Thursday, June 24, 1999

 

It's been just a little bit of adjustment with time of day here.  At 10:00 last night it was broad daylight.  Downtown literally stays open till ten or twelve at night.  (People have to work on a shift that late!)  We saw people mowing yards and cleaning etc that late. 

Our room has thick curtains to keep the light out but the room was light all night in what came in around the edges.  No matter when you get up at night it looks like dawn.  Our courtesy car driver said Reynolds wrap does a HUGE business up here!

Rus snuck out very early for a little preview walk around town.  When Stacey got up she was "busy" until he got back trying to get the two way radio working so he could hear her.  We all headed out to explore and find a place for breakfast.  The "hub" of the active area downtown is 4th, 5th and 6th Avenues.  We ate in a little outdoor cafe and really just started with lunch instead. The Visitor Center was right across the street so we started there.

We got information for the bus service in town and decided we wanted to go out to the Alaska Zoo.  We bought an all day pass so we could go multiple places with transfers.  We got to see a good bit of the residential part of the city on the way.  We did a bus change at Dimond which is the largest mall in Alaska.  It was a strip mall on two sides of the highway so it's now really a "walking" mall.  It had every big name store you'd recognize and a few extras.

The Alaska Zoo is an old zoo but they are renovating areas into the more current style of habitats for animals.  It was not a real big one but we enjoyed.  They had brown bear and a polar bear that were cubs together.  They are obviously still young but HUGE now and just love one another.  They were my favorites. 

We wandered some more downtown when we got back and took in some dual movies on a 180 degree screen. One was on the Earthquake of 1964 and the other on Alaska.  The scenery here is and will be absolutely breathtaking.  I'm only beginning to realize how remote most of this country is.  It's been pretty much like any city right here in Anchorage except that there are beautiful snow covered mountains on all sides but where the harbor is.

The thing that caught my attention right away was the flowers.  They are absolutely vibrant.  They are EVERYWHERE...in spaces in the sidewalk or window boxes or in huge hanging baskets that line the downtown area.  Some are varieties we have at home but in totally different colors than I've seen.  Some are varieties I've never seen.  They have a begonia that blooms out like a rose.  The flowers are just gigantic!  The beds are often planted in a single color with lots of variety of types and the hues.  I could have just done a flower tour for a couple hours!!

We started out this morning thinking we were going to the Museum behind me here in this picture.  Turns out that's the one place we didn't make it to.  We've put that on the agenda for our return.  We did make reservations for the 26 Glacier Cruise for our return.  It will be a highlight of the trip I am sure.  We'll take the train down and swap to the boat.  It will be a very long one day trip. There is a Native Heritage Village here we will also visit on our return.  We'll stay in this motel again.  We've sure learned our way around in a short time!

We ate dinner in a Mexican Restaurant that is right behind our hotel.  Rus decided this place was just designed for our being here!  It was about 7:30 when we got back to the room and once we sat or laid down it was hard to read or write!!  We had logged some miles on foot today!