Starr Treks: Alaska trip Thursday 6/25/15 Anchorage

STARR TREKS THURSDAY 6/25/15 Anchorage

We slept a little later after our late bridge night. It was pretty cloudy, with patches of blue, and around 70 degrees. We drove to the west coast to walk on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. It runs 11 miles along the coast. We parked near Earthquake Park. It had signs describing that Good Friday Earthquake in 1964, showing where the bluffs had fallen into the ocean. We walked about 2 miles to the south to Point Woronzof where we could have seen Mt McKinley had it been a clear day. We did not realize that we would be walking thru forested areas, so had not brought our bug spray. We talked to 3 security people on bikes, and I asked if they, by chance, had any bug spray— one guy did, so we sprayed good and felt a lot better about our walk! The mosquitoes have not been as bad as we expected, but they make their presence known if you are in the woods. It was pleasant and cool, and felt good to get some exercise in a different way than climbing straight up! The big airport, Ted Stevens, was nearby, so got to see a lot of planes taking off while we walked— mostly UPS and FedEx.

We then drove a few miles to the Lake Hood Float plane Base. They have up to 800 flights in or out per day, so we got to watch a lot of action. We parked at a viewpoint and ate our picnic lunch in the car, since it was chilly. It really was fun to see the planes take off and land on the little lake. There were lots of little planes “parked” in their little harbor, with a little steep roofed storage shed at most sites. Larry was a little nervous driving thru, since the planes all had the right of way on the road. We drove a little further and found Spenard park where we could watch some more. There was a lady there from the local TV station taking videos of flights. She asked if she could put a mike on us and record our comments— but we declined— did not want to be on the evening news!!

We drove over to the Alaska Aviation Museum, which was also nearby. We have seen a lot of airplanes in museums ever since Seattle. It was more interesting than I thought it would be. We started with a 30-40 minute film about WW II — when the country was so fearful of Japanese attacks on the Aleution Islands. It had old clips of the road building, the air bases built, the Dutch Harbor bombing. It was very interesting. The seats in the “theater” were 1st class airline seats! They had exhibits on the first bush pilots and the first airplanes that came in 1922 — before that the only transportation was train, steamship, or dogsled. There was another little film area showing pilots with air taxis who bring people up to a base camp so they can mountain climb. They had lots of views of snow covered mtns and glaciers— I don’t think I could ride in one of those little planes. In that little “theater” we had coach seats from an airplane. They had some memorial exhibits — one was about Will Rogers who died in a small plane crash in Alaska. They had a model of the Norge blimp — the first flight over the North Pole in 1926 by Amundsen. We got to sit in the pilot seat of a few planes— so many knobs & dials — don’t know how pilots do that. Outside, we could go inside a little control tower (not functioning), climb into a 737, and see some other old planes. There was a shop where some gentlemen were working on restoring planes— they had some parts of a plane from Dutch Harbor, and were working on that. The museum is on Lake Hood, so we could watch some more float planes take off and land.

My neighbor DeeAnn told me about art exhibits — of all places — in the Alaska Native Medical Center. She and John had seen them when they were in Anchorage. So we drove over there next - not real far from the RV park. I was curious to see the place since my old roommate in medical school, Margie, had been an ENT doctor in the Indian Health Service for 24 years here (she has lived in NY the past 10-12 yrs). It looked like a very nice, up to date hospital. Other hospitals were nearby on the same campus. We asked about the art at the front desk — the receptionist directed us to take the elevator to the 5th floor, and then walk down the stairs. Each floor had a large exhibit of beautiful hand made crafts — baskets, dolls, masks, ivory carving. There were more little exhibits on the wall along the stairs. It was very enjoyable! The gift shop had a lot of craftwork (which looked very expensive), but it had closed at 2 pm, so we just looked thru the window.

We drove a little further to The “Alaska Wild Berry Products”. It was just touristy— a lot of souvenirs, a chocolate factory (did not even care for the samples that much), jellies, and junk.

We try to go out to eat about once a week, so tonight we ate at The Bridge — it literally is a bridge across Ship Creek. After a pretty cloudy day, the sun came out and blue skies again— lovely!. The window next to our table overlooked fisherman on the creek — still have not seen anyone catch anything! This restaurant has a great salad bar— we had a beet salad, salmon potato salad, cold crab legs, green salad, sourdough rolls with a salmon spread— very good. Larry had parmesan crusted rockfish and I had skewers— salmon, rockfish, and reindeer sausage + lots of peppers, zucchini, and potatoes. It was a pleasant meal. We walked a little more around Ship creek, then headed back “home”. Tomorrow it may rain, so we will play it by ear — it may be a museum indoor day, but if the sun shines, we may do the other end of the Coastal Trail.