Birthday to Remember.

It was a normal enough day. My brother turned twenty-two (cue Taylor Swift) and to celebrate, we all decided to take a road trip up to Girdwood and celebrate with a fine dinner beneath the mountainside.

Or at the top of the mountainside.

My dad surprised us by taking us to the divine Seven Glaciers restaurant sitting atop Mt. Alyeska. I've only been craving this place since I last visited ten years ago!

So in the midst of skiers and boarders, in our fine dinner attire, we waited for our ride- the tram. Well, we conveniently hit the time in which high winds were present. Finally, after multiple delays, we all crowded inside and up we went.

Ditching the skiers for their travel down, we made our way to the restaurant, windows facing the tram hardware, and steep mountainside below. We walked past the wine cellar and wall full of Dom Perignon and Perrier Jouet bottles and were seated for our meal.

Cheers to this young man's birthday!

You can always tell a restaurant by its bread selection and consistency of butter. Seven Glaciers scored in that department!

Appetizer to start was a cheese platter. They were all delicious, but the one that stuck out most was the espresso lavender honey cheese. Holy.

After the cheese, I was given a lovely scallop bisque with smoked salmon, smoked salmon mousse, and chive oils and croutons. And on top, the most delicious caviar I've ever had!

Birthday boy's dinner was lamb chops..

And I went for the Alaskan seafood paella!

Baked Alyeska for the Smiling Alyeska..

Even their after dinner chocolates were beautiful!

Classic Krull kids.

The calm before the storm..

So we finish our outstanding meal, and we're constantly being delayed for the tram ride down due to high winds.  A look outside at the swirling blizzard was proof enough that we were in the midst of a storm!

Finally, we're told that its ready and so we all pile into the tram.

We go down at a fairly quick speed when all of a sudden, the tram stops about halfway down due to an emergency stop. There's no way to override the brake and so we end up spending nearly forty-five minutes suspended a hundred plus feet above the mountainside in a wintry blizzard. The winds averaged 60-80 mph, but it was the gusts that frightened me most of all. It would come out of nowhere and the tram would eerily swing back and forth.

Mother Nature has such the uncanny ability of making you feel terribly insignificant and small! We were just suspended up there at the mercy of the wind.

It was an adventure and finally, it let up and we were able to slowly land to safety.

Easy to say that it was a memorable birthday! An unforgettable birthday for an unforgettable brother.