Liquid sunshine

Day 56 – Wednesday, August 7

It rained today, but didn’t dampen our spirits on our city tour around Anchorage.  We went up on the hill and saw a neat view of the city.  We took this picture that was supposed to show Anchorage in our hands, but it was too hazy and the picture didn’t turn out.  It was a pretty view, but too bad we had so much liquid sunshine. 

The guide said they really needed the rain—the fire hazard is “high” because of the lack of rain this summer.

We learned a lot about the city which started as a railroad town for the Alaska Railroad.  The railroad still has a big transportation hub here.  Anchorage also became a port town and there is a lot of container shipping. We could see the ships loaded up in the Port of Anchorage, adjacent to the railroad depot.

Anchorage is the largest float plane center in the world.   There are hundreds of float planes moored at Lake Hood, and the guide told us it is a 10 year wait to get a slip here!  Small plane travel is a way of life for many, since so many of the communities are only accessible by water.  We were able to watch several planes take off and land on the water. Lake Hood is next to a “normal” small airport, and the control tower manages traffic for both the airplanes with wheels and the ones with floats.  They even have the airport patrol that makes sure wildlife (moose, ducks, etc.) don’t interfere with the landing areas.  There are 13 landing strips in the city, and one is even long enough for the space shuttle to land, as a backup in case of emergency!

The downtown area has baskets of flowers lining the streets.  There are pink and red geraniums that commemorate the pink and red salmon.  They have blue and gold baskets of flowers, commemorating the state flag.  Half of the downtown is old, and the other half is much newer, due to the 1964 earthquake that destroyed much of the area, which had to be rebuilt.  It was a 9.2 quake on the richter scale!

We watched the salmon fishermen at Ship Creek, and watched one pull in a King Salmon.  He got a big applause from our group when he finally landed it.—it was huge!

We went to the Alaska Wildberry Company and saw a HUGE chocolate waterfall—the sight and smell made everyone drool! There was no dipping allowed, and Jim was a little disappointed.

 

Outside, we saw some reindeer, already getting ready for Christmas!

ULU and Qiviut are two new words I’ve learned since being in Alaska!  An Ulu is a special kind of curved knife used by the Alaskans, and they say it’s the only knife you’ll ever need!   Qiviut is yarn made out of Musk Ox underbelly wool…it is supposed to be 8 times warmer than wool and lighter and finer than cashmere!  It is also supposed to be hypoallergenic and will not shrink—you can bet the price tag reflects that too!!

It got up to 66^o today, and tomorrow is supposed to be a bit warmer, with the weather clearing in the afternoon.  We have another tour in the morning, and hope to hit the shopping and fish markets in the afternoon.