4th of July Anchorage style and Attack of the Mosquitos

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No better way to start the day than with a great breakfast, soft music, a fire in the fireplace and a great view. That was this morning at Copper Whale Inn, and lots of interesting conversation with other guests from different parts of the US. Of course, I got up early and had lots of time for all of the above. Cool, rainy weather didn't hold us back. After a leisurely start of the day, we spent time at the Anchorage Museum. There was an exhibit from the Smithsonian on Native Cultures in the Arctic Circle that was amazing. We all loved it. We left there in time to see the 4th of July parade...a true highlight of local warmth....from the Welcome Home Mommy sign on one of the military 'floats' to the midwives marching, and ending with the Anchorage Solid Waste Management Department...yes the local trash trucks were in the parade. It was great! After that our group split for part of the afternoon. Marcy, Steven, and I, after a gourmet lunch stop at Subway, went to the Alaska Jewish History Museum which had it's grand opening the night before...in fact, we were its first paying visitors! It's one large room with an excellent exhibit about Operation Magic Carpet,,,the airlift of Yemenite Jews to Israel in 1948, and you might ask why they chose this topic?...Alaska Airlines was responsible for all 400 flights and the safe delivery of 50,000 people. We even met one of the pilots from those flights who was in town for the opening. It's not a part of history we knew anything about so it was interesting and the curator was happy to talk with us about the exhibit and the Jewish connection in the area since we were the only visitors. Back to the hotel to pick up the rest of our group and on to Earthquake Park and the Coastal Trail for what we thought would be a walk along the trail and Cook Inlet...and it would have been if we didn't finally meet up with the mosquitos we had been warned about. Even though we were covered from head to toe, they were intense. They seemed to particularly be attracted to my black sweatshirt so it was a very short, quick walk (although we learned you can't outrun mosquitos!) We ended the day with the best pizza spot in Anchorage...Moose's Tooth Pizza and Pub...great pizza and great local beer. Tonight's brew...raspberry wheat. We took some time to stop at a spot where salmon swim upstream and we actually saw a couple, no jumpers but definitely swimming upstream. Fireworks were up for consideration but midnight seemed a bit too late to stay up so we'll never learn how fireworks look in the day light....Tomorrow we leave the city and get to see the AK we imagine. Maybe a glacier? moose? or a Bear..

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Comments

[Mark copolo]

great post!
I feel like I'm right there with you... but that may be because the mosquitoes are bad here too. Have an extra raspberry wheat for me and keep blogging!