middle of the week mini-vacay to Talkeetna

My mom had a class up at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge last week and brought my little sister, me and Riggs along for company. We spent the night Wednesday night and while my mom was in her class Beka, me and Riggs did pretty much whatever we wanted around the area. It was such a fun trip!

Wednesday we got to the lodge right around lunchtime. My mom had to go to her class for the entire afternoon so Beka and I checked in, ate lunch and then lazed around the room while Riggs took a nap.

the view from our room

My mom got done with her class right after Riggs woke up so we explored the lodge a little bit before heading to dinner. We took a walk around the grounds of the lodge after we finished eating - it was drizzling a bit and the woods smelled alive and fresh and just amazing.

We spent the rest of the evening in our room hanging out and watching HGTV. Riggs was so good just playing in the room and watching TV with us and actually ended up staying up until 10:45 (maybe his latest night ever?) before crashing on the couch/trundle bed thing we set up for me and him. It's soooo nice how flexible he is with sleep schedules now - it makes it very pleasant to travel with him. I feel like putting all the work in to have such a strict sleep schedule means that we can have a few rogue days here and there without any negative affects or new (bad) habits.

We had breakfast with my mom on Thursday before she headed off to a full day of class. We walked around outside a bit and then cleaned up the room, checked out, and headed off in the car for a bit of exploring. We went down to visit my grandparents cabin (they built it and lived in it completely off the grid for 30 years before moving into town in 2009 - read more, here) first, and just driving down that old dirt road brought back so many memories.

It was so good to see that the people who bought their property have poured time and energy into making it their own little home - it was obvious that they love it as much as my grandparents did. There's a swamp down the road from their cabin that we used to walk to as kids to throw rocks in, and since Riggs wasn't even born when they moved I wanted to stop and carry on the tradition with him. It's not the same, but it was still a special memory to make with him.

a sad moment before being cheered up by his Aunt Beka

Next we headed into Talkeetna to wander around and eat some food. Beka and I kept getting mistaken for tourists and it was sort of fun. Talkeetna is an essential place to visit when you're in Alaska - so much good food and lots of friendly people too. 

we stopped into Nagley's and Riggs liked watching the fish

next stop was the Roadhouse, where we squeezed in a not-so-stealthy geocache (sooo many muggles) 

and enjoyed a unbelievably delicious lunch (yes Riggs had chocolate cream pie for lunch)

last stop, the Talkeetna River;

we wandered around and watched boats speeding by before

packing back into the car and picking up my momma

I had such a fun time with my sister and my mom and I'm so glad we got to go! Except now I'm craving the Roadhouse food soooo badly on a daily basis. I guess another road trip to Talkeetna needs to happen soon ;)