STARR TREKS Sunday 6/28/15 Anchorage
We went to the 8:30 service at First United Methodist church downtown. Not much traffic that time of day. We walked into the narthex and there were 6-8 people sitting on couches talking, and a few standing around— they greeted us briefly. On the other side of the narthex there were 3 men who appeared to be street people, drinking coffee. We walked to the sanctuary— there were just 4 ladies rehearsing some songs, and no one was in the pews, so we walked back into the narthex. Then a large African American woman came out of the sanctuary and greeted us warmly — Carolyn is a lay leader in the church. She said for the small 8:30 service, everyone just sat on the L side, so we sat down. Finally, right at 8:30, the rest of the people came in— there were less than 25 total. Both their services are traditional, and they have no screens at all. Their new pastor starts next Sunday, so an administrative ass’t Jennifer gave the message— she shared with us that she just had an appendectomy done on Wednesday! She spoke, or rather read, a message on the Beatitudes and our Attitudes — she almost never even looked up as she read her “sermon” — Larry thought she may have downloaded the “sermon of the week” from some site! There was another couple visiting who had driven from Maryland! Everyone was nice during the greet time. Two ladies sang a duet and the black lady sang a solo. When we walked out to the narthex, the apparently homeless men were still there— one was laying on the couch. The bulletin had a special section on Child Safety Rules for Church — kids were not allowed to go to the restroom by themselves or wander the halls— I can see why they have those rules.
We had worn our walking shoes, so decided to walk another section of the Tony Knowles Coastal trail. We walked about 5 miles total. It was overcast, but no rain. The tide was out, so we could see the mudflats. There was one small beach area with nice fine grayish-brown sand — I walked down to it, hoping to see a few seashells, but I saw none. There were pieces of glass, but not sea glass yet. There were lots of bikers and walkers. They tell you to watch out for wildlife on this trail — like even moose and bears — but we only saw a lot of ducks.As one biker went by, he called out my name!!! It was Don Huizinga!! He and his wife Dorothy (nee Van Prooyen) were on an Alaska cruise, and he had opted to rent a bike this morning. I had just seen them at my 50th high school reunion last September in Chicago for the first time since we finished college in 1968! What a coincidence!
We then drove down to the arts and crafts fair they have every weekend. They had lots of booths with artwork, crafts, gourmet food items, + entertainment, We had salmon quesedillas for lunch — they were pretty good, tho not spicy. They had one booth of “Santa Fe Jewelry” — I told the guy we were from NM, but he was Asian and really did not speak English much!! We walked a few more blocks to the Public Lands Info Center to watch another short film about Alaskan animals— wonderful photography. Once again, we had to show ID’s and go thru a metal detector.
I picked up a fact sheet on Alaska-- it is derived from the Aleut word Alyeska. It is twice the size of TX (5 times the size of NM), but ranks 47th in population (after ND, Vermont & Wyoming) -- half the inhabitants live in Anchorage. It is the northern most, western most, and eastern most state-- the end of the Alteutian Chain are actually in the Eastern Hemisphere-- closer to Japan than Anchorage!!
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| coastal trail |
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| baby ducks |
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| weekend fair |
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