The Famous Five's Alaskan Adventure - Episode Five - 'Today we drop anchor in Anchorage!'

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June 28th 2019

Published: July 7th 2019

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Paulkilby

Breakfast at the Perch - 1

The view from the deck of the Perch in Carlo Creek.

You may well have been wondering why it has been so long since my last post; alternatively of course, you may well have been relieved to have had some respite from the trials and tribulations of the Famous Five. Well, the fact is, we have been aboard our cruise ship for the last 8 days and even with the ship's 'super value', 'special offer', 'one time only', 'bargain basement price' for a week's access to the Wifi, it would still have rivalled the amount that America paid Russia to purchase Alaska way back in 1867 - for those that are interested, America paid $7.2million! In fact, we even thought about just paying for the Wifi for the last day on ship (when we were at sea all day), but at $55 per day, PER DEVICE (!), we decided to pass.

I suppose I could have tried 'crowd funding' the cost from my loyal readership, but I suspect I would have had a better chance of raising more money from a 'crowd' actually trying to get me to 'stop' doing these posts altogether, than helping me post more! But, don't worry about it everyone, we've reached the civilisation that is Vancouver

Breakfast at the Perch - 2

Just us guys in the restaurant!

and I'm back in business, although for this post, our story is remembering our time way back in Anchorage, after our epic trip to Denali.

Denali has been one of those amazing places where, if it had to be the last place on earth that you were allowed to see, you could soak in this little piece of heaven and then leave this world a very content and happy person! I tried hard to describe the beautiful mountains at Banff a couple of episodes ago, but Denali is on a different scale altogether, a truly, truly magnificent place! But, leave we must and today we head back to Anchorage, for a couple of days looking around the city, but not of course (as many people think) the State Capital of Alaska 'd'you know'.....sorry, I mean of course......'Juneau'!

We had a more leisurely start today and left the Crow's Nest Cabins around nine to head back south roughly 250miles on Highway 3 to Anchorage, with two key tasks to complete before too long..........to fill up both with gas and with breakfast. Steve started the driving and after about 15 miles, spotted a sign for a bakery and cafe at

Anchorage - 1

Pretty flowers at the visitor centre...

a tiny little place called Carlo Creek. We pulled off the Highway and trolled up an unmade road looking for the cafe without any success and were just about to give up, when Mandy saw a building up a small hill and this turned out to be a restaurant called The Perch, not the bakery and cafe we were looking for, but it was open! And we struck gold! Such a great setting, in the middle of nowhere, with amazing views from the back deck and lo and behold, the place was empty. We had a fantastic breakfast, with very chatty staff at a more than reasonable price; a great find Steve.

As for fuel, Steve was convinced that the gas station about 30 miles down the Highway was the best price he had seen in Alaska and we should go for that, rather than fill up at the place close to where we had been staying. When, we reached the fuel stop, Steve was right, it was the 'best price'......if, by 'best' we mean the most expensive gas we had seen anywhere on our trip so far; not such a great find as it turned out Steve!

Anchorage - 2

.....and some more.

Our plan was to get back to Anchorage as quickly as reasonably possible and other than a comfort (and ice cream) break and a couple of photo opportunities, we stuck to the plan and got to Anchorage just before three, to check in at our new home, the Hilton in downtown Anchorage. And, surprise surprise.......no room issues! Everything was fine and dandy; the rooms were decent without being luxurious (which seems to be a common trait in Anchorage hotels from what I have read online) and......they had the correct number of beds!

After settling in to our rooms, we decided to hit town and it very quickly became clear that, the town itself is a pretty bland and typically American, grid network of roads and generally unexciting buildings, with the centre dominated by eateries and 'tourist tat' shops. Whilst this may seem like a pretty damning assessment of the city, the reality is, who needs pretty streets and buildings, when the whole place is surrounded by incredible natural beauty? And that natural beauty is what most people come to Anchorage to see.......that and catching a cruise ship of course!

We planned to spend tomorrow exploring further afield, so

Anchorage - 3

The tower of our hotel, through a neat arch.

this afternoon we wandered the streets, purchased some of that 'tat' and then found a nice bar for some local beers and grub. Now here's a thing about Alaska, the long days with the sun not setting until nearly midnight and rising again about four hours later (apparently!), really does play with your head. The shops stay open very late (I guess, making the most of retail trade, during the tourist summer months) and we found that we were staying up much later, simply because we felt that it was much earlier in the day than it really was.

To emphasise this point, after we finished dinner, Mandy and Lily hit the shops for a couple of hours (without the annoyance of Steve and I in tow!), while us two and Sarah went back to the hotel, to try and do some serious damage to the bottles of gin and vodka (one of each) that we had purchased at Vancouver airport (unopened as yet!) and which we wouldn't be able to take on board ship in a couple of days. As they say, tough work, but someone's got to do it! Mandy and Lily eventually came back to help

Anchorage - 4

A surprising bear attack on Sarah!

us out and we did pretty well, so well in fact that Steve was having some difficulty stringing proper sentences together!

Day 2 in Anchorage and Steve was feeling a little fragile for some reason, so I took on the first driving stint and first stop was..........a laundromat and an important service wash on some of our more unmentionable items! We are due to return the car by four this afternoon and agreed to pick up the washing by 3.30. Then we were off on our trip the along the Seward Highway for about 30 miles to a small town called Girdwood, on what is considered one of the World's most scenic drive, following the Cook Inlet between mainland Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula. The weather was ideal, BUT we were very unlucky, because due to a major forest fire on the peninsula, smoke was obscuring or, at least, laying over the mountains. The fire is being allowed to burn itself out and this may not be until August (!) and in the meantime, everything seems to be in a permanent mist.

Part of the inlet is known as the Turnagain Arm and this rather odd name dates

Potters Marsh - 1

Two Artic Terns posing for us....

back to the late 1700s as does the name Cook Inlet itself; to the time of the great British Explorer, Captain Cook. Captains Cook and Bligh (yes, him of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) had been tasked with finding a North West Passage across what is now Canada and Alaska and on reaching this area, Cook sailed up what he himself decided to call Cook Inlet, while Bligh took a different route. The Inlet turns into a mass of mudflats at low tide (every six hours) and Cook was finding that his ship was in danger of beaching on these 'fingers' of mud as he struggled to progress up the Inlet, such that he had to keep turning back and trying again, hence the name Turnagain Arm.

There are several potential stopping points on the way to Girdwood, including Potters Marsh (a wetlands just outside Anchorage, home to numerous wildfowl, in particular Arctic Terns), Turnagain Arm Trailhead (the start point for a 9.5 mile hike ), Beluga Point (a supposedly good location for seeing Beluga Whales coming in with the tide), and Windy and Bird Points (both pretty self explanatory!). However, with the mist obscuring the views out to

Potters Marsh - 2

.....and an Artic Tern in flight.

sea (we didn't actually realise it was smoke at this point), we decided to go straight to Girdwood and hope that the sun would burn off the mist before we headed back.

Girdwood is primarily a ski resort and to honest, there isn't much of a town to speak of, with all the action focused on the dominant Mount Alyeska and all its winter activities. However, we knew that there was a aerial tramway based by the luxury Hotel Alyeska, with rides up to the top of the mountain during summer. The ride price is a pretty steep $39, but this is one time where the concession prices were really worth something, being $22 each for Mandy and I and 'only' $15 each for Steve and Lily, being over 70.

The ride is very good, but the real prize awaited us at the top. Some spectacular views and a lot of snow about, even at a relatively low 3,000 feet. There were several hiking trails at the top and we followed a route taking us as far as we could (safely) towards the mountain peak. Looking back down the valley, we could see the layer of mist sitting

Mount Alyeska - 1

The entrance to the tramway.

at a lower level and it was then that we found out from another walker that it was smoke rather than mist. Fortunately, where we were was high enough to be above the smoke and and give us unrestricted views and stunning these views were and we were very happy to spend a serious amount of time up top!

After returning to the car, we headed back towards Anchorage, the plan being to stop off at some of the viewing points on the way, but the reality was, the smoke simply ruined any decent views across the Cook Inlet and made the stops fairly pointless. In any event, we were running a bit tight on time on our rental car return and so after one brief stop at a waterfall, we got back to the city, picked up our laundry, dropped the girls off at the hotel and then went on to the Hertz office in downtown, a few blocks away. We had to fill out an accident report, which took a few minutes, but other than that the vehicle return was straightforward and hopefully, that's the last we will hear about it.

Then it was back to

Mount Alyeska - 2

The tram on its way.

our rooms to pack, before visiting the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner (the first time in years, but the food was really good). Mandy was very interested to see that there was a weekly art class being held in the restaurant, unusual to say the least, not sure that drinking and painting are a great combination, but then again, Mand says it could help. Fully replete we headed back to the hotel to do our best to finish off the gin and vodka! We have another very early start tomorrow, to catch our train to Seward and pick up our cruise ship tomorrow evening and say our farewells to Anchorage........another excellent couple of days.

But before I go, there is if course, the quiz question and here it is:

I mentioned that Juneau is the state capital of Alaska, but do you know what is particularly unusual about the road network in Juneau?

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