Thursday, 7 July 2011

Anchorage Touring

We didn’t have too bad a night here at Ship Creek so extended our stay by two nights.

We rode our bikes uptown and got to the log cabin visitor centre just as the hour-long trolley tour was loading. So we jumped on board and got driven all around Anchorage with a running commentary from our driver.

The visitor centre has lots of beautiful flowers around it.

The tide was out when we drove along the harbour. Cook Inlet has the second highest tide in the world – 39 feet! And the mudflats are ‘bottomless’ and very dangerous (like quicksands).

We stopped at Earthquake Park where 150 acres of the city collapsed and a whole subdivision was destroyed. You can see where the earth dropped and the ground below is wavy.

Fran really enjoyed seeing the float planes at Lake Hood where over 1,300 planes make their home. It is said to be the largest float plane base in the world! This picture shows just a small corner of the lake.

We went through some residential neighbourhoods where lovely modern homes are next to modest ones built in the 20’s. There are a few log cabins as well, although not as many as we found in Fairbanks. This house is completely underground. It has a wall of windows on the side away from the street and several skylights. The front door is at the lower level at the front as well and the glass roof covers a stairway down to the front door. There were workmen working in the driveway. Our trolley driver said the house stays at 68 degrees F all year round without any heating or cooling required.

We had a nice lunch at the Downtown Deli then rode a few blocks further to the Anchorage Museum. It is a large and modern facility with really great exhibits. They have lots of native peoples’ artifacts, exhibits on the pipeline, the 1964 earthquake, how Alaskans lived over the decades and so on. We walked until my feet gave out then got back on our bikes to go see the AK Experience ‘Earthquake’ film and exhibits.

That was quite enough sight-seeing for one day!

Supper at home, dog-walking and bike running filled out the evening.

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