Downtown Anchorage

Yesterday we were joined by Tracy and Jeff for an afternoon and evening taking in the downtown area of Anchorage.  We started with a visit to the Alaska Experience where learned some of the details of the devastating 1964 earthquake and enjoyed many fantastic views of Alaska's Northern Lights in a film by Todd Salat, Epic Aurora.

We then visited the Anchorage Market where we viewed many crafts on display and tasted some excellent food.  We were also thrilled to meet the artist who was responsible for the creation of the Baleen Scrimshaw that has been hanging in Tracy and Jeff's living room for many years and another of which is now on display in our RV.

It turns out that this guy made these pieces some 20 years ago and it was quite nice to have a bit of a chat with him and his mother.  He was pleased to learn that his work had found good homes.

We continued our day with a walk around the city and stopping into some of the shops along the way, including some watering holes and more good food.  We are pleased to share some photos of all this with you which include shots of the floral arrangements that dot the city.

A Different Alaska Discovery

Thanks to a suggestion and a coupon from Tracy and Jeff, today we discovered an excellent place for a late lunch after a bit of shopping.  After all our travels around the country since 2007, not to mention the trips we made to Mexico in the years before that, we've just discovered a new favorite Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, named Gallo's.  Like you, we think it is just a bit strange to find a good, no great Mexican eatery in Alaska, but we must say that the chimichangas are certainly among the best we've ever eaten.

We will return and suggest that you try it if you find yourself in the area.  There are two locations in Anchorage and one in Fairbanks.

Snowing?

With high temperatures in the 70's and 80's, it is not exactly the conditions for snow here in Anchorage; however, there are times that we are seeing what appears to be large snow flurries in the air and accumulations of white can be spotted here and there, depending on location and winds.  This is all due to a large population of cottonwood trees all around the area.  Even though these trees are not unique to Alaska, it is a bit surprising to learn that the national record tree, at 101 feet tall and abut 32 feet around at the base was discovered in Haines, AK.

Today, as I write this, there is quite a bit of this flurry activity and I'm guessing that it is probably not a good day for allergy sufferers to spend too much time outdoors.

Alaska News

Today's entry is more a news item than a blog.

When we entered Alaska, we passed through an area where a wildfire had crossed the road just a day earlier and was still burning not far from the highway.  It was so sad to see many acres of destroyed forest that were left in the wake of the burn.  Today, as I write this, there are two major fires involving thousands of acres of the Alaska landscape; one to our North in the Willow area and another to our South near the Sterling highway.  In Willow, there have been hundreds of mush dogs evacuated.  We are far enough away from both fires, but we can see a bit of the smoke from time to time.  The one in the Sterling area started just a short time after we went through that area on Sunday.

Yesterday marked the fourth consecutive day of high temperatures in the 80's in Anchorage, breaking a record from the 50's.

For those you that have not had the experience of the Summer sun in Alaska, you might find it interesting to hear that we attended a softball doubleheader on Wednesday with the first game starting at 8:45 pm on a field with no lights and the sun was just setting when we were leaving the field after 11:30.  Tonight the sun will set at 11:42 and it will not get completely dark at all before sunrise at 4:20 am.

Trip to Homer

Over the weekend, we were joined by Tracy and Jeff for a 225 mile trip down much of the Kenai Penninsula to Homer.  Most of the trip is via a two-lane road that winds its way through beautiful vistas of mountains, lakes, streams, rivers and bays.  Along the way, we stopped about 50 miles short of our destination to spend a night at a state recreation area where we sat right on the water's edge and observed a number of Golden and Bald Eagles as well as an amazing sunset.

While on the Homer Spit, Deb and Jeff spent an afternoon out on a boat fishing for Halibut, while Tracy and I took a 5- mile walk exploring the spit.  The fishing experience was a bit less than hoped for, but we did know to expect something less than on the trip Deb took with Tracy and Jeff about 10 years ago.  They did catch their limit and we have some good eating on the horizon.

See some captions in these photos for more information.

From Jewel Lake Road, Anchorage, Alaska

Do you know what this is?

We are now pretty much settled in with our RV stationed at Sand Lake Elementary School in Anchorage, just a few blocks away from our daughter's place.  We will be staying here, except for assorted trips around the area, until a bit beyond the middle of July as participants in the Anchorage School District's Camper Host Program.  While we are here, we keep an eye on the school and report any problems we may observe. We're already familiar with some of the maintenance crew since our first report concerned the water supply to our RV.  Other than this, we have been enjoying the company of Tracy and Jeff and getting familiar with our surroundings.

I'm hoping to provide something more interesting to read about our current adventure soon, but in the meantime here are the photos from the last day of our trip to Anchorage which I had mentioned to you earlier when the following message was sent to the usual followers of this blog.

We have arrived safely in Anchorage, Alaska.  This will be our base location as we visit with family and friends and explore various locations in this part of the state for the next 6 weeks or so.  The trip from Glennallen today was absolutely filled with fantastic views around just about every of the hundreds of bends as we climbed and descended the mountains along the way.  Thanx to Deb for doing most of the day's driving so I could enjoy the scenery and take photos which will be shared with you in a day or two when we've had a chance to get settled in here.