I had a good weekend hanging out with my friends from work. We went out in downtown Anachorage, to a festival, rafting, and hiking up a mountain. An exhilerating experience to say the least.
If I hadn't said before, Anchorage is a lot like Syracuse in size and design. My friends showed up in a fifteen passenger van to pick me up. Kind of like a limo, but somehow diferent. Bernies martini bar was the first stop on friday evening. Bernies is the equivalant of Auful Ales in Syracuse. A nice place to have a drink and good conversation, but not very wild and out of control. We met some friends there and decided that when the sun was starting to set, about 1:30 AM, it was time to move on. We went to Kootz, a club with multiple rooms each with their own theme. There was a swing bar that some of my friends danced at and a techno bar that the rest of us danced at, plus others like country, rock, etc. The night ended at three AM and I got to see it as close to dark as I ever have in Alaska (Land of the Midnight Sun)..
The next day we all went to the Girdwood Forest Fair, just south of Anchorage (map). The forest fair is an annual event that brings Alaskans and visitors from all over the world together to share food, art, music, and fun together. It is said to be an old hippie festival, but it was just a bunch of people having fun. There were many fun bands to dance to and many good things to eat. The music was bluegrass and rock mixed all together.
The next morning we packed up and moved on for our next adventure. We drove south to Cooper's Landing where I went rafting for my very first time, of course the river was a class 2 (little waves). It was on the Kenai River which is a glacial river. It had the most amazing blue color that is from ozidized elements in the glacial runnoff. I got to see my very first bald eagle on the Kenai River, they were out like sea gulls: everywhere. I even saw a juvenile bald eagle without the white feathers yet. There was also a moma mooses and a baby calf drinking down by the river. It was very fun.
We continued south to my friends parents house for diner in Soldotna. It was on the ocean and very pretty there. We slept in these old family tents from the seventies! Big and open tents that were perfect t to read stories to each other in. I got to hear the "Stinky Cheese Man" story that was entirely funny!
On our return journey to Anchorage we stopped to climb a mountain. Cecil mountain is a perfect little mountain to climb up and view the river that we had rafted the day before. I had just got out of my van and discovered that my daypack was not with me, it got left behind in another vehicle back in Girdwood. This had my waterbottles and shoes in them. So, I went up with a friends water bottle and wearing Teva Sandles(Ouch). I thought that my feet were going to burst out from the side of these things if I did not stop first for the pain. Although I must admit it was fun coming down. I was with someone that knew better how to slide down snow fields and learned a little technique. I felt as if I was not going to die for once as I went down a slope on snow for the third weekend in a row.
On the ride back we saw a tidal boar in the Turnagain Arm. It is when the tide is coming in at the right time of year and it creates a big wave that is large enough to surf on as it comes in.
All in all a good weekend with many fun stories to tell and no major injuries!
