Day 25, Anchorage

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Wednesday we drove to Anchorage to meet up with our God daughter, Shawna Pike-Wahlstrom & her adorable 3 children, ages 5,4 & 2. Before we met her, we drove to Earthquake Park & walked 3 miles along a nice wooded trail. Anchorage suffered a very powerful earthquake on Good Friday, 1964. Earthquake Park is set in the woods where an entire neighborhood “slid” into the ocean during the 4 1/2 minute earthquake; unbelievable! After our walk we joined Shawna & the kiddos & enjoyed a very informative narrated tour of Anchorage on the trolley. Shawna was able to score tickets for free; which made the tour even better. Now a few facts about that earthquake; it was 10 times more powerful than the recent earthquake in Nepal, with 139 people losing their lives in the state of Alaska, either from the earthquake or the subsequent tsunami, which occurred throughout the Kenai Peninsula. Our driver said if it had not happened on Good Friday, the loss of life would have been much, much greater, because all the offices, schools, etc were closed that day. Our driver also said she had a man from Johannesburg, South Africa on her trolley a few days prior to our visit. Apparently, if you were to put an arrow through the earth, Johannesburg would be on the opposite end of the arrow from Anchorage. On the day of the earthquake, the bells in Johannesburg chimed from the tremor of the earthquake, literally on the other side of the earth; amazing! There are 1500 moose roaming throughout Anchorage and we were fortunate enough to see a mom & 2 babies on our tour! Oh yes, I need to mention the beautiful flowers in downtown Anchorage. There are more than 80,000 flowers in 270 beds maintained by the City around town. With all the daylight here, the flowers really grow! After our tour, we had delicious pizza at Moose’s Tooth, which was recommended on Trip Advisor & it did not disappoint! Then we needed to get stocked up at Costco (there are 2 in Anchorage) so we did that & Shawna went home to prepare dinner for us. She made very yummy salmon chowder & we enjoyed a nice visit with her & Carver for the evening before returning to the RV. We loved Anchorage & must return when we have more time to explore it further!

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