Moose Mountain Cafe: Fill & Download for Free

The Dish in the FreLard (between Fremont and Ballard) area is fantastic. Get pancakes, or if you're lucky enough to show up on a day with the special: the corned beef hash.Hale's Ales (also in FreLard) does breakfast on the weekends, and it is always good. I pretty much always order whatever the special is, but the buscuits and gravy are a hard to pass up standby. Not to mention the best bloody marys... perfect hangover breakfast spot.Wild Mountain Cafe (near Greenwood) is epic, but going for brunch on a weekend will be a wait. Worth it for the La Cabana breakfast casserole and garlic potato pancakes.Definitely can't forget Portage Bay Cafe (U-district or Ballard). I have no particular recommendations, everything is good.Senor Moose (in Ballard) does the most amazing mexican breakfasts. No losers on their menu.Morsel (U-district) makes the most unbelieveable biscuits and... tons of toppings. Some of them sound weird, but they're all amazing.The Breakfast Club (Lake City Way) once you get over the tons of knick-knacks and uneasily accept the ultra-conservative motif, they make the BEST pancakes. Also their hobo scramble is a greasy gut epiphany.

Hubster and I just took vacation in Estes Park this past October. We loved it there!The Trail Ridge was closed literally less than 30-minutes after we had gotten through! It was an amazing, yet terrifying, drive over the mountains. It was so windy and snowy that we were lucky to have stayed on the road.Grand Lake is an adorable little lake town. The park on that side is a little different than on the Estes Park side. If you stay in Grand Lake, you will need to be sure that you have the majority of food packed in with you.We saw just about every animal the NP has except bears and moose. We were told by locals in Estes Park that the moose are on the Grant Lake side. The Estes Park side is where you'll find the common elk.Pros for Estes Park:Plenty of places to stay, eat, several coffee shops, grocery store (has a deli counter inside), hospital, laundromat.About a 30-minute drive to Boulder should you need anything not available in townStanley Hotel (the general tour was awesome)More roads on this side of park as well as several lakes.Lots of hiking trailsFor places to eat we recommend: Cafe De Pho-Thai (Thai & Vietnamese cuisine) and Smokin’ Daves BBQ & Tap House (delicious BBQ!!!)Pros for Grand LakeBeautiful lake/town with less peopleMOOSESolitudeFishingHere are some photos I took in Estes ParkThe Stanley Hotel (above) & our tour guide Sophie (below)Elk hanging out in town (below — the first two are in front of the hospital)

I'd second a lot of things that Wandal Winn suggested, especially climbing Flattop and the drive to Seward (I'd actually go a little farther south, to Homer, but they are both nice towns to visit).After living there for over 27 years, here are some of my favorite places of interest I'd like to add (most of these are going to involve eating!):Eat at Moose's Tooth and/or Bear Tooth. Great beer, great food. Moose's Tooth has amazing pizza. Bear Tooth has two sides, the pub side (amazing pub fare) or the grill side (southwest influence), both delicious. Try to catch a live show at Bear Tooth, if you can.Alyeska is in Girdwood (still within the Anchorage Municipality), but you should check out that whole area. Eat at Double Musky for dinner.If you go in early Autumn (late Aug/early Sept, which is still late Summer for Anchorage), you can catch the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, about an hour outside of Anchorage. Quite the experience, plus good food.If you decide to hike Flattop, get there via O'Malley Rd, as opposed to Huffman Rd or De Armoun Rd. It's my favorite drive, as it gives an amazing perspective of how the mountains rise up around the city.You might be tempted to eat breakfast at Snow City Cafe at some point. Don't do it! It's become a little overrated over the years, and the wait is often excruciating. It's good food, but not THAT good. Middle Way Cafe is better food, and better atmosphere, in my opinion, plus they post a lot of local art on the walls. Right next to TitleWave Books (which Wandal mentioned). And/Or check out Fire Island Bakery, also delicious!Go to an Anchorage Aces hockey game. Watch for frozen fish...Pack a picnic and head to Kincaid Park. Hike the trails. Watch for wildlife. It's not uncommon to see or hear of bear activity, but you are more likely to see moose in the city. They're everywhere. Go down to Point Woronzof and build a campfire and roast marshmallows later that evening. It's not much of a beach, in the traditional sense, but it's peaceful.If you want to experience a little of the wilderness without leaving the city, you could hike Powerline Pass. I've personally never done it, though I wish I had.First Friday art exhibits all around downtown. Happens on the...first Friday of every month :).That's a good start. There are other things to do, depending on the time of year you go, like Fur Rendezvous (where you can see the ceremonial start to the Iditarod) in the winter, shows at the Performing Arts Center, downtown Saturday Market...See what you can, and have fun. Once you go, you're likely to be back ;).