Adventure Alaska: 2015 Lower 48 Trip

It's been a long hard winter in Alaska. This probably doesn't mean what you think though. Instead of feet of snow we've had hardly any. For those of us that enjoy winter sports it sure makes for a long winter. This year has really made us thankful for our fat tire bikes. While lack of snow makes it difficult to ski without possibly ruining your skis it's pretty great for fat tire biking. So this year we went fat tire biking almost daily and only went skiing one time. For that time we went up to Palmer to Hatcher's pass.

Louisiana
Because of this winter when we got the opportunity to mix business with vacation we said let's go! Our trip started by flying into New Orleans. My dad and uncle picked us up at the airport and we drove straight to my aunts house where we had a nice homemade crawfish stew waiting for us. The next morning it was a little king cake for breakfast to be followed by some boiled crawfish for lunch. Yum! It was good to get to visit with family that we don't get to see very often.

After lunch we made the 2 hour drive to Lafayette. We spent a couple days there and really enjoyed our visit. We went to Avery Island and toured the Tabasco plant and tasted some good Tabasco products. Tabasco ice cream was surely interesting. It was actually better than I thought. What was really good was the chili starter that they had. Actually bought a bottle to make here in Alaska. Looking forward to that. Just waiting for the right time. Our visit to Prejean's Restaurant in Lafayette was tasty too. I always laugh at all the years I lived in Louisiana there are so many places and things I've never been. So on this trip we visited a few of those.

I think my favorite part of the trip to Lafayette was getting the opportunity to catch up with my old coach Anne Roger. I wish I had gotten a pic! She's a super sweet person and had such a big impact on my life. I don't think some people realize how impressionable teenagers are. They may roll their eyes or act like they're not listening, but they are soaking it all in...always watching. It was really great to catch up with such an awesome person. It was nice for her to get to meet my husband too. We met at a super cool little place in Lafayette called the tap room. It was located in River Ranch. There are a few cool things that have come to lafayette since I left and the tap room is one of them. Thanks to my old buddy Brian Campbell for letting me know about it. Of course on our last morning in Lafayette my dad ran out to get the ever famous Meches Donuts. Let's just say by the time I left Lafayette I was just a little full. Always enjoyable for a short trip!!

South Austin - Texas
Todds work this time actually brought us to South Austin. Usually when I've gone back to Austin I've stayed north in the Georgetown. It had been years since I really spent any amount of time in south Austin. To me south Austin was where I grew up. It was my first post college/professional job. Finished college and moved off to start life. It was my first apartment, first job, where I found my love for the outdoors and triathlon, learned to work with all sorts of different people. After getting to drive around and frequent some restaurants that I enjoy and a few new ones I remembered how much I love south Austin. Don't get me wrong. I love Alaska and don't want to leave. I did wake up every morning with a headache from the nice Austin allergens, but other than that it was good. I could share so many more thoughts probably, but my brain is just tired.