Seven Glaciers

Alyeska Ski Resort has a nice restaurant located up on the mountain, accessible only by tram.  For the ski crowd, they have an 'express' restaurant area for those who do not want to ski down to the base to eat...for those looking for a nicer place to dine with a great view, Seven Glaciers is the perfect place...I took my mom there for a belated birthday celebration...we opted to go for lunch, in hopes of actually HAVING a view, as you are not able to see anything at night.  Unfortunately, it was a snowy day, so all we had a view of was white, white and more white.

Seven Glaciers restaurant

We shared appetizers - a crab cake with lime aioli and jicama salad

and a scallop bisque soup - a lobster bisque, with scallop, chive oil and caviar

my first time tasting caviar...it was okay - just tasted salty - not sure I would ever pay the oodles of money that some do for it...

for our main courses, we opted for the beef filet and pork schnitzel - they were both good...

This was our view...

and this was our ride...

the Christmas decorations were still up in the hotel, including this large gingerbread house / church...

and outside the hotel...all in all, a nice (but cold) day.

There's No Place Like Homer

The memory of my long road trip to Alaska has faded enough that I felt I was up to spending 4 hours in the car to visit Homer and the 3 day weekend provided the perfect opportunity to go.

I don’t even really know where to begin…Homer is beautiful…the pictures don't do it justice…and I didn’t even get to see it at its absolute best on a sunny day…I can only imagine how much more beautiful it is when the weather is completely cooperative.

This is the view just before coming into the town...

The Homer Spit

My mom has a friend from college who lives in Homer.  She and her husband have had their own fishing business for more than 40 years.  She offered me and the dogs a place to stay for the weekend and was my tour guide on Saturday.

She took me down to the Homer Spit…(a 'spit' is a small piece of land that juts out into the water) to show me where they store some of their fishing pots and gear…they do salmon fishing (with nets) in the summer and then cod fishing in the winter...

She took me to the boat harbor and showed me one of the fisheries...definitely not the most pleasant smelling area of Homer...

Her husband is currently in Juneau to bring their boat back to Homer.   It is a 3 day journey across the water but he was currently stuck there until at least Thursday because of poor weather conditions.


Here are some of the sites around Homer...

on the spit...

many charters...for fishing...for bear watching...

Fish from a fishing charter, they filet and weigh your catch and ship it to you...

bumper sticker in one of the shops...

for fans of "The Deadliest Catch"...they have two 'stores' in  Homer...and I was told that they had come in to town that weekend but I did not see their boat...one of their pots is set up outside this shop location - tall enough for me to stand in...Jeanne's husband actually went to school with some of the guys...

someone got creative with wood...that's a big whale...

The Salty Dawg Saloon...
Right next door though, is a rather non-descript restaurant called The Happy Face...this is where we went to dinner Saturday night and according to Jeanne where you get the best fish 'n chips in Homer...

as you know, I am not a seafood person, however I have been willing to try everything - this was the first time I'd ever ordered fish 'n chips in my life...so I have no other fish 'n chips to compare it to, but I CAN tell you it was REALLY good...so good, that when I woke up the next day I was still thinking about it and wouldn't have minded returning for it again...

It was breaded halibut and it was delicious...Jeanne said this is where many of the local fishermen go for lunch and it's some place I would definitely go back to the next time I visit Homer.


I have A LOT more to show but this post is long enough for now...these last few pictures were mostly taken around the spit as well - 

Orso

My Alaskan friends will be returning to Russia later this week ~ it's been so fun getting to spend time with them this summer ~ it's hard to believe it's already time for them to go back.  The kids stayed home tonight so the grown-ups could go out to dinner.  I haven't had TOO many restaurant outings yet, but everywhere I've been so far has been good and tonight was no exception...

ORSO is in downtown Anchorage and offers a menu of local specialty options in addition to the more traditional steak, chicken, pasta dishes.  Tonight, they offered several specials, including Alaska King Salmon, Halibut, and Rockfish to name a few.  Rebecca ordered the king salmon ~ it was really good.  I opted to venture out of my 'safe' zone and try one of the halibut dishes from their regular menu...description follows below...

"Halibut Cheek Piccata
Tender Alaskan Halibut Cheeks and Scallops pan seared in a garlic, caper-lemon butter sauce. Served with crispy capers and cous cous, topped with a zucchini and king crab salad."

It was REALLY good ~ I just may end up becoming a *moderate* sea food person after all ~ neither the halibut nor the scallops were fishy tasting and they were both very tender...I tried not to dwell on the PART of the halibut I was eating ~ for some reason, the idea of eating cheeks is not initially appealing to me...but it was something I would definitely eat again.

One of the more interesting parts of the restaurant was discovered at the end of the evening when we made a visit to the ladies room...they have heated toilet seats...something that I could see coming in very handy in the winter time...but in the summer?  If I hadn't been told they were heated, I would have assumed that the prior occupant of the bathroom stall had just been IN there for a really long time... :)