The Four of Us: Alaska Day 1

Greg and I were really lucky to get the opportunity to go to Alaska with my family. Any time I would ask Greg where his dream vacation would be without hesitation he says Alaska. He is always hot and a tropical vacation to him would just be torture. Not to mention the fishing opportunities.

Another reason we were able to go is because my mom watched our kids while we were there. So thank you so much to everyone that made it possible for us to go! Greg can cross Alaska off his bucket list now, although he is determined to go there again, he didn't want to leave.

I am doing each day we were in Alaska in a different post because I took a ton of photos and we did so much it's not going to fit in one post. So be warned now there is will be a lot of post and pictures but the trip deserves it.

On the fifth we flew out of Salt Lake City with everyone, 2 of my aunts and uncles, my grandparents, 2 cousins and my brother Hunter. In total there was a group of 11 of us. We flew into Anchorage and got there about 2 local time. The plane ride over was pretty easy. It was a direct flight into Anchorage. Greg and I watched the in-flight movie and we also rented a movie on my kindle that we watched. The flight was only about 4 hours.

When we arrived we were super excited to go out and see Alaska. My uncle rented a large van and a RV for our trip, so we took a shuttle to the location of the rental place. The weather was a little bit cold. I think it was 55ish. Alaska was beautiful - large mountains with snow still on them and really green.

(Our first picture together in Alaska)

(At the car rental place, a view of the mountains.)

(Beautiful cloudy sky.)

(Excited and waiting to start the adventure.)

(Our RV for the next week.)

(My Aunt July & Mike, Hunter, Greg & I's home away from home for the next week.)

After getting the vehicles we headed to get something to eat. We found a restaurant in downtown Anchorage called Phyllis's Cafe & Salmon Bake. It was a great spot for our first meal in Alaska because they had a nice selection of Alaskan food - reindeer & buffalo burgers, halibut fish and ships, baked salmon, crab and many other great options of the kinds of food I expected in Alaska. I got the fish of the day (cod) fish and chips with a cup of clam chowder. Greg got the halibut fish and chips. Both of us thought it was really good. The fries were beer battered and fabulous. My cousin Jaron got the all you can eat snow crab and shared some with Greg, I got to try a bit and thought it was pretty good (not a huge crab fan). I was glad Greg liked it because he is always saying he'll only eat fresh crab that he catches from the OR coast. For dessert Greg and I shared this enormous piece of chocolate cake and it was so good.

(LOL Greg was super excited I made him take a picture with our placemates, but it said Alaska on it and I wanted it as proof we were there.)

(Jaron and Hunter)

(Cade trying his reindeer burger)

(My grandma and grandpa)

(My Aunt Julie & Uncle Mike)

(My Uncle Kirk & Aunt Blenda)

(Jaron digging into the crab)

(The delicious chocolate cake)

(That's a lot of crab plates)

(When we walked out of the restaurant we saw this car and I thought it was funny we were all the way in Alaska and one of the first things we see is a car with BSU stickers on it)

After dinner we found our hotel. It was in downtown Anchorage so once we were settled and had all our stuff in our room Greg, my brother and I decided to head out and explore the town while everyone relaxed in their rooms after a day of traveling. We found a large mall. It looked small on the outside but when you walked in, it was pretty large with 3 1/2 stories and lots of shops. They even had a coach purse store ahhhh.....I had to check that out. We left the mall and found a few tourist shops but didn't want to purchase too much just yet since we still had the whole trip left.

(A wolf hat I tried on in one of the stores)

(I liked the danger men thinking sign)

(Some pretty bracelets I found in one of the shops)

It was getting later but it was still so light out that we couldn't go back to our rooms to sleep so we continued to walk around. I wanted to get a picture of the ocean and the fishing boats so we walked to the edge of town towards the ocean. We found a nice little trail and followed it. We found a tunnel that the train went over and we stayed under it until a train came by. We all expected it to be super loud but it wasn’t.

(Interesting truck we found on our walk, it actually had some pretty cool details)

(It's hard to see through the window but yes that is a woman & man's fur bra and underwear - the mans even had a tail but I couldn't get a picture of it.)

(the ocean)

(Greg and I by the ocean)

(It's hard to see but there were a million bugs on these rocks.)

(I thought this was a funny sign that had the sign in English and dog)

(some art work we saw along the way)

(LOVE)

(this was also really funny to me, they had bicyles you could rent out of this shipping container as well as GOURMET sausages & hot dogs.)

After walking around for a while we wanted to find a place to sit, relax and talk. We ended up at the Glacier Brewhouse. It was nice and we stayed there for a bit and I had another cup of clam chowder, it was totally different from the one I had earlier but was still really good. We left at about midnight and it was still light outside. That is something that I never really got used to. We wanted to stay up because it was light out but knew we should get some sleep so we headed back to the hotel.