This is a long post, so for those of you that want to cut straight to the pics, here ya go:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/TalkeetnaFairbanksAndChena
First stop: Talkeetna. The site of future Bachelor Ball/Wilderness Woman shenanigans, my introduction to this town was a blast. A group of about 8 or 9 of us left Friday night on the 2+ hour drive North. Talkeetna is a (very) small but (very) cute town Southeast of Denali. It is the home of many climbers and a definite draw. It is said to be the inspiration for Cicele, the fictional town from Northern Exposure (hey, that sounds like this blog's name!). We arrived and dropped off our gear at The Roadhouse. The Roadhouse is a combination restaurant and hotel. The downstairs is the restaurant and is justly famous for its giant breakfasts. I very contentedly split a half order the next morning. The downstairs also features a number of couches and fire places with books and boardgames liberally strewn about. What with all the coziness and books and the ecclectic group of people who stay there, I can think of few places that I would rather be snowed in.
After dropping off our gear we headed out to hit the town (all one block of it). Dinner was at the Wildflower Cafe, where, rumor has it, the chef is the former cook for George H.W. (Bush to our current Shrub).
Post dinner we headed for the local bars. The first featured a well-lit game room where Justin and Lara demonstrated their ping pong skilz. Lara really gave an Army guy a run for his money.
The next bar was the Fairview Inn. This bar was much more what you would expect with low light, a guy playing the guitar in the corner and dogs freely roaming around. Ok, maybe that's not what you'd expect, but that's what there was. Here the group settled in for some serious fun. I retired early to a very creaky room at the Roadhouse, but others shut the place down.
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Saturday began with a liesurely breakfast. I might (or might not) have been the last person to get up. This is my blog, so you'll have to be content with not knowing. As mentioned above, the portions at The Roadhouse were generous and the cinnamon rolls were fantastic. We got several text messages from the rest of the group (another two cars full that left Anchorage Saturday morning) informing us that they were about a hundred miles ahead of us on the drive to Fairbanks (no joke, it's about a 350 mile trip). We hit the road after walking down to the river. The drive up was long, but quite beautiful. After Talkeetna, the Parks Highway heads north between the Talkeetna Range and the Alaska Range. Denali (Mr. McKinnley) was off to our left, but was obscured by cloud cover. I took my turn behind the wheel. The town (tourist trap) of Denali was shuttered for the winter. The town of Healy overcharged us for gas. Mostly, it was like any road trip and we were happy to finally get to F-banks (other names: Bearflanks, Squarebanks, etc.).
We finally met up with the rest of our group at our place for the night. Liz had gone above and beyond and secured us all a B&B for the night. We had the whole place to ourselves. After a brief catch-up session and scattered planning, the group split up again along varying lines of fun. Some headed to a local bar. Others (me included) headed for the Athabascan Fiddle Festival that was going on. The Festival was lively and it was really interesting to see the native population gather. The music was good to fair, but the energy was great and the dancing was fun. We had to leave too quickly.
Dinner was at a Thai restaurant which had surprisingly good food. Many in our group thought that it was the best Thai food they had eaten in the state.
Our evening plans were in a constant state of flux: some wanted to head to a coffee shop for some live music, some wanted to go back to the fiddle festival and some wanted to drive out to a bar outside town for a blues show. I opted to head with the large group heading out to see more shows. We first checked out the show at the coffee shop which turned out to be a benefit to help battered women in Africa. We listened to the music for a bit, but gravitated into the "kids" room and played Uno for a while. After a few rounds we headed out.Our next stop was a bar out in Ester, a town about 10 minutes south on the Parks Highway. The Blue Loon is a large barn-like structure with multiple levels and a pretty good sized stage. We negotiated them down on the price of the cover because we had missed the first half of the show. Sometimes it's good to travel as a pack of lawyers (with assorted doctors, reporters, engineers and mathematicians thrown in).
The headliner (guitar and vocals) was brought in from Chicago and he was pretty good. Apparently his luggage was lost, so he was wearing borrowed clothes. But the show was fun. Once our whole group was in we took over the dance floor. During the finale, the lead performer came down off the stage and danced in the crowd while playing his guitar. He singled out Liz for some serious dancing.
Our drive home was slow and safe. Everyone slept well.
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Sunday
Our goal was to get to Chena Hotsprings for some soaking with some skiing thrown in. We made a slow start and stopped at the Fairbanks Fred Meyer's to pick up food, beer and some snow toys. That store was HUGE. It looked about the size of two regular Costcos. The Clash's "Lost in the Supermarket" could have been written about this store.
We met up with our friends at a trailhead on the road out to Chena. Some headed off to cross country ski the trails. I teamed up with Brendan, Justin and Lila to try our luck with some sledding. We picked a likely looking spot and jumped on the inflated tubes that Justin had bought. We chose poorly. Our sledding location was actually a rock quarry with not quite enough snow cover to make it worthwhile. The tubes were punctured. We had a bit more luck with the board that Justin had bought. It was like a snowboard with no bindings. You just held onto a leash and hoped you didn't hit any rocks. We hit rocks. Lots. It made for some comical and (often) not too painful falls. All of us ended up with some good bruises though. Callie stopped by to say hi and ended up taking, what we all agreed to be, the most spectacular fall of the afternoon.
The sledding was given up as a bad job and we headed for the trails for a hike in the snow. We met up with our skiing friends and set off along the Chena river. It was beautiful. The river was partially frozen and the skies were clear. Lea and I pushed on a bit further when others turned back and found some really beautiful spots to check out. After the hike we headed for the hotsprings. Chena Hotsprings (http://www.chenahotsprings.com/) is a resort with a nice set of hotsprings. It's a bit built up, but a fun place to head with friends. We checked into our rooms. Some headed for the restaurant for a quick bite, but I headed straight for the water with Lea, Callie, Brendan and Ron. The outside pool was the highlight. It's surrounded by large, snow covered boulders. The pool itself is about 50 yards long by 20 yards wide. Temperature varies from pleasantly warm to downright hot. By contrast, the air was well below freezing. Our hair all froze in interesting shapes.
Our initial soak was wonderful. We repaired to the hotel room for a quick change and headed to the restaurant for food. The meal was passable, the service was unique (our waitress seemed to lack a sense of humor, which clashed with our silly mood -- although Brendan did eventually get her to crack a smile), and the people around us seemed to be less than appreciative of our boisterous mood.
Eventually our whole party ended up in the restaurant and we admired Lila's ability to dangle a spoon from her nose and Brendan and Lara amazed us with their dish washing skills.After dinner entertainment consisted of a game of celebrity in our hotel room (12 or so folks in a hotel room for a game - don't worry, we had more rooms for sleeping). After we were good and relaxed we headed back to the pool for a late-night soak.
The pool was lit by several colored lights, but it was still pretty dark. We were able to enjoy the stars and sit in first the large pool and then a tub on the deck. At the end, most of the group gravitated to a large rock in the middle of the pool. They looked like beached sea lions all pressed up against the cool rock. Lea's efforts to organize a handstand contest went unappreciated. I'm not sure what the lure of the rock was, but it's siren song held our friends in its thrall.
On the way back to the hotel room, it was really cold. We later found out that it was -13. Brendan's shorts froze solid on the short walk.
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Monday
Monday morning was the start of our drive back to Anchorage. We hit the main building for coffee and ran into a group of lobbyists entertaining some AK legislators. Our drive out to Fairbanks was fueld by a leftover cinnamon roll from The Roadhouse in Talkeetna The roll was frozen solid and we had to use the car's heater to defrost it. But it still tasted fantastic.
Breakfast was at a small diner in F-banks and it was... passable. Nothing special. Although the booth we sat in, with fake red leather, a tippy table and the sort of tacky brick-a-brack on the walls that places like Applebees try to emulate was pretty awesome.
The day was pretty bleak with low clouds and swirling winds. Our first stop was at "Skinny Dick's Halfway Inn." (http://www.skinnydicksak.com/) This bar and gift shop is a riot of dirty jokes (see the title) and shocking games. Literally, many of the games would shock you. Like the game where you and a friend each hold paddles that give you escalating electric shocks and the first to let go wins. I lost, Lea won. Oh well. Maybe I'm just smarter and don't want to put up with the pain (rationalization complete).The drive itself was uneventful for many hours.
The monatony was broken when we stopped at a pullout near Denali State Park. A sand pile had been left there that was at least 35 feet high and covered with a foot and a half of fresh powder. At Lea's urging, we climbed to the top and sledded down on the snow board. We spent about 15 minutes taking runs down the pile.
We stopped for dinner in Wasilla at a burrito place. It was surprisingly good food.
All in all we had a long and fun weekend. For the number of people we had along on the trip, it seemed like people got along well and the organization seemed to come off with little to no hitches.
