My Weekend Off

So friday concluded my first week of training and the start of a much needed weekend. Training (which is just class) has been really exhuasting since we've been going every day from 8am to 5pm. After class I walked around most of downtown anchorage and out to the bay. It was really nice to see more of the city then just the apts and the classroom. This weekend was apparently the kick off for a salmon festival so there were a lot of food vendors downtown and an americana band. When I got back to the apt most people were doing the homework from that day so they could all go to a kegger that we got invited to. For some reason I wasn't very motivated to do either so I walked to Barnes and Nobles to attemnpt to study but mainly to find a quiet atmosphere. Also we had made plans to wake up the next morning and go hiking the next morning. I figured I can drink int he lower 48 anytime but hiking in Alaska should be taken advantage of as much as possible. On saturday as was expected everyone who went out the night before didn't want to get up. The fellow georgian who hadn't gone out the night prior woke me up early and we left at about 9:30 after we'd rented the car. Our plan was to drive down to Seward where the Exit Glacer was and hike around and bird watch. The fact that we was a birder as well made the trip infinitely more awesome because we both would want to stop and look around at the same times. So we drove down to Seward which is on the Kenai (pronounced Keen-eye) peninsula. On the way we stopped many times to take pictures of mountains and birds but eventually we arrived at the trail head. We walked all the way to the glacier and took pictures and walked back. Whenever we were done we decided to get something to eat. We walked into 2 bars trying to find one that served food and finally on the third try we found one. It was a lounge that felt like it had been lost in the 70's and somehow came back into being in the present. The pictures are below. The bartender was russian and didn't really like us that much but he told us they had burgers so for the next 30 minutes he was our savior. What we failed to realize is the burger was 9 bucks and for cheese and bacon (which he heartily offered) it was an extra 4 bucks on top. Adding to this was an alaska draft costing 6 bucks coming to a grand total of 20 dollars for a bacon cheeseburger and a beer. So after feeling the pain of being raped by beef cheese and beer we retreated to our car but not before snagging on picture of the time capsule we had just dined in.