Anchorage

This is the plane that we flew out on. Everybody was making a big deal about getting to ride the Disneyland "make a wish" plane. I didnt think it was that big of a deal, but....here it is. I was just thankful for being able to get out of Bethel for a few days. We didnt really do a whole lot on the first night in Anchorage. We had dinner at a restaurant downtown called Humpy's. Something I never thought i'd miss...sitting at a restaurant having wings and a beer. At the restaurant, Avery was being his usual antsy self and the table we were sitting at had stools. When he went to switch from one stool to another...he missed. Avery fell off the stool and the plate he was holding on to went flying through the air. It came crashing down and broke into a million pieces. Classic Avery. We got a real good laugh out of it anyway.For Thanksgiving dinner, we had reservations at a fancy hotel for their Thanksgiving buffet. It was good. They had all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods, but my favorite item was baked salmon with cranberry sauce on top. Yum! This ice sculpture was outside the main entrance oft he hotel. Chandra and I went out on Thanksgiving night and had a great time. Kassia....have I got a story to beat Madison...call me!
After dinner, we went for a drive. We were hoping to spot some moose and ended up taking a drive through the foothills of the mountains. It was all very beautiful. Some of the houses were on very steep roads. It reminded me of the year I spent Christmas in the mountains of Washington State. It is amazing that people can live on a road that steep. Our rental car was definitely not cut out for it.
On Friday we went shopping. This is a picture of the chocolate fountain at Alaska Wild Berry Products. I guess it is the largest chocolate fountain in America (maybe the world?). It actually looked really gross! Avery thought it was pretty cool though. We were able to get all of our Christmas shopping done. I have a link on the right if you want to check out the store. They make their own chocolates and sell all kinds of Alaska stuff.
On Saturday, we went to get hair cuts and tried to find a store to buy Avery a Packer jersey for his birthday. When we were trying to find this mall, we drove a ways out on the highway and got really close up to the Mountains to the east of the city. I think they are the Chugach Mountains (but i could be wrong). Either way...they were beautiful. We had lunch at this dinner theater place where we watched the Simpsons movie while we ate. It was pretty fun.

Our big plans were to go skiing. It was going to be Avery's BDAY present, but it was warm (in the 40's) and raining most of the time we were there so the ski resorts were all closed. We were kind of bummed because we didnt get to go skiing, but that's ok. maybe next time. I was actually very surprised that there was relatively little to do in a city the size of Anchorage. Anchorage is a little bigger than Fort Wayne at about 350,000 people (more than half of the entire states population). Most of the things that there are to do are out in nature and the weather really wasn't cooperating. Not to mention it was the holiday, so many places were closed. Just to get out and eat at some restaurants and listen to some new music on the radio was a treat.

Things have been crazy busy since we've been back. Just getting back in the groove of things is hard an those four days went too fast. The robotics tournament is on Monday so my robotics team has been practicing everyday this week. I'll post more on that after the tourny. Avery has his last wrestling tournament this weekend. No more wrestling practice, but i dont know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Wrestling helps burn off some of his energy, but it also takes up sooooo much of his time. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and that you are all very thankful for what you have. I know I am. Living here has given me a greater appreciation of the little things.