A drive from Anchorage to Girdwood down the Seward Highway and a Portage glacier cruise

After Anchorage has a rainy, cold summer, it is fall here....complete with yellow leaves, cool mornings, and sunny clear days.  We took advantage of this glorious weather this weekend, and drove down to Girdwood, about 40 miles from Anchorage.  The drive is on the scenic Seward Highway, and the view rival what I saw on a drive from LA to San Diego to visit Dave's best man, Steve.

Leaving Eagle River, we saw this (what appears like jagged clouds is actually Denali National Park, hundreds of miles away....you only get this view on clear days):

This was the view for most of the drive on the Seward Highway:

We checked out times for the cruise and I snapped this photo:

We went into Girdwood and grabbed lunch at a spot recommended by neighbors...if you go, bring cash as we learned the hard way, they don't take credit cards (and no we didn't have to wash dishes, just make a 5 mile drive to the nearest ATM):

We got on the 1:30pm cruise and crossed our fingers the boys would cooperate.  Ben never did nap, but Liam found a friend and they looked for whales (we were on a lake, by the way).  The lake was 600 feet deep on average and was formed by the glacier's retreat.

First view:

Ben was not amused by the excitement of a glacier, specially as we sat for 20 minutes waiting for it to calve.  Supposedly, it doesn't calve all too often.

Then we started hearing what sounded like gunshots and was falling ice.  We were 3 football fields away, but it was creating some big waves.  Dave and I were talking about this arch and how we wouldn't see it fall,but maybe it would be gone within a week:

And then BOOM.....The crew on the boat was so excited.  They said it was the best calving they'd seen all season, which was extra-special as Sunday was the last day until next season.

The boys actually napped on the drive home, and we stopped in Anchorage to grab pizza and microbrew from The Moose's Tooth....Dave and I had blackened Halibut pizza--yum yum!