Traveling back to Anchorage

Sunday - September 7, 2014

We woke up a little sad and groggy because we’re all operating on about 4 hours of sleep.  But of course we’d never think about missing breakfast.  We've got priorities, you know. I get up, stretch and look out the window before letting out a yelp and jumping for my camera.  After being so elusive, I saw Denali!  It was like the best goodbye present ever!  I take a crappy picture from my window because I know how rare it is to be able to see it and I was afraid that by the time I made my way outside it’d be hidden again.  I threw on my clothes and climbed the hill to the Lodge, standing outside for a few minutes to snap away.  The sky is SOOOO clear.  If only it had been this clear the night before.  Though I’m happy that I get to see Denali - I feel like my trip is complete now.  The two things I really wanted to see - the Aurora Borealis and Denali - I got to see them!  There are so many who come up to Fairbanks that don’t get to see either the Aurora or Denali, and I feel so blessed to have seen both - so the day has already started on a good note.

Super blurry crappy photo I took out the window.  I was in my crappy PJ's and afraid to 1) run out into the cold because I was NOT going to be sick for my cruise and 2) afraid it would hide again

Much nicer photo of Denali taken from the Lodge.  Hello Denali!  So nice of you to come out and say goodbye to me!

After we stuff our faces at breakfast and say goodbye to Lori and the dogs we head down to Fairbanks to get gassed up.  All the way down the mountain I take a bunch of blurry photos whenever Denali comes into view.  If I could get a picture of Denali from the South View Point - my trip would seriously be complete. Raymond barely slept, so my mama drove the first 130 miles or so so I could take photos.  Raymond laid the seatback down on the captain style seat in the second row and snored away while my mom drove and I kept taking photos like a moron.  Every time I had a clear view of Denali - snap!  Over and over.  But I was just so happy - and knowing my severe limitations as a photo taker (because I’m clearly not a photographer) I just figure if I snap 100 photos (or you know, 859 photos) I’d find a few I like, right?  The magic of digital photography!

Not Denali.  But I thought it was funny.  But this may be because I was operating on 4 hours of sleep and 5 cups of coffee at this time.  

Denali from Anchorage, still a bit hazy - but I can see it! 

road work.  Lots and lots of road work

I can't even describe just how beautiful this drive is.  My photos just don't do it justice.  I snapped hundreds and hundreds of photos, and it's too hard to pick which ones to post, and uh, most of them are pictures of Denali - and there are only so many pictures one can look at of Denali, right?  But even though it was a long drive - it truly is a beautiful one.  

We stopped off outside Denali where Raymond switched off with my mama (and there was an outhouse!  Oh, the horror.  I am clearly not constitutionally suited for outdoor living.  I lurve electricity, wifi, air conditioning, heat, and indoor plumbing with hot showers too much).  

He drove over 100 miles before we hit the Denali View Point South where I started driving.  But I made him stop there to take photos of Denali to compare to the ones I took there on 9/3 when Denali was hidden (sob!).


9/3: no Denali = :(

yes, I realize now that I was totally aiming for the wrong spot.  But in my defense, I'd never seen Denali before and had no freaking clue where it was suppose to be be (although I guess I could've just looked on their charts and displays...but that required too much work than just guessing)

No Denali!  :*(

9/7: Denali decides to be friends = :)

this family photo took much sacrifice.  I was bitten by ginormous Alaskan mosquitoes while setting up my tripod.

The trip back to Anchorage wasn’t that bad.  I think because it was a Sunday and there was either less road work, or there were just less people out and about because though there were delays due to road work, it wasn’t as long as we got back to Anchorage within 7 hours even though we stopped a few times.  And in true road trip fashion, we ate gas station food...which is actually better than California’s gas station food.  Raymond and I split a hot dog and we also chowed down on hot wings and seasoned fries.  We had purchased snacks the day before at the market so we chomped on that as well.  We listened to stand up, audio books (Jim Gaffigan, the hot pocket guy), and music for the 7 hours and even though my ass was asleep by the time we got to Anchorage, we had a safe trip and that’s all that mattered.

We ended up in Anchorage around 6 - checked in, and checked on our friends’ flight.  We stayed at Quality Suites near downtown because of its proximity to food.  And the location is convenient, though the neighborhood isn't one I'd walk around in after dark. There's actually a gate kind of surrounding their property - the parking lot is gated. We unpacked and of course, had to hook onto the wifi because we’d been without our crack for the drive down. By the way, don't be a moron like me and not check into your data allotment for Alaska. I have T-Mobile. I just figured that because we're traveling to AMERICA, I'd have the same data allotment - 5g at LTE speeds and unlimited slow ass data. Nope. If you have T-Mobile, you will be screwed because you'll be hooked onto their partnership carrier who only gives you (if you have over 5g a month with T-Mobile) 100mb per billing period. Everyone else gets 50mb per billing period. Erm, that's like, 5 emails and 20 minutes of facebook for a month. And you can't even pay extra for more! No bueno! Because I didn't check into it and didn't know, I used up all my data in 4 days. I didn't realize until I got a warning that I had already used up 80% of my data. I guess I shouldn't have streamed anything? But be smart and don't be like me! Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

As for the Quality Suites...eh. The room was a decent size and it was pretty clean. It wasn't as nice as the Comfort Suites we stayed at the first night, but I expected that because it's older and well, you have to trade off something for the location. I wasn't enthralled with the service though. Not that I really expected service, but the shuttle issue (see below) and the fact that they forgot to give us bed linens for the sofa bed (we had to call twice - and we waited an hour between calls. Housekeeping told us the front desk never told them. I don't know who's right, but we sat there at midnight waiting for something to make up the sofa bed with) kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.

 Our friends took the shuttle in (where the driver apparently told them - in a complimentary shuttle - that it cost $20, so I got a panicked phone call which necessitated a visit to the front desk to ascertain that YES, the complimentary shuttle was FREE) and though they ended up not having to pay, they said the passenger that got off in the hotel before them (also a Choice property) DID pay the shuttle driver the $20 he asked for. At the end of the day, they made it to our hotel (though I felt kind of bad about it since I'm the one who picked the place) and we all settled into our rooms and went to Dami for dinner.  We needed something delicious to erase the horrible culinary nightmare we lived through the day before (dramatic much?).  I’m happy to say that Dami was really good.  The restaurant was attached to an Econo Lodge, so there was parking, but the ambiance was nice, the wait staff was pleasant and service was quick, and the food was good, fresh, and the price was totally reasonable!  Or perhaps I just felt that way because everything in Fairbanks was so freaking expensive.  

complimentary edamame they brought out to us

all of our meals came with a salad

Miso soup that came with the combos

all the parents got the tempura udon

lobster roll

my brother took a crap photo of his bento box.  He got chicken teriyaki with a Dami roll

my less than stellar photo of my bento box: beef short ribs with the monkey brains roll

What's awesome?  Aside from the fact that we really liked the food, the service and the speed?  They gave us free dessert!  I don't know if it's because we're tourists, it was cold, or because it was a slow Sunday night - but they gave each of us a free deep fried Oreo!  Good stuff.  Perfect size too - a good hit of sweetness, but you could only eat one because of its richness.

After satiation by delicious sushi we went back to our hotel and hung out.  Well, my parents and our friends hung out, Raymond and I showered (it was SOOOO nice to shower without having to worry constantly about water usage) then bummed around watching season 7 of The Big Bang Theory I had downloaded onto my tablet.  I love Sheldon!  

Next day - we go cruising!