see Janie), Jeff and I headed to downtown Anchorage.

We first checked out the Ulu factory….not too exciting. Then, we thought we might see some salmon at the Ship Creek Viewing area. Wrong! No salmon for us.

Then, we went downtown and rented some bikes and headed out on an 8 mile (round trip) bike ride down the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. I hadn’t been on a bike in a while, but w/ Jeff’s help I figured it out. We had a nice time and saw lots of great views of mountains and water.

We had lunch at Simon and Seafort’s…Jeff had some fresh tasting fish and chips and I had a Hot King Crab sandwich. It was pretty good.

We also checked out a little tourist shop/park and then I took a nice nap. Next up: dinner w/ Jason and Janie at the Moose’s Tooth. More tomorrow…

1) Technology can be pretty inspiring, for example we now have the means to make little mechanical bird beaks, robotic dolphin flippers, artificial human limbs, cars that get over 45 miles per gallon, fancy computer iPhones, yet for all these wonderful achievements we have yet to figure out how to actually properly get humans in and out of an airplane. There is something about an airplane that makes people forget what they are doing, where they are going, and what happened to their bag. I’m working on some sketches of the world’s first auto-ejecting plane seats for folks that take to long or possibly a giant robot police type deal complete with a tazer with signs posted, “If you take to long to get off the plane… THE TERRORISTS WIN!”

2) Alison tricked me into playing her Nintendo DS, which she loves dearly. Now I can’t say for certain, but I believe heavy doses of old school Metallica (Ride the Lightning) at high volume or perhaps when she explains the directions midway through the game has an adverse effect on the results of this so called “Big Brain Academy.” I failed miserably, well actually I got a D but according the little animated expert my brain is only half the size of a normal human being. Which now that I type that, hmm, sounds about right. Ohh, I also played “Flash Focus” and evidently I have the eyesight of a 40 year old, which is awesome considering I’m only 31.

More to come…