Blogs from Anchorage, Alaska, United States, North America

We arrived in Anchorage on the 24thof February having spent the past 6 months working and living in Vancouver. Checking into our hotel. They informed us that we have arrived on a good week as they were celebrating Fur Rondy which is a Winter Festival held in Anchorage, Alaska every year in late February. We dumped our backpacks and headed downtown just in time to grab a perfect spot for the Grande Parade, It was pretty cold standing there -9 degrees! After that we walked down to the Snow Sculpting Competition. The work was very impressive a polar bear playing a piano, Peace signs, Jesus even a Banana Split. It was going to be a tight competition. It was now time to watch the dog sled racing and see the blanket toss a traditional activity where ... read more

This was the day of the trip home. It was a day we were both dreading and looking forward to at the same time. We had an incredible time in Alaska and did not want it to end, but our fatigue was overwhelming. We had breakfast and got our bags packed for flight instead of drive like we were use to for the last two weeks. We left the hotel with the truck packed and wanted to find some native Alaskan art for the home and had nearly an hour to do so before getting to Enterprise Rental to return ole’ silver. We stopped at one shop and the stuff was too touristy or two expensive. A second shop just made woven goods so it was not what we were looking for either. We conceded that ... read more

This was our last solid full day in Alaska for our Honeymoon trip. That was a bittersweet feeling as was evident on how we were not launched from a cannon when getting out of bed. We were clearly exhausted from nearly 2400 miles of touring and exploring Alaska. After breakfast and getting ready, we decided to explore Anchorage. We wanted to walk on a glacier and were told in Seward that Anchorage may still have seasonal availability. We decided since we walked to Exit Glacier in Seward and saw it pretty close so that was good enough. We decided to go to the area of the Anchorage Airport to explore the Anchorage Aviation Museum. We saw some video and explored the exhibits. It again was visual overload. We enjoyed the museum fully, but got to a ... read more

Good thing for planning and foresight. We over slept the hotel breakfast. I did have enough supplies for us to enjoy breakfast in our room. We enjoyed the view while we ate. The room really was just right. We were packed up in just an hour and off to Anchorage for the final leg of our trip. Boy did it rain. The truck is clean as a result. The conditions made for lousy views. We were motivated by that alone to push on to our destination with a minimum of stops. We even ate lunch on the fly in the car. We used up the last of our lunch supplies with the exception of the garlic bread Vern gave us. We still have enough for another sandwich each. It’s the never ending bread. It still tastes ... read more

Anchorage We had intended to get up early to see some of the sail down Cook Inlet but had already arrived in Anchorage when we got up around 6AM. There were some lovely views of snowcapped mountains in the distance and it looked like it was going to be a great day. In the distance the sun was pouring down on snowcapped peaks that looked like they belonged in Alaska, while we were waiting to catch a view of the sun. Also in the far off distance Sharon believes she caught a glimpse of Mt. McKinley, which can be seen on a clear day. We had clouds overhead but in the distance the sun shined brightly, so we had high hopes for the day.We had breakfast in the Lido (Sharon had Waffles again and John had ... read more

We left Anchorage after work and got on the road south by 6pm. Dry weather! We hoped this meant we would be able to try out our canoe just recently purchased.  Drove to Tenderfoot campground and found a fairly decent site. Now we have new things to look for at a site to be wary of. A slight slope in parking the van. Placement of the fire pit in relation to the picnic table. This is in addition to our previous list: site on the periphery if there is a loop with inner site, semi secluded, not in sight of neighbors, space for our trailer and foyer beside the van...we don't achieve this every time but the list is good.  We did not even bother to set up our gazebo or tarp, optimistically thinking that it ... read more

LYN CHRYSTAL: I arrived back in Alaska on July 27th having spent three weeks in Austin, Texas welcoming a new grandson. Quite a change, we went from low 60’s to 100+ degrees and back again. The rest of our group had spent a week in Fairbanks while I was gone, and had enjoyed that; they were all in Anchorage by the time I got there. The first morning while I was getting my email Anchorage experienced a 6.5 earthquake, nobody seemed fazed so I figured it was no big deal! Betty, Gary and I decided to take a walk around downtown Anchorage and have lunch. Each weekday lunch hour there is free music in the Town Square, which is a grasses area in central Anchorage where folks bring their lunches and a blanket and enjoy a ... read more