Girdwood

Girdwood is a cool little town.  It's their off-season because everything seems to revolve around skiing, but it was still a nice place to visit.  We stayed at a funny little hostel, that was a bit too small for Kat's liking (basically a house with an extra two rooms), but it was OK.  The people were very nice. 

We grabbed some coffee at a local shop and headed off for a walk.

The Grind

Most of the people we met in the hostel were training for the Iditarod, so it made for some interesting conversation!  We did a hike through the Chugach national forest starting at the giant Alyeska Hotel (where we didn't stay because it was $400/night).  

Hiking through the Chugach National Forest

To cross the Crow Creek, usually you'll take a hand-operated tram car crossing the raging water.  Unfortunately it was closed because of heavy snow fall this winter, so we walked to the creek and back.

Hand-operated tram

After our hike, we grabbed a pizza and a halibut sandwich before setting off to the Crow Creek Mine to pan for gold.  It's more of a historic site than a gold mine, but apparently people are still pulling gold from the river.  We, unfortunately, did not find any gold of our own.

Chris panning for gold

We did some laundry at the best laundromat we'd ever been to.  It was a laundromat/Mexican restaurant/internet cafe with  constellations painted on the ceiling.  It was voted the best laundromat in the US according to their sign.