Our Saturday Mother’s Day excursion to Girdwood satisfied our expectations (hiking and rain) and brought a few surprises (the hand tram). We started with breakfast at The Bakery, which is famous for a very large sweet roll. The food was fine, but most importantly our stomachs ended up full.  Throughout the meal I kept glancing outside, watching the rain alternate between drizzle and downpour. As we walked outside it nicely shifted back to drizzle.

 

Wisely, we geared up at the Winner Creek trailhead in anticipation of heavier rain. Henry slipped into his muddy buddy and Piper was positioned into the backpack such that she wasn’t in direct contact to any rain. The drizzle soon picked up, but the tree cover on the trail helped a great deal. We stopped here and there to jump in a muddy puddles, fling some sticks, and kick downed logs. We eventually made it to the hand tram, where to my great surprise Henry eagerly jumped into the tiny, steel tram. I had really expected some push back here.

 

Becky and Henry went across the gorge and hiked beyond towards the waterfall. I kept a snoozing Piper in the backpack while pulling the tram rope like a Good Samaritan for about 10 different folks. According to the hikers passing by, she eventually awoke and smiled while she bobbed back and forth during my huffing and puffing.

 

After returning from the waterfall (where Henry’s curiosity at the height of the falls got him a quick yank backwards from Mommy), we hiked back to the car, slammed a snack down, and then proceeded to head for the Girdwood playground. From the road it was always clear just how nice a playground this was, but once we were inside it, we found it even better than we had imagined. There were close to 20 donated Tonka trucks drifting around the empty playground.

 

Suffice to say, we had a hard time getting Henry to hit the road an hour or so later.

 

Lots of snoozing on the way home after a successful day.