It was a late
morning start on Monday, 29JUN, for Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage,
AK. Now that all of the smoke from
forest fires is gone, it was a beautiful drive.
After arrival at the FamCamp Corrie went to the Commissary; while Dan fixed
the front door step that mysteriously stopped working this morning.
Getting a slightly
late start on Tuesday morning, we immediately headed into the Anchorage Visitor
Center. Then it was off to the Alaska
Public Lands Information Center across the street in the old Federal Building. Like the ones we visited in Tok &
Fairbanks, this is a multi-agency information center for all public lands
surrounding Anchorage. In this case the
Iditarod National Historic Trail, & the Lake Clark National Park &
Preserve. There is one other Alaska
Public Lands Information Center left for us to visit in AK; it is in Ketchikan,
AK. Since there are no roads there, we
won’t be visiting it on this trip.
Unfortunately this
Public Lands Information Center is in the old federal building which still
houses some federal offices. Why is this
a bad thing? Because every tourist must
completely empty their pockets, take off their belts & coats, walk thru a
metal detector, & get wanded. Anyway
they have many informative displays & different movies every half hour; we
were lucky enough to catch a Ranger led walking tour about Captain Cook’s
voyage to what would later become Anchorage.
Lunch was at Humpy’s
which was a little known local’s favorite until it was shown on Man vs Food; very
good food. Then a little more walking
about before heading to WalMart to buy a garden hose. Why a garden hose? Because the RV & Toad are in need of a
major wash to remove dust & mud. We
have already washed the Toad twice on this trip but not the RV. The road conditions on this trip have been
pretty good, but even on smooth asphalt the vehicles pick up an unbelievable
coating of dust in Alaska! Thankfully
there has been little rain so far.
After returning to
the RV, Corrie did laundry & Dan washed the RV. Then we watched the USA/Germany Women’s FIFA
semi-final. Dan then washed the Toad
before calling it a day.
Wednesday morning,
01JUL, we headed to the on base Information & Ticket Office to check out
discount tickets. We also walked thru
all the indoor activities in the building available to active duty &
dependents. We’re talking putt/putt,
climbing wall, etc. We then headed
downtown to the Alaska Experience Theater.
They show several different movies throughout the day; we viewed the
short film on the massive 1964 Anchorage earthquake. Then we walked about on 4th Ave,
Corrie concentrating on the stores, Dan on the numerous historical markers.
Note - Anchorage literally
did not exist one hundred years ago. But
the largest federal project at that time was to build a railroad from
Fairbanks, AK (& surrounding coal fields), south to the only ice free
harbor, Seward, AK. Some bureaucrat
decided in 1915 that the HQ for the project would be in Anchorage (rumored to
be a total of five people). Within
months there was a tent city of 2000 people & Anchorage soon surpassed
Fairbanks in population.
Next stop was Alaska
Geographic, too check out their gift store:
“Alaska Geographic is the official non-profit
partner of Alaska’s 15 national parks, 16 national wildlife refuges, and
America’s two largest national forests, plus a variety of other public lands.
Our core purpose is to support Alaska’s parks, forests, and refuges—and
it is our mission to connect people to these remarkable landscapes.”
From there we walked
next door to the Ulu Factory (of course we bought one of their knifes &
cutting boards):
“Of all the innovative tools that came from the Eskimo
culture, one is the foremost: the Alaska ulu knife. The ulu knife was their main
cutting tool. It was originally made from flat, thin, rocks, slate, or even
jade. Handles were fashioned out of wood, ivory, or bone and often decorated
with distinctive markings of the craftsman.”
Final stop in town
was Costco for many free food samples & new digital camera for Dan. Back at the RV Dan took off w/new camera to
photograph parts of Elmendorf AFB. Like every
AFB we have visited they have the standard “circle” of decommissioned planes
that are connected in some way to the history of the AFB.
Thursday morning it
was off to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.
This is a fantastic cultural center that concentrates on all the Native
cultures in Alaska, concentrating on eight Native cultures in particular –
Athabascan, Cup’ik, Inupiaq, Yup’ik, Sugpiaq, St Lawrence Island, Tlingit,
& Unangax. This facility has four
primary areas.
--Gathering Place –
open auditorium where there scheduled performances of dance, storytelling,
Native games, Q&A’s, etc. We caught
the dance & Native games demonstrations, excellent.
--Hall of Cultures –
interactive displays, local Native artists, & art demonstrations.
--Theater – many,
many, different films shown throughout the day.
Some are short, but none is longer than half hour. Sometimes the film is about one subject, but
told from the “view” of each of the cultures.
We viewed one film about the building & use of the different water
craft used, from the kayak of the Arctic, to the dugout canoe of southeast
Alaska. The kayak is often described as
the most perfect watercraft ever invented (a 75 pound craft that can transport
1000 pounds & built in an environment where the only wood is scarce
driftwood!).
--Village Sites –
six life-sized traditional Native dwellings representing 11 major cultural
groups. Two common themes we noticed was
– 1) doors were only big enough for largest member of the Native group, to keep
bears out, 2) windows & smoke openings were only large enough for bears to
stick their paws in, but not their heads.
Then part of the group would keep the bear’s paw “occupied”, while
others went out to kill it.
The majority of the
staff is teenage Natives who undergo special courses in addition to their
“regular” high school curriculum. They
are extremely courtesy, intelligent & knowledgeable of their cultures. The ones in the Native dwellings could answer
questions about the construction of the structure, as well as the social order
of the occupants. Definitely a must see!
After returning to
the RV, Dan headed into Anchorage to check out the local offices of Chugach
National Forest. Turns out this was just
a staff office & not a Visitor Information Center.
Friday morning we
headed to Whittier, AK; the Seward Highway along Turnagain Arm is one of the most
scenic drives we have taken. You pass thru
the longest combined rail/vehicle tunnel in North America, the “Anton Anderson
Memorial Tunnel”. The tunnel was originally
built as a RR tunnel in 1943. Until it
was modified in 2000, you could only get to Whittier by train or ferry. One way traffic alternates every half hour;
but we missed being last car thru by 15 seconds. We would have been first car on the next
opening, but tour buses get to cut the line.
Then it was quick
sightseeing in Whittier. Two buildings
dominate the skyline – the 14 story Begich Towers & the 6 story Buckner
Building (once the biggest building in AK).
Both buildings were built for the US Army. Begich was built in 1957 as military housing,
& presently houses over half of Whittier’s population. Buckner was built in 1953 & heavily
damaged by the 1964 Good Friday earthquake.
The Buckner cannot be economically repaired & is full of asbestos
which has prevented its demolition.
Leaving Whittier we
had to wait for an outbound train. On
the drive back we noted traffic out of Anchorage heading south to Seward is
terrible because of July 4th weekend & Mount Marathon Race (more on this
later). We had a quick stop at
Begich/Boggs Visitor Center for the Chugach National Forest at the Portage
Glacier. The Visitor Center also has
information on the Iditarod National Historic Trail, & the Kenai Mountains/Turnagain
Arm National Historic Area. Back at the
RV & after dinner we see Air Police & Game Wardens in FamCamp looking
for a “problem” black bear. Apparently
this bear has been a continuous nuisance & if they found it, it would be
shot!
Saturday morning
(Fourth of July) we headed to the Anchorage Market & Festival, a weekend
market held thru the summer (pretty good).
Then it was back to RV to relax & watch the Mount Marathon in
Seward, AK, on TV. The first race was
the result of a Seward bar room bet back in 1915. The bet was if someone could make it to the
top of Mt Marathon & back down in less than an hour? It took a few years before someone broke an
hour. Now the men’s record is around 42 minutes! This year more than 40,000 spectators were in
Seward for the second oldest foot race in USA.
That night we went
out for seafood; seems like Anchorage’s idea of seafood consists of just halibut
& salmon? Crab is more expensive
than around Seattle? One pound of
dungeness is $42, & king crab is $32!!!
Sunday was just a
lazy day w/excellent weather. We did a
little laundry & watched the women’s world cup final. After the game we felt the RV shake; did we
feel an earthquake? The next day we
learned there had been a mild earthquake outside of Anchorage!
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