Anchorage

We left the bleak weather of the McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge to brilliant sunshine and blue skies as we rolled into Anchorage.  Strolling through the town we discovered some popular eating places.  Anchorage is a booming city, with lots of cute shops along the main streets near our hotel.

 

Situated on the ocean, I thought Anchorage would have a beach; shoreline and a surf, but as we walked the trails along the coast we saw they were mudflats.  All along the way from Whittier to Anchorage we saw signs warning against walking on the mudflats.  We also heard many stories of people who became trapped, injured or died in the mud.  We were walking along the trail at low tide, we heeded the signs and stayed on the walkway.  Evidently the Turnagain Arm and the Anchorage areas have the 2^nd largest tidal variances in the world, up to 20+ feet, with Bay of Fundi having the largest. 

Anchorage-hotels at top of hill was the original height
of the landscape before the earthquake.

Alaska was affected by a 9.2 earthquake in 1964, the second largest one recorded in history.  Tsunamis were generated as high as 180 feet in Valdez and experienced as far away as Hawaii.  During that earthquake parts of Alaska’s western coastline lifted or sank.  Anchorage’s coastline experienced a 30-50 feet drop which is still visible today.

Crissy arrived on Saturday and we walked through downtown with her, taking in the Saturday Farmer’s Market.

 

We also visited the river to see if salmon were migrating up river.  We saw tons of fishermen, negotiating the slippery mud to catch salmon and trout. They obviously didn’t read the signs!

 

 

We stopped by the Glacier Brewery to test their samplers and take in dinner.  It was a very popular place that had very good brews.

 

Anchorage had lots of beautiful flowers throughout the town.  Evidently flowers were so important to the citizens when budget cuts eliminated the flower budget, townspeople planted and cared for them.  The flowers were restored in the following year's budget, but their taxes went up.

The night before we flew to Brooks Falls we stayed near the Anchorage airport.  Our hotel was also near the busiest float plane landing area in Alaska, Lake Hood.  Can’t say you could go to bed early or sleep late there.  We spent the evening listening to music and watching the planes come and go on the lake before we departed.

We will come back to Anchorage a couple more times before we leave, but for now we look forward to leaving for Brooks Falls and the bears!