AK Trip--Day 1, Anchorage to Homer Road Trip

Hello all, and welcome back for Iditarod 2007. Here's some photos from our first day in AK . Dad and I flew into Anchorage Friday evening, and stayed at the Lakeshore Inn near Lake Spenard. I started my day with a brisk walk in the sun to "Rent-A-Wreck" to pick up our rental vehicle. A nice tall coffee kept me warm for the hike in the 12 degree weather. After about a 40-minute walk, I drove the Ford Explorer (hardly a "wreck," not a bad way to go if you need a cheap car rental) back to the hotel room, Dad and I loaded up, and hit the road (Highway 1 South) towards Homer.

Along the way, we stopped at several places on the Turnagain Arm (a part of the Cook Inlet) to watch the ice flows move.

As you can see, we had some great weather. For lunch, we stopped in Girdwood, home of the Alyeska ski resort, for lunch at the "Chair 5" restaurant. I had one of the better IPAs I've ever had from Glacier Brewing (Anchorage), and a great spinach salad, nicely balancing out my "good" and "bad" vacation calories. Here is a pic of the slope:

Following lunch, we continued on our road trip south through Cooper Landing, Ninilchik, Soldotna and Anchor Point along our way to Homer. Around sundown, I was able to snap a nice closeup of the volcano, Mt. Iliamna, off the coast to the west:

After reaching Aunt Bonnie's cabin in Homer, Dad and I checked out the new look for his cabin in Homer...he's had a local carpenter and his crew do quite a few internal improvements since last year's visit. Here's what the new kitchen area looks like...quite cozy!

Today's activities are forthcoming...we shall do some shopping for cabin stuff, some hiking/geocaching, and of course, we'll be keeping track of the Iditarod (and hopefully drinking some more great beer). The race restart in Willow took place this morning, so the teams are finally on the move. Our man Martin started with Bib#19, and had a team of happy looking dogs out of the chute. More soon!