We couldn't believe the cruise was over! We had booked this in May a year ago; it had finally come and gone. However, our trip wasn't over.
The cruise ended in Seward which Ryan had visited before on one of his trips. It was fun to have him show us around the town.
We started the gorgeous drive over to Anchorage and stopped first to hike up to the Byron Glacier.
We made it, and it's safe to say we were all excited to see snow!
Mia couldn't wait to start throwing snowballs...this may have led to a snowball fight!
We spent quite awhile here. Towards the end of our time, the girls carved out paths and started body-sledding down the hill. They loved it!
Some of us slid too, unintentionally...
After changing the girls' pants in the car (they were soaked from playing in the snow!), we had a quick bite for lunch and then headed to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. We saw all sorts of amazing Alaska wildlife here...moose, elk, wolf, porcupines, reindeer, lynx, owl, black bear cubs, deer, eagles, fox, and musk ox. It was a really cool experience.
We arrived in Anchorage and checked in to the Captain Cook Hotel. David and Jan were already there. We ate a good dinner together, and then found a fabulous sweet shop. So many delicious chocolates and fruit puree candies!
On Saturday, we spent most of the morning enjoying walking around Anchorage. With so much sunlight these days, the flowers were exploding!
We all had lunch together, and then it was time for David and Jan to head on to the airport. We were sad to see them go because this was such a wonderful vacation together. We spent the afternoon tootling around town, and then we were excited to meet Scott and Connie Kirby for dinner. Scott has been our ministry partner for several years, so we always love getting to hang out with him. We had a great time and a delicious dinner at 49th State Brewery.
On Sunday morning, the girls took a dip in the pool to get some energy out and then we packed up and headed to Glacier Brewhouse which is a favorite restaurant of ours in Anchorage; we remembered it from our first trip in 2010. About that time we got a notification that our Delta flight was delayed, so we had a whole afternoon of unexpected fun. We had time to visit a salmon hatchery which was interesting.
After that we actually had time to drive to Wasilla; it was a beautiful drive! We found a little park that was pretty crowded because it was such a wonderful weather day for them. The girls had fun playing on the playground there before we drove back to Anchorage.
We spent some time looking for moose around town (we didn't find any), and we went to several lookout spots for more fun playgrounds and nice scenic views.
This last collage is one Ryan made to show the highlights of our trip.
This really was a dream vacation for us. We made memories that will last a lifetime. We are so thankful for this opportunity!
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