We're staying at the neatest little hostel, House of the Seven Trees, which is run and owned by an older woman: Pat McGee. The hostel consists of an historic cabin in the front (which Pat lives in), with a large added on piece in the back with four bedrooms and a kitchen and family room...then a bunkhouse out back (looks like it might have used to have been a barn or shed or something). Justin and I chose to rent a room, and have thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Pat is hysterical, her first interest is in having everyone put a pin in the world map showing where they're from. And telling stories about other guests she's had in the past. There're yellow sticky notes on all the doors reminding folks to put a pin in the map before they leave. She has this huge dog, a big German shepherd mix which is the hugest sweetest baby, following Pat around dotingly and "guarding" the front door. But the dog's head honestly comes up to above my hips when it's just standing there. Pat showed us around the place, showing us different things as if we were in her home (like how to turn on hot water, where the tea and coffee is, etc). There's a full kitchen open for everyone's use, which we used to cook a nice big breakfast. There've only been a few people staying here, a few men last night and this big, tall, bearded Australian man named Kym. Pat had to go to Anchorage today, so Kym was to be responsible for watching the hostel in Pat's absence. However, Kym caught a horrible cold and Pat came to Justin and I and offered to let us stay for free for our second night if we would keep an eye on things. Like take people's payment if they arrive and run a vacuum over the entry rug. We took her up on her offer. We're by no means tied to this place, she leaves it open all the time in a way that just astonishes me (for instance, she barely knows us and has left for one night with the place completely open to us, and trusts us to take people's money and put it in a designated place. She also leaves the doors open at all times. It's just astonishing to me). So we're free to run about the town and do what we do. So, today, we took a flight seeing tour. It was excellent. Amazing. And I say this even though I was pretty much arguing against spending the money on it for various reasons. But I take it back, I was wrong. It was worth it and we lived. Our plane was what they call a "Beaver", a bush plane used commonly in Alaska to get people in and out of hard-to-reach areas. Seats 8 people. The planes are also to drop off Mckinley climbers at the base camp starting off point at 7000 feet. (Mt. McKinley is over 20,000 feet). There were four other people on our tour, we were flown by a pilot who hiked McKinely when he was young, and has been a bush pilot all his life. The flightseeing tour wasn't cheap, so we chose the cheapest option and chose not to pay for the "Glacier Landing" although it looked like an awesome opportunity. Well, when we arrived to check in for our flight we found that we had been upgraded for free, yet had to keep it quiet. There were six people (including us) who wanted to do our one-hour tour, and four who wanted to upgrade with a glacier landing. They paid for the upgrade, we didn't, but we got to do it anyways! And it was sooooo cool. They flew us up to the Alaska Range which contains Mount McKinley. And glaciers. And ice break ups. And amazingness. Then we landed on a glacier. And walked around on it. And between conversation of seven people the incredible silence and stillness of the ice and snow was deafening. And we saw people out there doing hard-core climbing, with ropes and skis and ice picks. Many McKinley climbers. Awesome. It's amazing how warm the sun is on the Glacier, and so bright it hurts. Just look at the pictures, it's difficult to describe. Check out the photos. I'll try not to post too many. I'll try. We spent about an hour or more this afternoon, after the flight, talking with (or listening to?) Kym from Australia telling stories and discussing topics as varied as the 11 day "walk" ( hiked a mountain in Australia) he took with his 11 year old son before he left for the states for a few months of work, to people he's met as a Gold miner and construction worker all over the world. As I mentioned, he's this tall bearded man shuffling round in big boots and a sweatshirt... Justin and I think he's the first traveling miner we've met. A brilliant man with a flare for telling stories and remembering incredible detail and dates and history. For instance, he gave us a brief history of the bicycle in the 1890s and early 1900s. And the "real" history of Australia as a group of British convicts that he claims the Australian gov't constantly tries to cover up. Mark Twain apparently backs him up on that. He was a hoot and really interesting, an excellent story teller. After our conversation with Kym, we headed over the the Roadhouse across the street (featuring sourdough from 1902) and filled ourselves with sinful delicious dessert, baked at the Roadhouse. While eating in the family style room we were able to listen to climbers discussing their McKinley pursuits, and folks who sounded like they spend most of the climbing season at Basecamp (at 7000 feet as I mentioned earlier and most climbers' starting off point). Also a group of Talkeetna community members discussing the development of a community trail and resistance from private land owners to the trails presence on their property. Interesting conversations. So, to sum it up, we're staying for free (well, we did pay for one night) in a place that feels like someone's awesome house or large cabin, and we got to do a Glacier Landing on a flightseeing tour, without paying the upgrade fee, and the weather's been beautiful and clear and the ice and glaciers and snow is breathtaking. We're headed to Denali National Park tomorrow (the shuttles don't start until June but we're hoping the road is free of snow and open to the 30 mile mark so we can get into a campsite). Then Chena Hot Springs north of Fairbanks.