We had a great night sleep. This hotel resort is very quiet – ski season is over. The tram up the slopes isn’t running so everyone sleeps in!

We made it to the fitness centre and gym. The pool is quite big. Enough for laps. The hot tub is big. I’ll bet it gets crowded in season! it wasn’t today.

Breakfast didn’t happen this morning so after the swim we got ready to go to town.

Girdwood is the tiny town nearby the resort. There’s a shuttle but we decided to walk to it. Around 3.5km

The path meanders away from the road and for a moment or two I worried that a bear would come out of the woods!

Another couple had asked at the desk about seeing bears on the 3km walk to Girdwood. They asked should they take anti bear spray. “Yes” he said. Could we get some here. “No” he replied. “We don’t have any here. You can get it in the town!”

Needless to say we made it to town. During the walk we came across a few seats to rest and see the views. It was too cold to sit so we admired and moved on.

We spotted a memorial to a former Miss Alaska , a local who loved dance and gardens. Later saw a plaque dedicated to a young girl who died at 12. We hoped she didn’t meet a bear.

Girdwood is tiny. Big wide street with an eclectic collection of buildings. All timber: we saw a general store ( super expensive) , a PO, medical centre , a few restaurants- all in log houses and Grind a coffee shop.

We went in a found a little treasure run by Nicole. It smelled great. Had lots of interesting things on the walls and all types of milk.

Nicole asked where we were from. When we replied Australia she said she hoped her coffee was up to standard. She’d heard Australia had the best coffee around. She’s not wrong. We haven’t had too many good coffees. She did well. It was great. and we had a great chat about living in Girdwood. There isn’t much here. You have to love skiing and the quiet. Nicole loves it. She moved from Idaho and eventually most of her family have followed her.

The houses are not really in the township. They are scattered in the surrounding streets and in the woods nearby.

There are. Lot of big red two cab trucks here. You need a big car to battle the conditions. It must cost a fortune. Gas here is around $5.60 US a gallon for diesel !. Because of its remote location everything here is expensive. And our exchange rate is still terrible. We are only getting 63 c for every American dollar.

Lunch was at the Chair 5 bar restaurant. A lot of wooden tables & chairs, tvs blaring ice hockey , groups of locals and tourists, and a waitress who was as colourful as she was friendly. Let me describe the outfit. Gum Boots, odd colourful long socks , black shorts , black t shirt with words advertising on the front , arms ran with coloured ink pictures, curly black hair, several piercings and a beanie. And oh so friendly. We ordered a salad $28 and a pizza $25. They were both giant sized.

We walked another 10 mins up to the nearby brewery and sat outside around a warm brazier and had a beer while chatting to another Australian couple from Sydney.

A bus delivered us back to our Resort for a short rest and read.

Though not very hungry we decided to walk to another ski lift at the ‘Olympic Village’ for a drink and bite.

Another 25 min walk. The two pub bistros were closed. It’s Monday night ! Back to the hotel through the bear forest (at least it’s not dark at 7pm) and into the hotel bar restaurant for a bite, a chat to more Australians and then to bed. We certainly got our steps up today.

The hotel room is very comfortable there are heated towel rails which is great for drying our clothes overnight!

I hear there is a lot of rain in Brisbane it’s drizzling here and snow predicted tomorrow. A late cold burst. Stay dry everyone.