Where's your wife flying to? Hang on, Al-ask-a...

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Geo: 61.2176, -149.858

We caught the fabulous Sky train back to the airport without a hitch and boarded our flight after passing through US immigration before we had even left Canada. It was a welcome relief to get this part over and done with when we had time to spare at the airport rather than when we landed - I know from experience how long it can take to clear immigration once in the states and so this was brilliantly efficient and something I wish we could always do! The landing was a little bumpy but aside from that it was a good flight. However, we did get a glimpse into the future for the cruise we are taking next week - everyone on the flight was over 60 aside from us - the majority of people well into their seventies and eighties and all travelling en masse, some in matching jackets. We have requested to be seated on a table of eight for dinner - maybe there will be six other people our age on a cruise of over 500!? We ask you again to keep everything crossed for us - anything below 50 would be brilliant please! Thank you in advance, Mrs 35 and Mrs 41 xxx

We took a taxi into Anchorage, and straight to our B n B which had a sweet room laden with travel memorabilia - right up our street. We then took the trail out to the city centre - a loose term for a place with less than 100,000 inhabitants, and were warned to not get between a moose and her calf. We scoffed, asking what were the chances of seeing a moose, having spent 2 weeks in the Canadian mountains and not seeing a single one. We were given the reply that, "We have moose in the back yard most days!" Which soon our paid to our doubts and we kept our eyes peeled, but found none.

Our first stop was the Anchorage museum. After walking the streets following a loose memory of a Google Maps route, we reached a junction and were unsure of which way to go, so we asked a friendly local who was around 65 years old. She pointed us right. Five minutes later me she drove past us and told us to keep going straight and then turn left at the stop sign. Five minutes later, she drove past again and passed us a city map from her car, showed us where to go and then drove off with a smile! Lovely!

The museum itself was great and very informative. We spent around an hour in a wonderful exhibit on the First Nations people, enjoying videos, looking at centuries-old artefacts and learning more about the diverse range of people that inhabited the area before the first explorers arrived. We then, being mature adults, went to the discovery centre, where we played with gravity experiments, learned about seismology through play and then spent time in the bubble world where we made huge bubble tunnels, vast spirals and wobbling force fields around ourselves. All great fun and of course very educational.

After exploring the gift shops and main square of downtown and a meal, we wandered back to our accommodation and not a moose in sight. I feel we are destined to be unlucky in our search for wildlife, but by god have we been lucky with the weather on this trip, and you can't have everything can you?!

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