North… to Talkeetna…

Ok – So! I forgot the camera (i’m sitting in the bar in Talkeetna Lodge – camera’s in the room) So the latter half of pictures will have to wait. and maybe some of the entry, because the bartender made me one of her special margarita’s and um. yum. yes. Feeling very warm and fuzzy. yes. so. ANYWAY. TODAY’S ADVENTURES!

So. They let me “sleep in” this morning. Which means that I didn’t have to get up until SIX AM. Umhm. So I skipped the shower because we had to be at the Train Depot at 7am, and we wanted coffee too, so. Early. We packed up the rest of our stuff, grabbed our sack breakfasts that the hostess made us after the conversation the night before…

[Her: Breakfast is from 7-9, though. What will you do?
Us: We have to be there at 7:15, so…
her: Breakfast is from 7-9. I’ll make you a sack breakfast, that I will do for you.
Us: Thank you!]

…which consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich on white bread with a tiny bit of butter and a granola bar.

The coffee shop we were looking at was still closed, so we went straight to the train Depot – where we discovered they had a coffee shop inside. SCORE. So we checked in, proved we is who we say we is, got coffee and….. waited. And waited. And waited.

Oh, and Nana teased some poor kids that she’d use her cane to be sure they would behave – they weren’t sure she was kidding… until she smiled. Then they still weren’t sure, especially as the parents sorta went “Yeah, she will!” Hahaha.

(at the bar:
Do you want another?
I…do…. but I shouldn’t…
But you are on vacation!
and I work at Walmart….
Omg, you DESERVE another one…
I DO!)

[And: Direct result: I am writing this now, two days later. Heh. Heh. Heh.]

So! Where were we? Oh yeah, all the way back on the train! GOSH. So, we finally get on the train, find our seats and settle in for the ride to Talkeetna, about four hours away. This was our Brakeman.

I felt very safe. All for the ‘he doesn’t actually have to do anything but walk around and talk to folks’ thing. 🙂

Anyway, throughout the trip, the On Board Supervisors would talk over the PA system, and point out exciting things to see – such as Moose running alongside the track, an Osprey nest on top of an old telephone pole – they replaced them all a few years ago, but left this one for the Osprey that is nested there. 🙂

We saw a whole bunch of pretty scenery that really sort of defines why someone would life in Alaska to begin with… (all pictures will be uploaded to facebook, of course. Link down there. 🙂 )

Then we were told about the Dr. Suess house, and the train slowed waaaaaay down in hopes that we would get a chance to see it. The Dr. Suess House is a house that was build ground level, with a perfect view of the mountains. Since it is in protected land and they aren’t allowed to cut down the trees on it, the trees grew, and the view was lost. So they added another story.

And another.
And another.
And another.

SEVEN STORIES in all. Currently. So we stopped to see if we could see it… with the help of the onboard crew. Eventually we all did see it – though few got pictures of it. I took a series of pictures, hoping… and there it was, in the very first one I took.

Rumor has it, said house is owned by a bunch of lawyers. Figures.

So – we ate breakfast on the train, then saw some other pretty things, and then we pulled into Talkeetna around 11 am, where we were staying the night at their Lodge. It’s BEAUTIFUL.

Mt. McKinley was hidden by the clouds, but the view is still spectacular.

So, we headed down on the shuttle into “town” and walked around for a bit, to see what we could see. For a teeny tiny town, there’s quite a bit to see! We saw mooses…

And then we found the place where they have Seward’s Folly, the burger so big, so famous, that Man vs. Food came up, and Adam attempted to complete the challenge.

Notice it does not even suggest that he finishes it… Heh. We had no intention of trying such Folly ourselves, but simply to eat lunch. We lucked out – there was a man inside, suffering the ridicule of his lovely wife, while he attempted to finish Seward’s folly.

He failed.
Epically.

We, however, were mostly victorious over our own, smaller, Stubbs Burgers.

So, fat and happy, we head out to walk around more, before we headed to the Arts Hanger, where we would see a show we’d read about in the guide. Put on by local improv/drama group, it was called….

Yeah. We couldn’t POSSIBLY resist! And we were very glad that we didn’t skip it, because it was HYSTERICALLY funny! We laughed so hard we cried, in several places – it was filled with a ton of little inside jokes, but not so much that it wasn’t enjoyable by the out of state folks too – like our Girls Scout Cookie Whore..

They were well worth the money – and, i dare say, funnier than our local group. They ran a little over time, though, because they added some extra ad-libbing for us (I found out because the Tech Girl was sitting at the Lodge Bar with me. 🙂 She also promised to try and get me a copy of some of the script that had us rolling in the aisles… 🙂 ) because we were laughing so hard, and having such a good time.

of course, that meant we missed our last shuttle, and being stubborn Alaskan types, we started the two mile hike back to the Lodge.

Uphill.

Under the rainbow.

We walked at Gramma’s pace, as she has a cane, and Linda happily bounded about picking flowers, and we made sure we were going the right direction by a family that walked past us. Just before we got to the BIG hill – about a 1/4 to go – a lovely woman named Linda Susan picked us up and took us the rest of the way, where we beat the family that passed us to the lodge. AND? Saw the tippy top of McKinley finally!

And so. Linda got her “I saw the mountain” discount, she and mom headed to the room, and I headed to the bar, which is where we started all of this nonsense, isn’t it?

Gotta love it when ya come full circle, hm? Stay tuned!