Northern Trails And Tales

Faithful Readers:  I’m sure you all anticipated the blog slow down once Charmi joined us in Anchorage.  In part, this was due to our separation of six weeks and the need to catch up on the latest doings back home.  Beyond that, Dave and I needed to do some real sightseeing so Charmi would think we were getting our money’s worth and not just collapsing at the end of each day’s travels.  But ultimately, all of you who know me well, have already figured I was wining and dining her at Anchorage’s finest establishments.  And so it was.  On Friday, after wonderful tours of the Federal Land Administration Building (scintillating) and the Museum of History and Art (not bad either), Charmi chose an attractive reindeer hot sausage wagon as THE place to eat.  While time doesn’t permit a full review here, and Charmi iniitially indicated she’d like to eat at a fancy crab restaurant, the Chowder House, that looked a bit expensive to me since they had painted the place in the last ten years, I’d still like to cover this delightful lunch in a some detail The lunch wagon was operated by a lovely young women, who served as maitre-d’, chef, waitress, and  cashier.  The wagon itself was largely stainless steel and looked as if it had been cleaned recently.  The reindeer sausages came in either regular or hot.  This limited menu allowed the delightful young lady to concentrate on doing just a few things well.  Unfortunately, this delectable delight was served on “just plain old buns,” as Charmi described them.  A full complement of condiments was avalable and, at no extra charge, you could get some chunks of hot pepper with the sausage,  so I did.  Therefore, I cannot tell you how the reindeer sausage tasted.  On the side, I had  Dorito’s, in a new red bag (small) which were as crunchy and delectable as back in the States.  To get the pepper burn out of my mouth/throat/esophogus/stomach, I had a classic Coke.  While seating was available on the curb, or on the patio of the Chowder House, we chose to eat in the truck with background music from one of the local evangelical churches on Dave’s 8-speaker Dolby system, but it was unfortunately tuned to AM with lots of static caused, I assume, by the church steeples.  I thoroughly enjoyed the repast and would have had dessert if the meter hadn’t run out.  I didn’t really mean to toss the wrappers on the sidewalkand the cop probably never would have noticed had one of the coke cans not clanged off some old guy’s wheel chair.  That little faux pas cost me $200.00 for littering bringing the meal total to $206.25.  Under the circumstances, I didn’t leave a tip.  There were no court costs….  We put Anchorage in the rearviews the next morning and have been in Seward the past four days.  Since it rains here every day they have no weather bureau.  We did hike to Exit Glacier on Sunday, and this proved fairly interesting, but the best of the best here in Seward was a marine cruise we took yesterday highlighted by a gastronomic belly-buster called an all-you-can-eat salmon and prime rib buffet.   Surprisingly, it was quite good.  I am also happy to report that I did not fall off the ship, in part because the cruise was significantly altered due to fog— which also made viewing any sea lfe more than two feet outside the portholes very difficult.  Anyhow, again this evening we headed out on the town, this time to the Crab Pot Restaurant, which has prices like Ruth’s Chris but serves stuff hauled out of the harbor by the ton just a few blocks away.  After I get rid of this indigestion I’ll tell you how much fun I had picking the exoskeleton out of my king crab….  Till then….