Alaska Part VIII , trip day 5-6; July 6-7, 2018
When we first start making our travel arrangements for Alaska, my dad mentioned that Sarah Palin lives on Lake Lucille, very near the Best Western. So we made this our last stop before we began our journey south to the Kenai Peninsula. We made the reservations based on the novelty, but soon came to learn that we simply could not find a single bad view around Lake Lucille.

Once we checked in after the drive from Palmer and the Noisy Goose, the boys set off to go explore while I assessed the laundry room. We had several days worth of dirty clothes, and still half of our vacation to go, so I connected Ian’s Kindle Fire to the wi-fi to watch Malcolm in the Middle (a guilty pleasure of mine) on Hulu to keep myself occupied while commandeering both washers and both driers, then folding mountains of clothes. As I sorted, washed, and folded our wrinkled, travel weary garments, Ian found the first body of warm water in Alaska. Disappointed that Lake Lucille Inn didn’t offer a pool, he gave the lake a try and quickly returned to the room for swim trunks and a towel, and ran back to the lake to jump in.  He splashed and swam, giving my dad and Brinn a chance to fish, then my dad went walking around the lake to catch some really cool photo opportunities.

After folding my last load and repacking all of our laundry, Ian arrived back at the room ready for a snack and viewing #36 of Balto, so Brinn and I left him in Grandpoppa’s custody and Brinn took me for a tour of the lake. I took my Kindle (mine functions as a reader only), but it was hard to read with all this scenery to soak in. We sat on the dock,  feet dangling in the water and ogling at the mountains, and then got to watch a muskrat swim across the entire lake and under the dock. Later we stumbled around the flower beds near the lake and remarked once again how gigantic the annuals grew in Alaska compared with those growing in Tennessee’s paltry fourteen and a half hours of summer daylight.

The next morning, we woke up to quite possibly the most extravagant complimentary breakfast we’ve ever enjoyed. We had our choice of bacon, sausage, or ham; there were hot roasted potatoes (no fried hashbrown nonsense); a couple of options for eggs (but who wants to eat something that yucky?); loads of fruit; and all the rest of the usual continental breakfast items. We were able to stuff ourselves silly and stuff our pockets with enough road snacks to help us bypass stopping for food on our drive south.  I sipped tea, enjoying the view from the deck, while Ian chugged milk and Brinn matched my dad cup for cup on coffee. All the while we talked about our options for how to spend our time on the peninsula. Only one day was set in stone, leaving two and a half days open for exploration. We made our plan, loaded our bags, checked out, and hit the road once again.

As our one pre-booked activity was scheduled for tomorrow morning, we hit Bass Pro on our way through Anchorage to look for some waterproof options for my dad to wear. While he didn’t have a lot success shopping, none of us regretted the stop as the store itself was as good as a museum.  I’ve only visited Bass Pros in the southeast, and once at the BP near Saint Louis. I didn’t realize that BP tries to be very consistent with portraying wildlife true to the geographic region of the store, so we had the opportunity to examine mounts of brown and polar bears, Alaskan varieties of fish, and more moose. It never occurred to me that there wouldn’t be a huge market for bass boats in halibut and salmon country, so it was a nice change of pace to look through all of the boats with fully enclosed cabs. I think it will now be my goal to visit Bass Pros in every state I travel through, but I’m not sure any of them will top Alaska’s.