Salmon Everywhere!

Jane here.

Yesterday we went into downtown Anchorage again on two specific missions: 1) to see as many of the Wild Salmon on Parade as we could, and 2)to go on a tour of the Anchorage cemetary, which was run by the Cook Inlet Historical Society. We acheived partial success on both counts.

Wild Salmon on Parade is one of those civic art projects where various groups and/or artists decorate statues of an animal that is iconic to the area. The statues are displayed for a while, usually a summer, and then auctioned off. Some examples are the Cow Parade in (I think) Chicago, the Pandas in Washington, DC, and the Miles of Mules in PA's Lehigh Valley. Anyway, as you might have guessed from the name, what is on parade here are salmon statues. They are scattered all over downtown, some are inside buildings and some are outside. There are 21 of them listed on the official flyer, though we saw one in the Visitor's Center that wasn't on the list...maybe it was from a previous year? Anyway, we saw 7 of the 21, so there are a few more to look at. Well, they'll be out for a few months yet, so we hope to get to see all of them. Or else I'll forget about it until it's too late. Only time can tell!

While we were walking around, we picked up a few side missions. One was to see the statue of Captain Cook, which we did. It is a nice statue, and he looks appropriately visionary. It is standing on a very nice observation deck, which has a good view of the Cook Inlet and (on a clear day, which this wasn't) the mountains beyond. But it was neat anyway. The other was to find a reasonably priced place to eat lunch. In this we were only semi-successful. Of course, as soon as we cracked and had a slice of pizza, every place after that looked good and had more-or-less reasonable prices. But the best part of this wandering around is that we are learning a bit more about the city everytime we wander around a bit, which is valuable to know!

The second major mission we also sort of completed. By around mid-afternoon, we had been walking around for a few hours and were starting to get tired. The problem was that at this point we had about 4 hours to wait until the tour even started. Now, you may be wondering, why not just go home and come back in about 3 1/2 hours? Because we could tell that once we were in our apartment for the day, going back out was not going to be an option. So we decided to go and just look around the cemetary ourselves, and if we saw anything really startling that we could not figure out for ourselves, we would work up the gumption to stick around for the tour. Well, it is a pretty good cemetary. If you are interested in that sort of thing, it has a few nifty features. There are a few unique monument types, like propellers for aviation pioneers and whalebones for a couple of people. One unique feature of the cemetary design itself is that a lot of it is laid out in fraternal organizations sectors - like the Elks section, the Masons section, and so forth. Cemetaries and gravestones are a minor hobby of mine, and we have walked around a fair number of them. So it is always interesting when I see something I haven't seen before. We didn't stick around for the tour - just too tired. However, apparently this is an annual event, so maybe we'll make it net year!

Solstice - not just for Druids anymore!

Summer solstice seems to be a BIG deal up here. As it should be - light all night long! It is neat to be able to walking around in the middle of the night in broad daylight, I have to admit. The light all night long is one of the things that is apparently a problem for newcomers, but fortunately it doesn't seem to be bothering us at all. This is the flip side of the all-day darkness we will be facing at the winter solstice.

There are formal and informal festivals and parties all over the place, one of which we will be going to tomorrow. Downtown Anchorage is hosting some kind of hootenanny, which we will report on as events progress.

More tomorrow night!

Evening Out - Anchorage Style!

This past Monday night we went to a neat theater-pub in Anchorage, the Bear Tooth. This is a restaurant that also has a movie theater attached to it. They mostly seem to show second-run movies, but they also show classics and art house flicks. Tickets are only $3. The really neat part is that you can eat your meal in the theater. You place your order at the concession stand and they give you a smallish orange construction cone, which you put on your table in the theater. When your food is ready, a waitperson brings it in to you. Seating is still in rows, and the tables are rectangular and attached to the floor. The food is of the casual dining genre, but very good. There is also a bar in the theater, where you can buy beer and wine.

So we went to see the classic selection on Monday night, which was...get ready for it...South Pacific! Neither of us had seen it before, though my parents had a record of the soundtrack, so I heard it many, many times in my youth. We figured we could check out this theater pub concept at the same time as viewing a hokey little slice of the past. It was extraordinarily hokey, but fun. The best part was that the rest of the audience was laughing at the dumb parts too. When the French planter is telling the nurse that he had to leave France because he killed a man, and then she tells him it's all right, the whole crowd erupted into laughter and hooting. We felt we were among kindred souls. We are definitely going back there!

Oh - and when the movie let out at 11:00 p.m., it was still light out! The sun was just starting to set. Weird!

Adventure 2

Jane here again.
I have been away from Anchorage travelling for my job, and just got back on Friday. I will be here a week, then gone again for a few weeks. So of the month we have been here, I personally have spent a total of 6 days here. However, so far it's great!

Today we had urban adventure # 2. We started out with the Alaska Zoo. Now, in general, I am not a zoo fan for various reasons. However, this is a good zoo. The animals are mostly rescued injured animals that cannot be released into the wild. Also, most of the animals are native and/or local animals, which is what makes it interesting to me. It is a chance to see Alaskan native animals in a controlled environment, where I can really pay attention and observe them, without all the running and screaming I would have to do if I saw them in the wild. There are lots of owls and eagles and other birds that are native to this climate. In the mammal department are wolves, otters, dall sheep, yaks, moose, snow leopard, lynx and caribou. Also, brown and black bears, harbor seals and polar bears! They all have reasonably nice environments and it is a nicely laid out zoo in general. The pens are situated in a woods that looks like it was disturbed as little as possible, which makes it even nicer. All in all, if you need a look at Alaska wildlife, the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage is definitely a good way to go!

Our second stop was the Alaska Botanical Garden. We did not get the full experience of this attraction, as the shop closed while we were walking the paths and looking at the gardens. So, no shopping, but a really nicely done and varied series of gardens. There are herb and perennial gardens, and a few nice walkways. I think my favorite bit was the wildflower path, which mostly has native plants, and also features a huge boulder left by a glacier which now has rare mosses and lichen on it. It has a fence around it, and we walked all around looking at it. All of the garden areas and the walkways have nice label stakes so that it's informative as well as pretty. There are a few paths that we didn't walk because it was getting late and we were tired. Also, there were signs up everywhere that a mother bear and some cubs had been seen in the area...today! Since the gardens are very near our house, we decided to come back another day and see the things further out from the main areas. Like the zoo, really worthwhile!

19 hours of daylight

I know, it's stereotypical Alaska-speak to go on about the long hours of daylight. But, hey, it's our blog and we'll blog if we want to. It isn't even the solstice yet and already it's light for all of our waking hours & then some. Today, sunrise was 4:30 and it won't set until 11:30! 19 hours. I used my car's headlights once since i've been here. It was 11pm & I only needed them because it was cloudy.
The locals warned me about having trouble sleeping but I haven't noticed any problem at all getting to sleep. My only hic-up is waking in the night and thinking I've overslept when it's really only 4 or 5 am.
Now, come winter it will be reversed and it'll be dark almost all the time. We'll see how we cope with that.............

Beautiful Sight

The Beauty of Alaska is stunning. Today, on my way home from work, I was watching a front of rain storms moving westward over the mountains east of Anchorage. The higher peaks were shrouded in mist but still vaguely visible. The dark clouds blackened the slopes, some of which still have snow. It was really something! I can't imagine getting accustomed to such vistas.