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Puppies!
Healy, AK |
Healy, AK
We took it easy this morning and didn’t rush. We used our handy Yelp app and decided to try out The Crepery for brunch before we started towards Denali, which would be our next stop. Well, more specifically Healy, Alaska – population 1,021.
The Crepery was ranked #1 of places to eat in Fairbanks. I took a video of our crepes being made and she even offered for me to take the next turn but I declined. I hate to take someone’s paycheck from them! I had ham and gouda… LJ opted for strawberry cheesecake! All of the “adults” had coffee and I had something much more fun! Hot chocolate! Be sure and check out the pic – it was delish!
We walked around a little and window shopped and enjoyed looking at some local art. I love the way stores are just so matter of fact in their reasoning.
Then we headed back to the hotel to load up for our next adventure. We stayed at the Bridgewater Hotel in Fairbanks. It’s an older hotel, the shower was VERY small and definitely dated but the room was clean and we were exhausted so it worked well for us. Funny how since we had checked in yesterday unloading from our muddy car and in our muddy clothes there was a new sign on the hotel door. Do you think it was meant for “people like us”?
We only had a couple of hours to trek today, which was nothing for us road warriors, so we also stopped by the University of Fairbanks to visit their gift shop and look at the campus. The scholars of the group always like to check out local colleges and universities, you never know where your next job might lead you! As we drove through Fairbanks we were surprised by the number and variety of places serving Thai food, including this “food truck”!
After leaving Fairbanks, we were off to check into our hotel, the Denali Park Hotel, grab some dinner and prepare for our big evening event… PUPPIES!!!
We were staying close to Denali National Park and made a stop at one of the overlooks to see if we might see “her” aka Mount McKinley but no luck today. We headed on to the hotel and checked in. The “hotel lobby” is an old train car and is so cool!
We visited another brewery for lunch / dinner tonight. It was called the 49th State Brewery and we enjoyed it a lot. The entire property was full of character, including the “Into the Wild” bus from the movie being in the garden and LJ went onboard and viewed some of the memorabilia. Our food was delicious and we got enough energy to get ready for our evening adventure.
Tonight’s plan was to explore more about the 1,049-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and the dogs that train to be part of a team. We decided to do a tour at the Husky Homestead, home of Jeff King, who has won the race four times. We were picked up at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and transported by bus to the Husky Homestead. We were greeted with… puppies! They gave us lots of information about the dogs and their training during an outdoor presentation, then they hooked up some of the dogs to show us how excited the dogs get when getting ready to run and then Jeff did another presentation inside regarding the race, his equipment, clothing and the rigorous training for the race. What an amazing way to learn more about this iconic race and Jeff King was a wonderful host. His team is incredible and you can see their passion for the dogs and for their work.
Tomorrow we’ll try to see the mountain again, make the trip back to Anchorage and say goodbye to Sara and Melora and we’ll pick up rental car #3 and make our way to Whittier, Alaska to kick off our second week!
LJ and Bev 