July 3 - Wasilla and Arriving in Talkeetna

We slept in a little this morning. We were impressed with  Comfort Suites Anchorage Airport. The hotel seemed new and had a cute lounge. They also offer free breakfast. We decided to hit the road and try some of the local fare. That didn't work. Turn out most of the restaurants were closed for the fourth of July holiday. The Alaskan seem to enjoy getting espresso from the shack in a parking lot. Who are we to argue? We got lattes for the road and head for Wasilla.

We read about Abby's Home Cooking on Yelp so we headed there. It's a cute restaurant in a gas station. They really mean home cooking. 

When you order hash browns, Abby goes and shreds the potatoes herself from scratch. We had a couple orders of biscuits and gravy and they were delicious. We had to try the reindeer sausage. It tasted like smoked sausage with a little bit of gamey aftertaste. Service was good but slow. Again, everything is made from scratch when you order.

We went to the Iditarod Trail headquarters to learn more about this famous race. We took a sled ride pulled by a team of dogs. 

Then we had a great conversation with one of the dog handlers. It was really interesting to hear about all of the strategy that goes into the race. I had assumed that each musher had a pit crew. We found out that each musher has to pack everything with them. They can ship ahead packages to meet them at checkpoints. They are solely responsible for themselves and the care of their dogs during the race. Veterinarians check in on the dogs at each checkpoint. Each year the race evolves. One of the big evolutions in the last couple years was a musher decided to pull a trailer so that he could rest dogs and then rotate them in.

Ended our time in Wasilla with a trip to the Last Frontier brewery. 

We were impressed with the beers. Our favorites were a dark lager, the wheat and a pale ale.

Our drive to Talkeetna was easy. We stopped at Cubby's  Marketplace to pick up some food. We were surprised at now limited the grocery store was. We checked into the Little Cabin in the Woods at Denali  fireside cabins. It's a private cabin set back in a neighborhood.It's really cute and quiet.

Downtown Talkeetna is a nice short strip of gift shops and restauarants. We had dinner at West Rib Cafe. The chili cheese fries were aweskme. The Caribou chili had a smoky flavor. Glenn had a very good burger. My Halibut sandwich was not good. West Rib has an exclusive beer from Glacier Brew house - Ice Axe Ale. It's 9% and dangerously good. We also tried beers at Denali Brewing Company. The town had live music at the city park. The weather today was unbelievable - sunny and 70s. We ended the day on our deck back at the cabin.