Back in March my mom came up for a week soon after Caleb was born. She flew in the morning of the Iditarod start, so we headed downtown after we picked her up from the airport. (That is, Celia, Sabrina and Tom. Marel and Caleb stayed home since Caleb was only a few weeks old.) On the way there we stopped at Gwennie's for breakfast. It's one of the big tourist spots because it's very rustic and old-fashioned-Alaskan-style, where the servers all dress like they work in a prospector's saloon. But in the case of Gwennie's, "rustic" and "old-fashioned" translate to "dingy" and "outdated." They've got the whole stone and timber thing going for them, with the bears and the moose heads and all that, but the lights are this strange yellow color, which makes all the food look like something out of a 60's cookbook. Despite the light, the food is fine there. Not the best, but not bad.
After breakfast we went to the race. It was warm and sunny that day (warm being high 20's), quite comfortable compared to some of the other years we've been, so we were able to stay outside much longer than we might otherwise have done.
We always enjoy seeing the true Alaskans come out for the Iditarod, like this guy whose hat matches his dog.
As usual, the girls had a good time playing in the snow.
Also while Mom was here, Celia had a concert at school called "Hats." All the kids wore hats and sang a bunch of songs about hats. Celia really enjoyed herself.
We also took a drive down Turnagain Arm, and went all the way to Portage Lake. There were a handful of cross-country skiers there skiing the whole length of the frozen lake. We didn't go too far out because it was quite windy and cold, but we did walk out to some big chunks of glacial ice.
Because of the wind there were areas of snowdrifts and areas of bare ice. Overall there is something of a barren, outer-space feel to the landscape this time of year, as opposed to the summer when the water is clear and blue and the mountains are vibrant green.
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