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Published: September 3rd 2006
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A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.---John A. Shedd
July 19, 2005, Tuesday. We drove from Chugach S.P. campground to Anchorage. Costco was our first stop to burn a CD of the photos in our digital cameras. It seems to work best when we do it that way; otherwise, they seem to get lost in the shuffle. Once they are on a CD it is safe to clear off the memory card and start snapping again.
We had heard some good things about the Anchorage Museum of Natural History. The good comments were well deserved. It is a wonderful museum tracing the history of Alaska, with lots of artifacts, clothing, winter gear, kayaks, hunting gear, photos, exhibits, etc. We even had a side trip: “The Shamans: Spirit Guides of Siberia”.
After lunch we stopped at A&M RV sales. The feature was our vehicle, the Bothan. Only it is called the VIEW, Diesel engine with a Winnebago RV interior. Wow! It was beautiful, even had a slider to give additional space, the inside was sooooo professionally done. I think I am in love. We spoke to the sales people and, of course, they wanted to make a deal then and there. Pittsburgh is a long
way from Alaska, so common sense prevailed. But I am seriously thinking about a VIEW!
The Anchorage RV Park is lovely rather new, clean and quiet.
July 20, 2005, Wednesday. We were off to Costco for the CD and on to Chugach S.P. for a hike. Flattop Mountain Trail is very popular, but is anything BUT flat.
Blueberry Loop, the beginning of the hike, was the easy part, but Flattop was a vertical climb, in places they even had steps, no switchbacks. We couldn’t figure why? Maybe the terrain and the rock. The clouds were socked in and there was no view, but there was something lovely about hiking in the clouds, it had its own satisfaction. We reached a level area and continued to climb up, here it got tough. Lots of rocks to climb over and the trail seemed to disappear. It was almost 1PM and the sun was finally burning away the clouds. We even got a picture or two. It was a good hike.
We haven’t talked about how expensive Alaska is, but it is! The main industry, aside from fishing, is tourism. The tourist season is only 3 months or
so, it is the window of opportunity to sock it to tourists and they do! To be fair may things have to be transported and this brings the price of everything up, but according to the locals the prices are really jacked up in the tourisdt season—Oh, well.
Our visit to the Alaskan Native Heritage Center was somewhat disappointing. The admission was $30 a piece. The presentations were not well organized and the use of language was poor. After the initial fee, we found more donation boxes scattered around the village than I could count. While we learned some things, it was not a positive experience. We felt that the staff was not well trained. The physical facility was very impressive. There is a lot to learn and they had many hands on experiences for children, but definitely not my favorite place.
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