Today is our first day overseas on this trip! After heading to our hotel, we promptly took a long nap. (I like to think of it as our first siesta.) After waking up, we took a Rick Steves self-guided walking tour of the area around Puerta del Sol, stopping to pick up some pastries that he recommended along the way.

After the walk, we had tapas and beers at several tapas places near the Prado before heading back to the hotel to go to sleep. Tomorrow, we hope to see the National Palace and the Prado Museum.

After packing up our bags, we walked around downtown to find some Chicago hot dogs and Chicago mix popcorn for lunch. We got a bit lost and departed for the airport about a half hour later than expected. Luckily, our flight was delayed for about an hour, so we didn’t miss our flight and had ample time to relax in the airport lounge prior to departure.

For brunch, we ate at The Purple Pig, one of the top rated restaurants near our hotel according to Yelp. The bone marrow smear was particularly fatty and delicious. After eating, we rushed down to Navy Pier to catch a show, Cirque Shanghai. The show involved feats of acrobatics performed by people possibly from Shanghai and was surprisingly entertaining.

After resting a while at the hotel, we headed to Morton’s Steakhouse for happy hour bar bites and cocktails. Tomorrow, we are taking the red eye to Madrid!

Coincidentally, Belinda and Joe were also in Chicago today. We met up with them for lunch at Seven on State, the slightly upscale food court in Macys. Afterward, we walked around Millennium Park. Valerie and I had already seen the “bean” (not its official name) before, so we focused our attention on the “face fountain” (also not its official name), a pair of pillars that display pictures of faces which “spit” water at children who are playing near the fountain. We picked up some beverages from a nearby coffee shop and headed at a comic book store. Belinda purchased several graphic novels, which Valerie and I hope to read when we return to the Bay Area.

We eventually split up from Belinda and Joe and went to Lou Malnati’s for some delicious deep dish pizza. They were able to make a pie with no cheese on half of it so Valerie could eat it too. For dessert, I had a cookie pizza, also delicious.

Tomorrow, we’re going to try to eat some more yummy Chicago food and see a show.

Valerie and I are off on another exciting globetrotting adventure… is probably what I would say if I liked to travel. We’ve begun our long journey to the east! Our first stop is Chicago where we’ll be staying for the next three days. Our flight pulled into the gate around 8:40pm, about half an hour behind schedule. While I didn’t mind the delay, I fear that many of our fellow passengers missed their connecting flights because of it.

We’re staying at the Swissotel in downtown Chicago. It’s about a half mile slightly uphill walk from the Loop. By the time we made it to the hotel, most of the restaurants nearby were closed, so we walked to Bockwinkels, a nearby grocery store / deli and picked up some microwavable dinner and snacks for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Tomorrow, we will probably try to eat some delicious Chicago food at some fine eateries that do not require reservations (both because we don’t have any and because we don’t have any clothes fancy enough to eat at a place that does).

We’re back in Sunnyvale! We returned the rental car to Anchorage International Airport this morning and boarded a flight for Seattle/Tacoma International Airport. After a quick layover, we were on our way to San Jose. We took an Uber ride back to the apartment and are resting after our long journey from Iowa to Alaska.

Before leaving Girdwood, we headed to the Winner Creek Trail near Crow Creek Mine. Part of this trail consists of a hand tram across a river. Valerie was excited to try the hand tram since we missed the one in Homer. Unlike the hand tram in “Out of the Wild”, this tram was very well maintained and looked quite safe. We took turns pulling ourselves across and then walked about a quarter mile to the Winner Creek Gorge before making the return trip.

On our way out of town, we stopped by Indian Valley Meats, a shop famous for their caribou sausages. We ate some of the spicy caribou sausage for lunch before heading to Anchorage. We have been avoiding staying in Anchorage for the past few weeks because hotel prices in the city are much higher than pretty much higher than anywhere else we’ve been in Alaska. However, since our flight leaves at 07:00 tomorrow morning, there was little choice for our final night.

Tonight, we’re staying at the Anchorage Walkabout Town B&B. This B&B has bikes available for free checkout, so we took a ride along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. After our ride, we were hungry so we drove to the nearby Bear Tooth TheatrePub and Grill, which as its name suggests, is a theatre and a pub and a grill. Sadly, we had no time for a movie and only were able to experience the grill portion.

The families from Wasilla that we met yesterday suggested that we visit Hatcher Pass and the old Independence Mine. Much of Hatcher Pass was still closed for the winter, but we were able to drive up from Palmer to the mine. Along the way, we saw signs indicating that recreational gold mining was allowed. Intrigued, we stopped at a pullout and walked down to the stream and picked out some golden flakes that we thought might be gold dust. Once at the mine, we learned that what we had collected was actually biotite. Valerie was excited to look for more gold, so we borrowed some rudimentary panning equipment from the Alaska State Parks rangers and went down to another stream. We failed to find any gold, but had fun trying.

Because the hostel in Girdwood was full last time we visited, we decided to head back to Girdwood to try our luck again. Along the way, we stopped at several turnouts along Turnagain Arm on the Seward Highway. At Bird Point, a sign noted that a bore tide was going to occur just about an hour after we arrived. Valerie was excited, so we stayed to watch. The bore tide was a relatively small wave and relatively boring. However, up on the nearby hill, some people spotted a grizzly bear that had killed a cub and several bears fighting for the carcass. While we couldn’t see anything without binoculars, other tourists gave us a blow-by-blow of the events on the hill.

We’re staying at the Glacier View B&B in Girdwood. The owner recommended a restaurant called Jack Sprat for dinner where Valerie ordered some king salmon that was cooked perfectly.

Originally, we planned to stay 2 nights in Talkeetna before heading back to Anchorage. However, Valerie’s research suggested that there isn’t enough stuff to do in Talkeetna to fill two days, so we amended our plans to just stop by the town for lunch. We ate some delicious pasties at the Talkeetna Roadhouse where we met two families from Wasilla who drove all the way over just for the pie. After lunch, we weren’t quite ready for pie, so we hiked a few minutes along the Talkeetna River and then to the remains of an old barn in town. I’m not sure why there was a historical trail to the barn remains, but the hike was a nice way to pass the time. Afterward, we stopped by Naglee’s General Store to see feline mayor Mr. Stubbs, but he was nowhere to be seen. To cheer ourselves up, we headed back for some tasty pie at the Roadhouse. On our way out of town, we stopped by the Flying Squirrel Bakery and bought some cookies and a vegan brownie (all of which was delicious).

Tonight, we’re staying at the same cabin in the same B&B in Wasilla and luckily had much more success lighting the wood stove than last time.

This morning, we stopped by Denali Visitor Center to watch the video (which isn’t that great) and view the exhibits. Afterward, we ate an early lunch at the nearby cafeteria and headed to the Murie Science Center for a ranger talk. Unfortunately, there was no ranger talk today. Instead, they showed a video about raptors (the birds, not the dinosaurs) that was interesting, but not interesting enough for us to stay 50 minutes to watch it.

A Wilderness Access Center (WAC) employee recommended the Horseshoe Lake trail to us because it is short and easy. We walked along it to its terminus near the lake, stopping briefly to admire a moose near the trail. The lake was pretty, but nothing spectacular. Since the hike was so short, we had time to drive to the Park Headquarters for a demonstration of dog sleds. The dogs were cute and friendly and seemed very excited to take part in the demonstration in which they pulled a sled around a short gravel road (very similar to the Iditarod demonstration). Afterward, we took another short hike along the Meadow View trail.

Since we failed yesterday, we headed back to 49th State Brewery. Valerie got the all-you-can-eat roasted pig (only offered on Fridays).

Tomorrow, we’re planning to head to Talkeetna, but we’re not sure what we’ll do there.