Thursday 8/8 we got up early and took the bus (about an hour) to Talkeetna where we would be getting on the train. We found this little restaurant called the Roadhouse Café that supposedly had pretty good breakfast. It wasn’t just “pretty good”, it was probably the best breakfast food we had out of the whole trip! Every plate was hot and fresh with giant portions. We got all sorts of eggs, potatoes, bacon/sausage, blueberry pancakes, cinnamon rolls, etc. It was practically a feast! Click the pic to check out their website!
Friday 8/9 my siblings and I slept in while my parents went for a short hike (only 1 – 2 hours) and then we headed out for our final “excursion”… ATV’s! Only Ryan and Joe had ever driven ATV’s before and my mom had been on one once but she wasn’t driving. We were all pretty excited about them! I was pretty nervous at first (you know I’m a big chicken!) so we were going pretty slowly, lol. But after the first little bit I got a lot more comfortable and it was fun zipping along over bumps and dips and rocks. We checked out a huge glacial deposit (where the glacier drops rocks and sand that it picked up as it moved) which was really neat. We also finally saw some wildlife – a moose! I was going to put pics of the moose and ATV's but now i can't find them...hmmm...must be on someone else's camera, LOL.
We had to go straight to the train depot after ATV’s but it was kind of nice because we were tired from the afternoon’s excitement. We had another pleasant 4 hour train ride with dinner on the train but we still didn’t see any animals from the train. The train does move slow enough that you could see animals if they were there (and not hiding) but maybe it wasn’t the right time of day or year or they get scared by the noise of the train. That night, we stayed in our final destination: the Bear Lodge in Fairbanks. It was pretty late when we got to the lodge so we went straight to bed (well we watched some tv first, lol).
In case you missed it, here are the rest of the Alaskan vacation blog posts:
Part 1: Vancouver & Embarkation
Part 2: Ketchikan & Juneau
Part 3: Skagway & Scenic Cruising
Part 4: Denali National Park
Finale: Fairbanks & Going Home