myumyumyu

Though we originally had nothing planned for this weekend, it ended up quite successful. We ended up doing all the classic Anchorage activities: ate at Bear Tooth, hiked Flattop Mountain, went to Chilkoot Charlie's, and ate at Snow City Cafe.

On Friday night, we decided to eat at Moose's Tooth, which none of us had been to yet. Upon seeing a huge line outside (which is normal, but we were impatient), we decided to go to Bear Tooth, which is owned by the same people, instead. There, we were given a buzzer and told that there would be a 20-25 minute wait. We didn't get a table until 45 minutes later, when our stomachs were growling, and we were grouchy and whining. It turned out that our buzzer was broken... :( Thankfully, the food didn't disappoint. We had delicious chips with guacamole and a large wild mushroom pizza.

Jensen, Carla, Stella, and me at Bear Tooth with our wild mushroom pizza

The sun came out on Saturday, and we had to try to burn off some of that food, so Stella, Oisin, and I went to hike Flattop Mountain. It's the most popular mountain to hike in Anchorage because of how close it is to the city.

Flattop Mountain (a perfect example of how every name in Alaska is literal)

I really enjoyed how different the landscape of Flattop was in comparison to Near Point, the hike that we did a month ago. Flattop began with wide open space, turned into narrow steps, and ended with rocks. It was very different from the tree-filled path of my previous hike in Alaska.

There is still a lot of snow on the mountain in July

Cute, small flowers at the sides of the trail

Part of the steps portion of the hike. It reminded me of hiking in China.

Before the hike, we stopped at Walmart to buy some snacks. As I drove, Stella and Oisin made us each a couple of packs of trail mix: banana chips, dark chocolate M&Ms with peanuts, and granola.

Homemade (or car-made?) trail mix!

Approaching the rocky portion of the trail

The final portion of the trail was all rocks, enough that we had to use our hands to climb and scramble! I had to put my camera away at that point. I was shocked that there were so many mothers carrying their toddlers, practically newborns, in some cases, on their backs as they hiked. What if they slipped and fell? It just seemed so unnecessarily dangerous.

The end of the hike came out of nowhere. We scrambled over some more rocks, and suddenly, it was flat openness. Truly a flat top.

On the (flat) peak

It was also incredibly windy at the top. There was one area with a wooden bench, surrounded by rocks piled up to create a wall of protection as we munched on our trail mix. We took a final picture at the top before running down the mountain. I love running down mountains, just letting my legs go at the pace dictated by the slope of the hill. It's so much work to brake yourself to walk down, so why do it?

At the top of Flattop!

We tried a new restaurant for dinner after the hike: Hula Hands, a Polynesian restaurant. I got the Kalua pork with cabbage. As usual, the serving size was huge, with 2 scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad. Even though it was really good, I ended up taking at least half of it home.

Post-hike dinner at Hula Hands

Later that evening, we ventured out to another popular place in Anchorage: Chilkoot Charlie's. I'm not even sure how to describe this place... It's advertised as a nightclub/bar. However, I'd characterize it more as a giant cabin with different areas that function as bars, dance floors, stages, and more. There were people aged  in their 20s through 70s, and dress code varied from practically nothing to outrageous costumes (Quagmire from Family Guy was there). There was even a wet t-shirt contest... It was quite an experience, that's for sure. We also happened to go on "face painting and beads night." Check us out:

Geoff, me, Jensen, Stella, and Oisin at Chilkoot Charlie's

The band performed many top hits from the 1990s. There seems to be a bit of a lag for popular music to reach Alaska., haha. At least we knew most of the songs!

Some people were going pretty crazy to this band

Today was a rainy Sunday, so, naturally, it was centered around delicious food! Carla, Stella, Jensen, and I ventured out into the rain and waited 45 minutes for a delicious brunch at Snow City Cafe. This time, I tried the Ship Creek Benedict--similar to the Kodiak Benedict from my last visit, but with salmon cakes instead of king crab cakes. Yummy as well.

Snow City Cafe's Ship Creek Benedict, with hash browns

We came back to the house with food comas and settled down on the couch in the sunroom. We ordered tickets for the Batman movie marathon this Thursday night--a showing of the two previous movies starting at 6pm, leading into the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises--from 6pm to 3am. Super excited! Hopefully, we'll stay awake... especially for work the next day.

And then, we made cookies. Delicious cookies. Despite some challenges with browning butter and resolidifying the browned butter, leading to two hours of preparation, the final product was soooo good and worth it.

Bowl full of delicious cookie dough

Ready to go into the oven

YUM!

Apart from consuming the tasty cookies with milk, the rest of our evening has been spent on the couches in the sunroom. Just chatting, doing the New York Times crossword, and generally enjoying a lazy Sunday!