We are back in Anchorage and at the library, in the middle of our loop of usual Anchorage stops (Chevron for water fill/dump, Fred Meyers for groceries, rec center for a workout and shower, Cabela’s to sleep, WooHoo! for ice cream, airport to watch planes). Since my last post we’ve primarily been busy with guests, including my parents and our good friends from Portland, Abe and Alison. Given the healthy mix of rain in the weather we’ve had this summer, I’ll admit I was nervous for both their visits, concerned we’d be scrambling to find activities to do in a downpour. Fortunately, we got incredibly lucky, with plenty of good weather sprinkled into both their visits, and only a little rain. We took them both on our ‘highlights’ trip, primarily repeating our favorite hikes, restaurant stops, and scenic stops. We also did a few new activities with each of them, the Alaska State Fair with my parents and Russian River Falls hike with Abe and Alison. David especially likes playing tour guide and we preferred to go to places we knew our guests would enjoy instead of risk a new spot. Years ago we brainstormed a tour guide business where we’d tow guests in an RV behind our van, and our visitors this summer have made me revisit the idea! We love seeing others get excited by a view on a hike or new experience and ‘entertaining’ in the van (we wouldn’t have thought we could have a pancake breakfast for four so comfortably inside!). Here are a bunch of photos from our time with visitors.

The main other activities from the last couple weeks include a quick trip up to Talkeetna, an amazing backpacking trip to Rabbit Lakes with a hike up South Suicide Peak, and LOTS of berry picking and jam making. I’ll admit I’ve gotten a little obsessed with finding berries, especially given the small size of our fridge and freezer.

We are planning our next move and sadly starting to think about our route home, as we start our last month on the road. We still plan to go to Homer and would like to return to Denali to see the fall colors. We haven’t decided whether to fly, drive, or ferry home, but plan to be back in Oregon in early October. As a final note, the article we wrote for The Adventure Portal on our time in Kennicott and McCarthy was published and is available to read here.