Howdy everyone! I know I’ve been slow in providing updates, I’m sorry. It’s been a whirlwind of visitors which is great. We dropped my sister Laura off at the airport and literally drove around the airport to the arriving level and picked up our friend Bill. We coordinated the departure and arrival flights to make the driving back and forth to Anchorage as efficient as possible. Timing worked out great.
We moved back to the Portage Valley area on Laura’s last day, and we stayed there all during Bill’s visit and Samantha’s visit (post on Samantha’s visit coming soon!) We really enjoy the Portage area, it’s beautiful and there’s lots of good hiking near by, not to mention the great Alpine Bakery and the ice cream store in Girdwood I told you about before! Girdwood is only about 12 miles from the Portage Valley RV park we stayed in.
We had rain for the first 3 days of Bill’s visit…we drove to Seward one day and found sunshine! We hiked Mt. Marathon again that day, we really enjoyed doing that hike again, it is so beautiful there. We then had a couple of nicer days in Portage and hiked Portage Pass again. These two hikes are some of our favorites anywhere so far. It was so nice to be able to share them with Bill – I think we have become a little immune to the beauty that surrounds us, until we share it with someone like Bill who is experiencing it for the first time. It helps us remember how spectacular our surroundings are and to not take this experience for granted!
Steve and Bill found a gym in Anchorage and went to work out a couple of times. I know Steve was glad to have his work out buddy again! We ate tons of great seafood and the guys took advantage of the sauna at the RV park too. It’s a really cool sauna, rustic and heated by a wood fired stove. It smells great inside and feels fantastic after a long hike.
We rented a tent campsite right by our RV for Samantha and her friends – Bill helped Steve set up the tent which was a much longer process than expected – they said something about the instructions not being very good….but I suspect it may have been the blind leading the blind…. 🙂
Good friend, good food and good hiking….what more can we ask for? Thanks Bill for making the time and effort to come out to visit – we loved having you!
