goodbye, alaska

We docked in Seward, AK early on the last day of our vacation. Getting off the ship was easy enough, and we caught a shuttle to the local Hertz office so we could rent a car. From there, we picked up a snack at Subway, and then drove 2.5 hours to Anchorage. The drive from Seward to Anchorage is the most scenic drive I've ever taken anywhere in the world. We drove by mountains and lakes, over rivers, through valleys and around a fjord. The scenery was truly amazing.

















We noticed right away that Anchorage was different from all the other towns in AK that we had visited. It was much bigger. There were cars everywhere, and driving in town felt like driving in any other major US city, with freeways and exits and such. Right after we got off the freeway, I got the distinct impression that Anchorage would be a pretty decent place to live:



We got lunch at Burger King, and then spent some time in BBY. After that, we wandered around the local mall for a while, and then ended up going to the movies to see "The Proposal", as we couldn't think of anything better to do. After that, we wandered around the mall a bit more, and then drove around town a bit before stopping at the Sourdough Mining Co., a local restaurant that was recommended to Becca by some friends of hers who hail from Anchorage. The food was OK, but nothing truly special. In retrospect, it probably was not a good idea to have a big dinner right before getting on the plane. Anyway, there was nothing left to do after dinner, so we drove to the airport and hung out until our plane took off at 11:45pm. We got home close to 6am the following morning, and thus ended our vacation.

Alaska was awesome. I had always wanted to go, and what I saw totally exceeded my expectations. We saw a lot, but there's a lot of Alaska that we didn't see and would like to see, like Denali National Park. We'll definitely go back.