Anchorage Notes - Day 1

Anchorage on is surrounded by snow capped mountains on the North and West. It opens out to the water on the other side. This body of water is an inlet off the Gulf of Alaska which then opens to the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Driving around Anchorage (and you basically drive most everywhere) is somewhat easy to get oriented. A good number of streets run one way and thus far, there seems to be very little traffic at all. Anchorage feels tiny compared to large American cities - surprised to find the population is only 300,000 people. First day, we spent getting oriented to the city. Downtown has a lot of "stuff." We drove around, scouting out restaurants and shopping areas around 4th street. Eventually went to the Anchorage museum in the AM - kids loved it - too much museum to accomplish in one visit but highlights were a discovery section geared toward kids with exhibits similar to the Exploratorium in SF but with some Alaska-centric elements such as volcano and earthquake areas. Weather is gloomy, a tiny bit of rain, but not unpleasant. Went to lunch at Golden Coral Buffet with extended family, which was packed with working people and families. In Alaska you feel the presence of a Native minority. Unclear to me whether this is one major group or several groups - some folks look polynesian / hawaiian and others look less so. You also notice more Asian people around than you might expect - particularly Korean. But I guess in the midst of the Cold War Alaska used to ship coal to South Korea and so quite a bit of business was done. They are geographically pretty close, after all.  

After lunch we did a drive and stop around Lake Hood - a small lake near the airport which is peppered/surrounded by small seaplanes. One of the more spectacular and unique arrangements I've ever seen - almost like a yacht club but instead of boats - small planes. One can drive up, sit in a park and just watch seaplanes taking off and landing. Residential apartments are right across the street. It seems like one could simply fly their plane, land in the lake, park and walk across the street to their home.

After a brief afternoon rest, we went back downtown and to the Alaska mint where we bought the kids some gold and silver found in Alaska by miners (yes, there are still miners here), who sell their finds to the mint when they make bars and coins, etc. Near downtown is a creek area. In the later afternoon/early evening (it doesn't get dark here until around 10-11pm) the creek is packed with salmon fishermen. Couldn't tell whether they'd been there all day or just show up after work to catch dinner. Didn't seem like many were having much luck - nor did we see any salmon swimming. I have it on a good account, the time to fish is low tide (and the tide is significant in Anchorage) because less water means more salmon per water area. 

We went back to the museum for a planetarium show and a jazz festival. It was busy by Anchorage standards, enjoyed a light appetizer dinner along with drinks. One thing I noticed - in the museum a huge video exhibit prominently featured about being "Black in Alaska" and nearby, a Pride event in downtown Anchorage. It seems even in the land of Sarah Palin and where the license plates read "the last frontier" the woke agenda is visible and vocal. 

We are staying in an area called Turnagain. Not much is walkable. The streets are generally quiet - not sure if because the population is sparse, the weather is on the cold side, or just because there is so much territory everyone drives everywhere. The area feels magnitudes less wealthy than California, yet nothing has yet been "cheap" other than gas. A noticeable brand is Kaladi brothers coffee - many coffee shops seem quite proud to be carrying it.