Parent's visit - Eagle River and Downtown Anchorage

My parents came up to visit last weekend and we had a wonderful time. Having them visit made Anchorage feel more like home.

They came in on Thursday around mid-day and we spent that afternoon looking around Anchorage and going out to dinner. The next morning I showed them my office, introduced them to the judge and turned them loose in downtown Anchorage. They had a great breakfast and spent some time at the museum. I took off work after lunch and we headed for Eagle River, a town north of Anchorage in a gorgeous valley that winds back into the Chugach.

Once again the weather rewarded us. It was clouded over in Anchorage and all the way to Eagle River. The river valley was bunched with clouds that gave us glimpses of the peaks around us. It was still beautiful with all the leaves turning bright yellow. Once we got to the Nature Center it was starting to clear. Patches of blue began to appear and we set off on the trail up the valley.

One portion of the trail system was closed because of bear activity. The trail worked its way down to the plain. The river was dammed in places by beavers and we watched salmon spawn below us. The female would turn sideways and shake to clear a spot in the river bed and then a male would dart into the spot.

The weather continued to clear and the color from the leaves shone. It was a well-documented hike. I snapped pictures while my mom used a video-camera and kept up a running commentary on what we were seeing.

At the end of our hike we were commenting how we hadn't seen any real wildlife when a bull-moose walked right out of the woods towards us. My parents headed up the trail a bit and I stopped to snap a few pictures while the moose munched on some leaves. Then we headed on.

We stopped again to look at the view from the nature center. A family hiked up and we chatted about the moose we'd just spotted. Then we started talking about where we were all from (they were from Florida) and it came out that the woman in the group had just gotten married to a guy that was in my class in high school: Mike Chicas. Small world. They just moved up here because Mike is in the Coast Guard.

We then headed back to Anchorage. The first Friday of each month the galleries around downtown have food and open their doors. So we joined a pretty large group that was wandering from gallery to gallery. My dad took the chance to go get a quick trim - my mom thought he was getting too shaggy.

We didn't have quite enough time to hit every spot because we were meeting my housemates for dinner at 6:30. Dinner was at the Marx Brothers Cafe, a truly fantastic restaurant on 3rd. We went through a few bottles of wine and enjoyed our dinners. Callie, Lila and my parents talked about traveling and all the fun places everyone has been to. It was a great dinner with family and friends. The best kind.

After dropping my parents off at the apartment they were renting (www.downtowngueshouse.com), I met up with some friends who were out having sushi. The group then went out for drinks at a bar downtown and we danced for a while. Unfortunately I couldn't stay out too long as I had to pick up my parents at 8 so we could start our trip to Seward.

PICTURES:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/EagleRiver