{"id":742,"date":"2026-05-14T17:48:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/?p=742"},"modified":"2026-05-15T06:19:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T06:19:57","slug":"usa-2024-part-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/usa-2024-part-29\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Part 29 – A campfire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before heading for lunch, we thought of checking out some tour operators to see if there were any other activities we could try today. The area we landed in was just beside Resurrection Bay – the water body beside Seward that connects to the North Pacific Ocean. We went in search of a zipline operator but found that this area had many activity operators – zipline, cruises, kayaking, and dog sledging. Each operator had a nice hut where they had their office – I even saw our cruise operator\u2019s office, the major Marine Tours. We checked out a few, but the only one with a suitable timing was the dog sledge (dogs pulling you in a cart), which we decided to skip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our cruise operator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most restaurants were in the downtown area (same place where we had dinner yesterday and breakfast today) – and so we were back there to a Mexican restaurant that Raghav and Rakesh had picked – the Lone Chicharron Taqueria. We ordered some burritos and tacos along with Jarritos (Mexican soda brand). On the table next to us was an American lady with 2 of her grandkids; their parents had gone somewhere nearby – Rakesh struck up a conversation with the kids and even told them a few words in Tamil since they were curious about our native language. After lunch, a couple of blocks away, Raghav noticed a board saying \u2018Sweet Darlings\u2019 – it was a dessert shop and not something that we\u2019d give up. I looked up their online reviews, which seemed ok.
They were packed with customers – not overflowing, but all tables occupied, and even at the counter for their gelatos, there was a queue of 6. I tasted a couple of flavours, and Raghav bought a scoop of gelato – it was ok; I didn\u2019t find it unique. On the same stretch, we saw a fairly large gift shop that had plenty of small souvenir-type items as well as larger gifts – a great place to pick up items to distribute to friends and family.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Desserts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Drink<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Burritos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnything we want to do today?\u201d
\u201cWant to go to the Alaska Sealife centre?\u201d
\u201cWhat\u2019s in there?\u201d
\u201cSort of like an aquarium.\u201d
\u201cIf there\u2019s a polar bear, we can go. That\u2019s the only thing we\u2019ve not seen.\u201d
\u201cNa – they surely won\u2019t have polar bears.\u201d It\u2019s a place to see the types of local fish and animals that inhabit the waters in the area.
\u201cThere are some trails further down – it seems to be in a park. We can check out the park.\u201d
We drove south from the Downtown area, as Google advised us to – it led us into shady, deserted side roads – even though there was daylight, it felt like we were on the wrong route.
\u201cAre we on some private roads?\u201d
We got out of what seemed like private property and landed in an area that seemed like the edge of a forest – this was one end of the park, but there didn\u2019t seem to be any entrance.
\u201cWe can\u2019t leave the car anywhere here on the road, either.\u201d
We spotted a couple of trail boards, and I guess the trails would take you through the park; one of the trails, per my research, would take you to a fort. But that was a longer hike.
\u201cWant to do the trail?\u201d
\u201cNa. It will take time, and I\u2019m not sure of the elevation. I was thinking we could enter the park.\u201d
Considering Moorthy\u2019s knee, we decided to return. Near the waterfront, there were signs of life – few lodging cabins; some had kayaking activity; it was a nice short return ride where we drove just near the water of Resurrection Bay – we were driving beside the Pacific Ocean! This was the beachfront, but it was rocky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junk food<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was around 5:30 pm when we were back home. Moorthy was having a back-and-forth conversation with the owner of our cabin regarding the internet connection – it was patchy, the speed was terrible, and he couldn\u2019t watch the cricket games. The owner\u2019s replies were also fairly inconsiderate – he messaged in the morning, and she said she would look at it in the evening!
\u201cI thought these places would care about the reviews that people posted. Seems like she doesn\u2019t care about it.\u201d
Finally, Moorthy found where the wireless device was placed – it was like a treasure hunt to locate that! And then we played around, positioning it in different places to see where the speeds would be good.
\u201cTry keeping it outside.\u201d
I placed it just outside our door, and that\u2019s where we found the signal strength and speeds were the best. The cabin next door was still unoccupied, and so there was no one else in these woods except us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


One issue when you travel in groups is that you\u2019ll tend to buy these large packs of snacks – and we had chips and some crunchy flavoured onion rings that we kept munching on through the evening, along with cookies. 
\u201cWe should go for dinner and buy dinner and come so that we don\u2019t end up getting stuck like yesterday.\u201d
Raghav was searching for restaurants. 
\u201cWe can get food and do a campfire. There was wood in that supermarket.\u201d
We had seen cut logs for sale at Safeway in the morning. So fuel wasn\u2019t an issue, and there was an outdoor fireplace just in front of our cabin to start a campfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A feast<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


At 7 pm, we were in Safeway, and everyone wandered off to different aisles. When Raghav and I saw Rakesh a while later, we were surprised to see veggies in his shopping cart.
\u201cWhy?\u201d
\u201cMoorthy said we\u2019ll cook dinner.\u201d
\u201cBut why cook here?\u201d
\u201cHe is insisting.\u201d
A few minutes later, we spotted Moorthy while Rakesh was wandering around the veggies section. \u201cRakesh is eating very little. I think he wants Indian food.\u201d
\u201cBut Rakesh usually eats only a little. He likes Thai food, and even that he eats less only. He is not particular about Indian food.\u201d
\u201cNo man, he will eat more. He is eating very little in the restaurants.\u201d
When we saw Rakesh picking Indian spices, both of us burst out laughing. With family or kids or having issues with finding suitable food, it would have been normal to cook while travelling – but with the four of us, it just felt ironic.\u00a0
\u201cWe\u2019ve come all the way to Alaska to cook Indian food!\u201d It wasn\u2019t like we weren\u2019t finding anything to eat, and there was just one more day to go. \u201cMoorthy says that since you are not eating well, we should cook.\u201d
\u201cI don\u2019t need Indian food.\u201d
\u201cHe says it\u2019s for you.\u201d
\u201cI think it\u2019s because he wants Indian food,\u201d Rakesh quipped. \u201cThey even have some of the Indian masalas in this shop.\u201d\u00a0
\u201cYou both are certainly very serious about this.\u201d
There was no way to talk them out of it. And anyway, since we didn\u2019t have anything else planned for tonight, it was fine. And we joined in to help them pick items for the dinner feast and campfire. We even bought some fancy salt and pepper bottles. And at last we picked a bundle of fuel logs – they were already chopped into smaller blocks to make it easy to handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 8 pm, cooking had started; Moorthy helped chop the vegetables, and Raghav helped Rakesh prepare the dishes. Fortunately, just like the first place where we stayed in Anchorage, this one also had all the utensils that you\u2019d need for cooking. 
\u201cRakesh is the chef. And Raghav is the sous chef,\u201d we commented. 
They kept rice, gobi-65 (cauliflower starters) and a cauliflower gravy. Add to that some potato chips we had and some drinks, and that was our dinner by the campfire. 
\u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d I asked Moorthy as he pulled something out of a small box.
\u201cIt\u2019s a fire starter kit. Helps start the fire.\u201d He sure had thought of everything when we were at the supermarket!
It was 9:30 pm, and we still had daylight – but it was cold outside. I had to wear a couple of layers: a sweatshirt and full-length pants. And I still felt cold. Rakesh, on the other hand, was wearing just one layer – a thin t-shirt and shorts! We spent some time sitting around the fire, warming ourselves, enjoying the food, and chatting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We wrapped up at around 11 pm.
\u201cKeep everything packed since we\u2019ll have to check out in the morning.\u201d
\u201cLet\u2019s start at 7.\u201d
Check-in time was 7am, but the staff had said today that if we came by 7:30am, it would be ok.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before heading for lunch, we thought of checking out some tour operators to see if there were any other activities we could try today. The area we landed in was just beside Resurrection Bay – the water body beside Seward that connects to the North Pacific Ocean. We went in search of a zipline operator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travelogue","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}