Cubby’s Marketplace and Halibut Cookout

It rained off and on today, but we didn’t have a lot on our agenda, so it wasn’t a problem. We slept in a little – Don until 5:45 and me until 6:45! We had our traditional Sunday breakfast around 8:00 – scrambled eggs with salsa, two strips of crisp bacon, whole wheat toast for me, and milk. We needed a few things for our contribution to the group dinner tonight, so we drove 14 miles to Cubby’s Marketplace at the junction of Talkeetna Spur Rd. and Alaska Hwy 3.

Unlike Nagley’s in Talkeetna, this is a real supermarket with 9 aisles!

There was a special on ingredients for S’mores. But we can’t have a fire where we’re parked now, so we resisted.

Don found the artichoke hearts I need to make artichoke dip. He left it up to me whether to pay $6.15 for a can (online I found a pack of 6 (that’s SIX) 14-oz. cans for $4.09)! Needless to say, I passed on this offer.

A few other prices seemed out of line as well, such as $19.99-22.59 for mixed nuts or almonds. Notice they re-sell items from Costco recognizable by the Kirkland label.

How about tortilla chips? $8.59 but if we had bought them at Walmart in the Lower 48 they’d be about $2-3. I guess it costs a lot for the space that extra air in the bag takes up for shipping to Alaska.

On the other hand, meat was quite reasonably priced, even lower than we’ve seen it elsewhere, and several other things were priced a little higher than in the Lower 48 but not unreasonable.

We decided to skip our plan to follow the walking tour guide for downtown Talkeetna (5 blocks) because it was raining when we returned home. So we read a little, napped a little, and I wrote a different type of blog entry.

In fact, you may have noticed that this is my 4th blog entry in 2 days! Hope that makes up for skipping a day here and there. Sometimes I have very little to say, sometimes a lot. If you missed any entry, you can find them in the right-hand column.

Tonight we had happy hour with our group of 14, followed by a Halibut fry/grill. As with all RV gatherings, there were lots of side dishes.

Dennis was Chief Chef for tempura-battered and grilled halibut.

Most people like it fried.

My preference is grilled, with fresh lemon squeezed over it. Yummy! Don even ate some, and he’s not a fish fan. He wants to try it with a terriyaki marinade next time. We have lots in our freezer, so we’ll have a chance to do that another time.

Larry and Marilyn supplied the halibut from his recent catch of an almost 100-lb. fish. The rest of us supplied the side dishes. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I won’t tell you whose plate this was on. In case you don’t recognize it, it’s a brownie smothered in ice cream.

Later, Dennis had to advise the guys working on a dump station problem.

After dinner we talked about upcoming travels and excursions, solved some of the world’s problems, and we ended the pleasant evening with another wonderful Alaska memory stored in our minds.