the birthday girl arrived in ak

rachel and I got all our gear sorted and packed Thursday evening, then hit another brewery for pizza and beer (mooses tooth) while waiting for heather to arrive. we picked heather up at the airport around 11:30pm, and our traveling crew was finally complete! :) 

blast from the past

met up with an old friend from elementary school in anchorage, lisa mills. haven't seen her in 20+ years since high school. it was really cool to do the hour+ recap of life in the last 20 years. lisa is still super down to earth, and was super excited to give us some tips and loan us bear spray for our adventures. 

 I'm not a huge Facebook user, but I am thankful that it allows us done of these long lost connections. nice to see a familiar face in far away places. :)

day 1 day hike

the morning of our second day, we took care of all our errands renting gear and grocery shopping for our backpacking trip, then decided to do a little hike in the anchorage area. 

we headed to the south corner of anchorage and up to flat top mountain lookout. we thought it was a 2-mile loop... but turns out it was 3 miles each way to the peak. we had lunch and plenty if water in our packs, so hiked up. good little training hike for us, and beautiful lookout 360° around anchorage from the top. :) 

bird point bore wave

making our way back along the turnagain arm, we pulled out at bird point to snap a few pics. the tide was super low, and the inlet was practically drained. 

there were a bunch of people hanging at the scenic point. at first we couldn't figure out why, and it was awkwardly quiet. on the way back to the car, we read a plaque, and realized that everyone was collected waiting for a bore wave to pass the point. the few days around the full moon, the tide changes are so drastic in the arm, that a standing wave travels up the arm as the tide changes, and we just happened to be there at the exact time if month and day. some waves can be up to 6'+... but this one was probation only about 1'. still pretty cool to see! I'll have to post pics from my camera with the zoom lense when I get home. 

glaciers!

after Whittier, we wandered out around the portage glacier loop and stopped to walk out to Byron glacier (1 mile stroll). it was unbelievable how sunny and warm it was out. 

after the glacier, we continued back in the direction of anchorage, and took a little side road up to girwood (at the base if the ski mountain) for lunch at chair 5. yummy beer and pub food.