Rain in Girdwood, rain that quickly transitioned from pleasant sprinkles to real rain, rain that Baltimore would be glad for in the summer time, rain that soaked all non-waterproof clothing in seconds, rain that made mud puddles big as small ponds. So we decided to have a lazy day.

Spent the morning poking around the shops of Girdwood. There are only five stores here — an artists’ co-op, a gallery/boutique, a used bookstore, a candlemaker, and a pet/garden/gifty things shop — so we made short work of this project.

Took the tram from our hotel up 2,000 feet to the restaurant and roundhouse at the top of Alyeska.

You’ll see two foggy photos here, one of our hotel as seen from the tram, and the other of the stretch of Turnagain Arm along which we rode our bikes on Sunday.

After an uninteresting lunch at the tram cafe, we came back down the mountain to the hotel. Spent the afternoon lounging in the hot tub/pool/sauna. Nicest hot tub I’ve ever seen — here’s the view.

We had leftovers for dinner in our room and watched at movie, then decided to go for a bear hunt at 10pm (it had finally decided to stop raining). We had incredible views from our drive, and we hunted for a bear sighting assiduously. But we’ve determined that bears are mythological creatures, at least in Alaska.