My Big Bowl of Meat - Anchorage

We woke this morning in the Denali Lodge and talk about clean mountain air.  It was cool outside this morning, similar to the type of morning in September if you were out camping, but with mountains all around.

Today was basically took a bus trip day to Anchorage. However there was still much to see on our route and going around the mountain, which again today was completely visible and difficult not to take pictures of.

For lunch today we stopped in Talkeetna, right next to the Susitna river.  Most of our tour group headed for the many restaurants, but Barb and I decided to head down to the river bank.  Barb always wants to put her toes into the waters where we visit.  Now this river is basically a glacial river, the water comes from the glaciers of Denali so guess what the temperature was like.  I put a finger in there and that was enough for me, but Barb achieved her goal... briefly.

 What an impressive view from this riverbank, we can understand why Denali is the big attraction here in the interior of Alaska.

Finally back on the bus heading back to Anchorage where our journey began about 5 days ago.  We visited a theatre for a presentation of the Aurora Borealis which was very impressive.  I forgot to mention that we knocked off another bucket list item in Fairbanks, we received a wakeup call at midnight our first night there to let us know that the Northern Lights were visible.  Our camera was not good enough for taking pictures that night, however our Australian friends from our European Tour were also in Fairbanks that night and sent us these pictures.

So after the presentation, it was time to eat dinner.  One thing we have found that there are no group dinners on this tour, so we really haven't gotten to know everyone on this tour. Barb and I found a local restaurant called Humpy's.

Nice place and we continue to try the local food.  We noticed on the menu a Humpy pie, basically what we thought was like a Sheppard's pie but with the local reindeer meat.  Now I was not really hungry but we also noticed that the soup was a Salmon Chowder.  I asked the waitress how big the Humpy Pie and she said it was like the size of a soup bowl so I decided to order the Salmon Chowder as well.

The Chowder was really really good and so thick you could almost stand your spoon in the bowl. Note the size of the bowl.

Then comes my little Humpy Pie.  Holy Crap!! this wasn't Sheppard's Pie, this was a BIG bowl of meat in gravy and vegetables with a small scoop of potatoes on top.  If you know me well, you know that I hate to leave any food, especially if I'm paying for it, but I could not eat this much.  I had so little of it that the waitress offered to take it off of our bill. We said no and paid for it.

The meal was really delicious but I'm not sure when I'll eat again.