Our First Evening At Denali Park

Well, we weren't actually in the park, that doesn't come until tomorrow. And we didn't exactly go out exploring the Alaskan wilderness. Instead we settled in to my first couple of Maker's Mark Manhattans. The small, informal restaurant that wraps around the bar and extends out to the deck has some very good food. We ate there a couple of times.

Nice Views, Good Food




But on our first night we decided to take a little shuttle to a place down the road that had a good reputation.

The 49th State


Both our guide and the bartender said we should try it, as did a couple of people at the bar. So how could we resist. And it was worthy of the praise.

Typical Bar Interior






But this really gladdened my heart,

A Brewery In The Back


Fortified with the knowledge that I would be delivered to my cabin's door by a series of shuttle buses and therefore would not have to actually walk on any potentially dangerous paths, I partook of a few of their brews. Sadly, I remember little about them except that they were very good. I think one of them used pine buds instead of or in addition to the hops.

And for an appetizer, well I couldn't pass up on their version of a Scotch egg. Instead of using pork-sausage they use reindeer sausage. For those of you who don't know, you make these by wrapping a hard-boiled egg in a sausage and, well, fat of some sort. When I make my own I fry up a pound of bacon and use the bacon fat. Then you deep-fry the thing until the outside starts to crisp up. Quite delicious, in my opinion.

A Scotch Reindeer Egg


I can't remember what the Mysterious Chinese Woman had for dinner, but I know she liked it. I had a steak and it was great. Good piece of meat and done to perfection.

No Leftovers Either


Now what wondrous view could elicit such a reaction from the Mysterious Chinese Woman?

Oh, Look, It's A...
 

Well, to be fair, it was a mighty damn fine piece of pie. Made with wild blueberries that were as flavorful as any that I have ever eaten, and I have eaten my share. And the crust was just perfect. We did something we very seldom do, we ordered a second piece to take home for breakfast.

I don't know how many of you saw "Into The Wild." It was about this guy who goes off to live in a school-bus in Alaska and ends up dying. Anyway, The 49th State has the school-bus that was used in the movie. Not the actual one, mind you, just the reproduction.

Not The Real Bus


And for those of you who might worry about having to eat that strange Alaskan food, take heart. There are alternatives available.

Available Alternatives To Alaskan




Okay, my next post should include more exciting scenery and wildlife pictures, mostly shot from the inside of a bus.

First Alaskan Train Ride

I figured I better get some more stuff out here about Alaska. The Mysterious Chinese Woman relies upon my posts to remember our trips. Sometimes I post stuff that never happened just to mess with her. She still thinks we had a wonderful time at the Canne's Film Festival, all thanks to Photoshop.

Anyway, not too much narrative here because it is just shots from the train as we traveled from Fairbanks to Denali Park. So sit back and enjoy the scenery.

Scenery




















And The Trip Was Worth It


You can see the look of concentration on the bartender's face as she makes the Maker's Mark Manhattan to my detailed instructions. It turned out deliciously. And I had another one of those discussions about bitters in your Manhattan. All recipes that I am aware of it call for its inclusion and that is the way I prefer them. The bartender knew this but still said she usually makes them without the bitters. Go figure, it isn't as though they didn't have any.

Speaking of bitters, although my liquor store carries a small, and getting smaller, section, Stinky Cheese on Smith Street near me has, in addition to a fine selection of cheeses and beer, a very interesting selection of bitters, some of which I had never heard of. I will have to go back and check them out and, perhaps, add to my rather extensive selection. I bought some cheese, bread and a bottle of Brooklyn BAMBoozle beer. A mighty fine beer by, of course, Brooklyn Brewery. It was released to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and a portion of the profits from the sale of the beer is donated to them. It was a very good Belgian style, at least in my opinion, beer that was crisp and had some nice spicy overtones. Nothing overpowering and very drinkable. I will let you read what Brooklyn Brewery had to say:

"BAMBoozle features a large addition of wildflower honey from the New York family apiary Tremblay Farms – we pick up the honey from Alan Tremblay at the Greenmarket. Blended with golden malts, it is fermented to a dry complexity by our Belgian yeast strain, and then re-fermented in the bottle like Champagne. When the cork pops, the beer shows a shimmering effervescence, a beautifully floral, honeyed nose, and a fresh light zing on the palate that belies its underlying strength. You have not had a beer like this, and neither have we. You can enjoy it now, but it will also age very nicely. Like BAM and like Brooklyn, BAMBoozle is in a class of its own."

 More on Alaska tomorrow, I promise. Otherwise I will start to forget and think, perhaps, we were really in Cannes.

Beer Break

Thought I would pop in a brief post about a dynamite beer. My brother-in-law Jim, who looked after our place while we were in Alaska and Canada, left me some beers in the refrigerator. And we aren't talking Bud Lite or whatever, We are talking:

Brekle's Brown

Brewed by the Anchor Steam Brewery, brewers of many fine beers including quite possibly the best micro-brewery produced beer in the United States, Anchor Steam. Brekle's is named after Gottlieb Brekle who, in 1871, bought an old beer-and-billiards saloon in San Francisco on Pacific Street near Russian Hill for $3,500, and transformed it into the brewery that, twenty-five years later, would be renamed Anchor. 

Damned good beer too. Quite dark and most flavorful but not all that heavy. And it has a nice bit of bitterness from hops that come through but isn't overpowering. The malt overrides whatever hops flavor that might reside on the back of your tongue as a finish. A nice hearty, but fairly light, beer and you could easily drink several. Somehow refreshing but not refreshingly so. At some point the bitterness may build to the point where you just want a nice lager to reset the palate.

 Speaking of beer, I just bought tickets for a home brewery tour here in Brooklyn. You get to visit several well-known and well-regarded home brewers and sample their products. Should be a lot of fun and I will be sure to post about it. It isn't until September 22nd, though. 

See more about the Third Anniversary Homebrew Hullabaloo here:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/267985

A Day In Fairbanks

We did a bit of strolling around Fairbanks and there were a few things to see and do. They have some nice parks and a pretty river walk.

The Wrong Way


I had misread the map and we were on the wrong side of the river. I am not sure where this path originally went, but maybe there was an older river walk here at one time. There was obviously some major construction about to take place.

The Walk Is On That Side


Of course that meant we had to walk over the bridge and resist the temptation to jump off.

Helping With Our Resolve


It was a pleasant walk and we decided to stop into their nature center, dedicated to protecting Alaska's environment and wildlife.

Except For The Moose


Unfortunately, in the harsh Alaskan climate those antlers don't last very long so they have to be replaced every couple of weeks or so. This means rounding up all of the local moose and then harvesting those with the biggest antlers. Over the years this has meant that the moose with the smallest antlers have a better chance of surviving and the average antler size has dropped considerably. Soon you will be able to make necklaces out of them.

The displays in the nature center were quite interesting.

A Salmon Smoke House


Harsh Living


They had some nice dioramas depicting the wild life that you are likely to encounter and the habitats that they occupy.

Our Friend The Beaver


Mr. Bear


There were a number of monuments on display both along the river walk and in a memorial park. Most had to do with World War II.

Memorial Park


You will notice the ravens. Ravens are everywhere here in Alaska. The are almost as numerous as the pigeons in most cities. A lot bigger, though, and much more ominous looking. None of them talked to me though, which is probably a good thing.

The Alaska Territorial Guard Memorial


The next two statues were along the river walk.

Commemoration To  Alaskan And Siberian Soldiers In WWII


Yes, I know, people sometimes forget that Russia was our ally in WWII and also suffered many more casualties than we did. To say nothing of the almost total destruction of many of their cities, including much  Moscow.

Statue Of A Native Alaskan Family Group


So Fairbanks had some attractions, but if I lived there I would start suffering from terminal boredom in about a week. Unless I could partake in those bi-weekly moose harvests. That would keep me going.

And then it was time to catch our train and head up to Denali Park.

Catching Our Train


A Happy Traveler


All Comfortably Tucked In


The train was very comfortable and there was a bartender in each car. Beer and Bloody Mary's during the four-hour trip along with the scenery made it a very enjoyable trip indeed.

And The Views Were Great


Next stop, Denali.

Alaska Arrival

We arrived in the lovely, not really, town of Fairbanks, Alaska, way back on July 22nd. We got there a day before our tour officially started to see the town. But, quite frankly, there isn't really much of a town to see. Of course the first thing I did find was the local hangout.

A Real Mecca


It had the ambiance of a dive bar but it was really just a place where the locals hang out. I should have taken a couple of pictures of the interior but somehow it didn't feel right. Talked to the woman next to me a bit and the bartender was friendly enough. There were a few seedy looking people wandering in and out and it has been a long time since I have been in a bar where most of the people were smoking. I am sure there were other bars in town, but aside from the one in the Iris and shared by the Golden Nugget Hotel I couldn't find any.

I mentioned before that for a small town there seemed to be a lot of Thai restaurants. I thought there were more, but when I went looking for them to take pictures I could only find these three.

Tiparos


Thai House Restaurant


Bahn Thai Restaurant


We ate at the last one and the food was quite good. I just had a vegetable soup but it was very flavorful and plenty hot. I asked our waitress, who happened to be the owner (I think) why there were so many Thai restaurants in such a small town. She said she didn't know but she came down with her mother from Anchorage. Her mother left Anchorage because it was too big for her and opened this place. Then she thought Fairbanks was too big and move to a smaller town about three hours away. Apparently her daughter thought Fairbanks was quite small enough and stayed behind. It was a very nice restaurant.

The other place we ate was the Iris.

The Iris
 

I got the mussels and they weren't half bad. But the garlic bread was dynamite. Not that you can really have bad garlic bread, but this was really good. Particularly when the bread the initially brought out was like Wonder Bread that had been left out for a week.

Right next door was the Golden Nugget Hotel

Golden Nugget Hotel


I asked if they had gambling upstairs and this got a big laugh, like they had never heard that before. Needless to say they are not affiliated with Landry's, the parent company of the Golden Nugget casinos. They did share a bar with the Iris, though.

The Shared Bar
 

The bar had a nice, if limited, selection of draft beers. Can't remember exactly what I had, but maybe an Alaskan Amber, one of my favorites. And a couple of shots of tequila.

Although there wasn't a lot to see in Fairbanks, I passed on the ice museum where you could stand in a room that was -40 (and that is the same in Fahrenheit and Centigrade) because I am from Minnesota and know what cold feels like, there was kind of an interesting little craft store that had an amazing selection of, well, stuff.

Craft Market And Alaska Museum Room




And when I say the place was packed with stuff, I mean packed. These pictures really do not do the place justice.

See Anything You Want?






I did learn that whale bones have to dry out for years before you can carve them. They have a honey-comb interior that is filled with a viscous fluid that is quite evil smelling. Apparently the owner bought a few large bones and didn't realize this, at first. After they have been sufficiently dried they are quite valuable, however.

Well, that is enough Fairbanks for one post. I will add some more stuff tomorrow. We did go on a little river walk and popped into the local museum so I do have a few more pictures I took before we caught the train to head up to Denali.