Breakfast was upstairs in a dedicated room; it resembled the
Hampton one, the sausage and eggs slightly better, potatoes
slightly worse.

The daily adventure was a trip to Chiniak, where there was
an abandoned airstrip, among other things.

We think we found it - anyway, a longish stretch of straight
road. After a bit of further wandering around, we headed
toward lunch, which was at the slightly hyperbolically named
Road's End. This roadhouse is run by a family, complete with
kid running around the dining room. The mommy greets you and
waits and does kitchen things as well; someone, presumably
daddy, runs the grill and fry station.

A jalapeno burger was okay, your basic well-done flat patty
with pickled peppers. I'd have preferred fresh, a la Five
Guys, but there's reliable testimony that jalapenos are not
grown in these parts. Nor apparently airlifted thereto.

One of the vans didn't show up for the longest time. Turns
out there was a puncture wound in one or more of the tires,
which impeded their progress.

Eventually, back to town. I holed up in the hotel.

Everyone but me went off to Pillar Mountain (where they
suffered yet another flat tire) and then to the Old
Powerhouse, which is said to have surprisingly good sushi -
I was feeling like death warmed over and in no mood for
sushi or in fact any other kind of food. I just slept
fitfully for the next 24 hours.

I don't know what people did on the next day; I am fairly
certain I didn't do it.

I woke up periodically when I soaked through the bedsheets,
but other than that, oblivion.

--

7H 893 ADQ ANC 1900 2010 DH8

I told lili to take a right-side window seat, as that's
where the views are. Everything was socked in. It was a
somewhat more bumpy than usual flight and unpleasurable for
me, but we got in more or less on time, whereupon lili got
her rental car and took me out to my friends' place in
Muldoon that was to be our base for the next few days;
instead, it turned out to be my isolation ward, mostly,
except for the one altogether too brief visit to Casa de
Bob and his famed WoW.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn't hungry and couldn't take
advantage of all the tri-tip I could dream of eating; I
slept most of the time in BobW's comfy chair, taking care
not to drool or do anything communicablish.

There were wines aplenty, of which I managed to taste a
few '07 Washington Cab-Merlot blends - D2 from Delille,
Ch. Ste. Michelle Canoe Ridge Merlot, and Col Solare, in
order of bigness and chocolatiness and in reverse order of
fruitiness. I was sadly pretty addled and was unable to
appreciate these fully so had just small sips, medicating my
condition mostly with lesser alcohol and saving the good
stuff for those who could actually taste.

jackal made me a to-go plate, which was gratefully
consumed bit by bit over the next days.

Back to the airport and the Boardroom, where I choked down
a mug or two of hot chocolate in deference to my condition
rather than the usual Alaskan Amber.

UA1243 ANC SFO 0035 0613 738 3AC

The meal was the Mediterranean snack plate, which I passed
on, subsisting on Courvoisier and hot water, not together.