NORTHERN EXPOSURE

If you read Rhiannon’s first blog post, you might recall that she outted my snobby opinion of west coast attempts at decent pizza. The joke’s on me.

For our last night in Alaska, we had arranged to switch gears from Iditarod mode and hit the road heading north in hopes of seeing Denali (aka Mt. McKinley), Talkeetna, and Trapper Creek, where we’d spend the last night of our family vacation re-grouping in a cabin. It was snowing as we drove and the cloud cover usurped the amazing view of the mountain that was so close, yet totally out of sight. Still, it was a beautiful drive amid the snow-covered evergreens and curious ravens (the contrast of solid black ravens in the pure white snow is one of my favorite visuals on this trip!).

We arrived to Talkeetna and it seemed like a snowed-in ghost town. I never saw snow piled so high in front of buildings. There were some signs of life though, and in fact several businesses were open, but it was difficult to even distinguish a window from a doorway because only the tops were visible! Naturally, it was Rhiannon who spotted a purple sign reading “Mountain High Pizza Pie”…and I said, “No” before she even asked the question. But we soon realized that our options were limited and our tummies were empty, so I begrudgingly went along with the pit-stop plan.

Things were looking up immediately! The place was surprisingly active, I could spread out with my lap-top and get WiFi, my favorite west coast beer was on tap, Little Feat was playing in the background and for the first time on my trip I saw vegetarian options on a menu!! I finally found the crunchy side of Alaska!!

Two hours later I was still at Mountain High Pizza Pie and feeling like one of the regulars. After enjoying a delicious pizza with all (and only) appropriate topping options, I continued to catch-up on writing while John had in-depth conversations with several locals, including a Denali National Park Ranger who was just off-duty. Meanwhile, Rhiannon was very happy to meet a family with some children and a dog outside, and I think she had two ice cream cones for herself while I was pre-occupied. I still can not get confirmation on this, and since John is covering for her, he must have had at least two also. Fact: Alaskans eat more ice cream in the winter than in the summer. Apparently you CAN sell ice to the Eskimos!