Shopping and eating and SNOW?!? OH MY!

Yes, that’s right… snow. As in more than a foot of snow in Anchorage on Friday. Which we got to see first-hand as we drove around in it during our weekend away!

Jason was supposed to be playing in a hockey tournament this past weekend, which happened to coincide with my birthday. Originally, I was going to just send him on his way, and just wait to celebrate til he got back (and, of course, pout about a birthday weekend alone…shhh), but he convinced me to go with him.

Imagine how lucky I felt, um, I mean, upset, when the hockey tournament got cancelled AFTER we’d already purchased plane tickets, so we had to go with not a single hockey game to interrupt the fun! I mean, it was sad to not get to watch a single hockey game. Whatever…

We got over there on Thursday morning, and proceeded to drive around for a good portion of the day, after getting a yummy breakfast at Gwennie’s, a local favorite. Once it was late enough to check into the hotel, we took the time to strategize to ensure we hit all the highlights for the weekend! When you only get “civilization” once every few months, you definitely need to make the most of your time!

Thursday was a gorgeous day, though snow had been forecast. They repeated the forecast for Friday, but we figured they’d be wrong again. So, with a possible trip to the zoo (along with shopping!) on the agenda for Friday, imagine our surprise when we did, in fact, wake up to snow – and a lot of it – on Friday morning! We stuck to shopping, skipping the zoo, and staying indoors (with the car in the safety of a parking garage!) to avoid the worst of it. Eventually we had to venture out, though, and this is what greeted us:Unfortunately, the quality of the pictures isn’t that great because I took them out the window of our hotel room, but you get the point. Although it looked pretty downtown (oooo, snow), the parking lot picture shows what we’re talking about! Yeah, that’s about a foot of snow, and it was only 10pm, and it kept snowing all night. Saturday was worse!
What redeemed Saturday, though, at least for the time we were driving around town - you guessed it, shopping some more – was this… my new favorite place in the world:

Yes, that says “Chocolate Lounge.” As in, “Come in, lounge, have some chocolate. How about some chocolate you drink? Or, if you’d rather, chocolate you eat. Or, go crazy! Have both!” So, we had both. This place has super fancy schmancy truffles like the kind you hear about on Food Network. They put all kinds of crazy things in a truffle, which are supposed to somehow work together. Besides that, though, they have what they call “drinking chocolate,” which is a nod to Mayan tradition. You can get the silky smooth, or the Mayan, which has a spice to it (three different kinds of pepper, and it’s fabulous!). You can have it plain or in an espresso drink, which is what we had. Oh, it was so good!

We got some truffles to go, too… chocolate with lavender, or maybe a little Hawaiian sea salt, one with agave. I have no idea if any of them will taste good, but I got the least weird of the bunch, I think. We skipped the ones that had anchovy on top (I guess it’s the same theory as the sea salt), but we did branch out a bit. Plus, they look pretty!

Anyway, if I hadn’t gone anywhere else for the whole weekend, I would’ve been happy to just go there!

Of course, we didn’t stop there – and my other favorite part of the weekend was our fancy dinner at the Crow’s Nest on the 20th floor of our hotel. The sky started to clear while we were eating, so we got a bit of a view of the mountains breaking through the clouds. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring the camera (because somehow the giant backpack I generally tote it around in was not exactly the accessory I was going for with my outfit for the evening) so there are no pictures. But, take my word for it – the view was second only to the food, which was FANTASTIC! And, in a weird twist of events, Jason had the scallops and I ordered the rabbit. I’m pretty sure the earth didn’t stop spinning, but it was an odd turn of events!

Sunday was an exciting day of ordering deck supplies from Lowe’s to be BushMailed, along with just wishing we could head home! It was a great weekend, but we were ready to get home. You can really only do so much shopping and eating! Besides, when I got home (after a very sporty landing!), there were birthday serenades on the answering machine, and a hefty piece of chocolate cake waiting to be eaten! Oh, and Jason wanted to try out the new game for the Wii - yes, that's him playing Super Mario Kart at 11pm! Crazy kid!
So that’s all the latest from Alaska… I know I shouldn’t be surprised that it snowed over my birthday weekend, but, I guess a small part of me is. I mean, seriously – the end of April?!?! *Sigh* The weekend away was wonderful, though, and just what I need to get me through the last of the winter! (At least it better be the last of it!)