Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska:

August 3-5, 2013

Days 21-23 were spent in Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage; home to 44% of the state’s population nearly 300,000 people. Interesting bit of trivia is that there are more espresso stands per capita here than anywhere else in the world (more than Seattle?) It is a huge city geographically 1961 square miles are within the city limits. On a clear day one can see 6 mountain ranges (No, not Russia, Sarah) and Anchorage is as far north latitude as Helsinki Finland, and as far west as Honolulu.  Who knew?

Anchorage

The group had a city tour and drove through the down town area and into Earthquake Park where you could see some of the consequences of the 1964 massive earthquake that hit this area. It was 9.2 on the Richter scale, it lasted nearly 3 minutes, some of the land near the water’s edge dropped nearly 12 feet.  The route then took us on a drive around Lake Hope; there we saw an amazing array of seaplanes tethered to shore. Most of them moored there had small garages for tools, and spare parts-looked a lot like a boat harbor, but for planes. Most of these planes had their pontoons on for summer, but switch to all-terrain tires in spring and fall and skies for winter.  Over 90% of Alaska is not served by roads; so approximately 1 in 11 of Alaska’s population have a pilot’s license, and there are 16 times more planes per capita than anywhere else in the U.S. From a nice viewpoint up on a ridge we looked across the Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm.  In 1778 Captain Cook, was looking for the infamous Northwest Passage, thought he had found it, until he sailed into this narrow waterway, realized he had not and told his ships that they would have to “turn again”.   From this vantage point we also had a pretty good view of Mt. Susitna at 4,396 feet. The mountain is also referred to as the Sleeping Lady: the story goes that many years ago on the shores of the Cook Inlet lived a local people (giants) that were peace loving. There were being bothered by another band of natives who did not share this life style. To try and solve their differences a band of men led by Nekatia approached the marauders. Unfortunately Nekatia died in his attempt. Susitna waited and waited for her lover to return, and finally fell asleep. Supposedly her tears and those of the other villagers brought the first snow fall to the area – when the mountain is snow covered she is snuggled under a fluffy white blanket, and as the weather warms up her blanket is beautiful green with flowers. Susitna is still waiting for her lover to return and the story says that she will only wake up when peace returns to our land. The afternoon was enjoyed with a lunch and a bit of souveniring: went to the ulu knife factory and the Wildberry Sweet shop with the world’s tallest chocolate fountain.  An Alaska video showing the beauty and uniqueness of Alaska finished the tour.

Karen meets Merry the Reindeer

Visitors center in Anchorage

Anchorage is home to the Alaska Native Heritage Center – Changing lives, living values: They had an excellent interpretive center explaining the differences and similarities of the 11 distinct cultures. We walked through the 6 native villages and got a little better understanding of the native peoples of the state of Alaska. We enjoyed watching a display of Alaska Native Games – 2 young women demonstrated a kicking game: they kicked a ball that was suspended on a rope about 7feet off the ground. The kicking was amazing, but the way they hopped up in the air both feet off the ground whacked the ball with their foot and then landed on the foot that they had kicked with. We just stood watching for several minutes couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Amazing athletes.

Alaskan Native Heritage Center

the summer door

Our Anchorage visit was topped off with a wonderful salmon barbeque hosted by our wagon masters. John and Arleen are quite the “Alaskans” and do a lot fishing and hunting.  The group consumed almost 30 pounds of tasty Coho salmon.  Yummo, we really enjoyed it.  Mike tried his hand at salmon fishing, but they were just not biting his lures and fishing hole he selected was crazy with other fisherman.

Salmon fishing

Miles for the day: 239  Total miles for the AK Adventure: 1911.2