Ernie the Boy Meets a Giant Bear

Today we pull up stakes and relocated our headquarters.

We went south to Seward, Alaska.

The views were quite nice.

We stopped at Hightower Pub on the way out of civilization to get some hot provisions.

I got biscuits and gravy with an egg on top because that is objectively the best food in the world. These were special though because they came with friggin' REINDEER SAUSAGE GRAVY. I love Alaska.

Ernie gnawed on some apple slices.

We then made a stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see what exactly was being conserved.

I think this was a muskox which was a new one for me.

I was most excited to see the brown bears. They were large.

Seward is a town of 2,700 people so we took what we could get restaurant wise. That being said the Highliner Restaurant was a cozy joint and everyone in there seemed to be both kind and to know eachother.

Poor Ernie is still getting the hang of swallowing food so he often makes a lot of strained faces while he's doing his important practicing.

I really liked the Seward airbnb. It had heated floors, a good view of the stars, and a hot tub. What else do you really need?

Not Killed by Bears in Anchorage

One nice thing about traveling with Ern is that his presence in our travel party forces us to go slower and in the process enjoy more of the little things about being in a new place. Today we had a more leisurely day in the Anchorage area.

The White Spot Cafe has a humorous name and has been making delicious fried halibut sandwiches since 1959.

It's like the Land Before Time over here. This phone booth even had a little PHONEBOOK.

We decided now that we were full of delicious fried fish it would be a good idea to hike around near a bunch of bear warning signs at Eagle River Nature Center in Chugach State Park.

I instinctively start licking my lips now that I know how delicious these thin white birch trees really are.

We checked out Diamond Center Mall. They had an ice rink that was currently dyed pink for some breast cancer thing.

I went solo to Wild Scoops to bring some pints back to our headquarters. It was an odd experience. There were a couple of druggy looking younger people ahead of me in line. The sketchy girl said they were homeless and asked me if I would buy her ice cream. I declined. While in line they stuffed some merch into their clothes. When they reached the ice cream counter they asked the staff if they could have anything free. The staff said no. They asked me again, I said no. Then they left with their stolen merchandise. I was happy to be out of there and that they weren't waiting for me in the parking lot.

The ice cream was amazing, though, and they had really fun Alaskan ingredients. One had birch syrup, another Alaskan sea salt, and the third fireweed.