I love the town of Talkeetna! Mostly because of the Roadhouse, but the whole town is super friendly and has amazing food for such a tiny town. So I figured Heather would love it equally as well. Unfortunately all of the rooms at the Roadhouse were booked so we stayed at the Northern Guest house down the road. I was worried about it being further from downtown, but there isn't really such a thing as far away in Talkeetna.
Apart from introducing Heather to the fabulous food and seeing all the tourist shops, we decided to take the Hurricane train. Apparently this isn't a well known train, even by Alaskans. It's a whistle stop train running from Anchorage to Hurricane Gulch that stops wherever anyone wants to get on or off. It's how most people get to their cabins along the route, so we got to meet some really cool people. And the conductor of the train is super friendly with kids, they all got a bunch of trinkets and even a Golden Spike from the railroad for being so well behaved. Tommy even got one - he was definitely the littlest kid on the train but he did so good! I had stuff to entertain him when he got bored of looking out the window, plus he's sure footed enough these days we could wander around in the cars without him falling over. All in all, the train was well worth the visit - plus we got to see a black bear! Possibly the only wildlife Heather saw outside of the zoo. ;)
We had a great weekend and I think Heather may have fallen in love with Talkeetna too!
Oh and we stopped for burgers on the way back and Thomas discovered dipping French fries in ketchup. I think he was more interested in licking the ketchup off than eating the fries - definitely my kid... :)
