The past couple of weeks I've continued to work a lot, but I've also been able to enjoy a couple of really fun things off of the train. First... at the beginning of this month, I saw CAKE in concert at the Moose's Tooth Pub & Pizzeria.
John McCrea pumping up the crowd
The Moose's Tooth probably has the best pizza in all of Anchorage, some great local beer, and on the first Thursday of each month they host a concert to celebrate a monthly specialty beer. Fortunately I had wasn't working on the first Thursday of this month and I got to go see CAKE perform (they put on an awesome live show) and try out the Moose's Tooth new 'Chocalte Cake' beer (decent, but not as awesome as the show.)
after the CAKE show with friends
This past Sunday I also had the chance to hang out in Talkeetna for most of the day. Talkeetna is a little mountain town a couple hours north of Anchorage by car. It has a lot of summer activity because it is usually a staging area for people who are attempting to summit Denali. It's also the first stop for our train as we travel north to Fairbanks. So I've been through Talkeetna dozens of times this summer, but unfortunately the only time I'd stepped foot in the town had been back in June or July when I got off the train to unload trash from the train during a stop at the Talkeetna depot. So, when a few coworkers mentioned on Saturday that they would be traveling to Talkeetna on Sunday, I jumped at the chance to check out the town.
Our first stop was The Roadhouse, which is a really cool little hotel and restaurant. It's a quaint, humble little place (Adam Richman of Man vs. Food once came to the Roadhouse, but they only displayed this fact with one little poster towards the back of the restaurant) with really delicious food, including their famous sourdough hotcakes.
I had to try the Roadhouse Standard, which is a basic breakfast of potatoes, scrambled eggs, and bacon, but had a ton of flavor. It was also served with a thick slice of homemade wheat toast, and the apple butter on the red-and-white-checkered-tablecloth-covered table made me feel like I was right back in the Midwest.
We spent the rest of our Afternoon in Talkeetna by walking around town, checking out a little weekend open air art market, and waving at the train was it came through the depot.
Apparently we all don't spend enough time on the train and want to see it even on our day off. One other highlight of town was a little homemade ice cream stand. They had a John Deere engine powered ice cream churner sitting out front (again...I was really starting to think I was back in the Midwest) and had four different flavors of ice cream. When I stepped up to the window I was surprised to see that "Maple Bacon" was one of them, and I had to try it. It was actually a lot better that I expected, kind of a butter pecan sweetness with a finish of chewy, salty bits of bacon rather than pecans.
Unfortunately, we all had to get back to Anchorage that night because three of us were scheduled to go Northbound to Fairbanks on Monday. I got back to Anchorage last night, and now have two days off, so today I'm just relaxing and enjoy some much needed rest. For the next two weeks or so I'll just be in the work routine until my parents and brother visit on Aug. 21st, when I'll get to do some traveling and take a little longer break from the train. Oh, and to end this post, I thought I'd give you another taste of the view from my "office window" - I'll be sure to post more shots from the train in the coming week as fall rolls in and the colors start to change.
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