Adventure #214

My last day in Anchorage was called, "Elise's Fun Day of Exploring," since Matt had to work, I was on my own. I rented a bicycle from Pablo's in downtown Anchorage. I had decided to cycle the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, which starts downtown, passes the airport, and ends in Kincaid Park. The trail as the name suggests follows the coast but also winds threw some amazing wooded areas. I cycled 18 miles round trip according to the mile markers. There were some good hills and my thighs sure felt the burn, however riding a bicycle again was fun and the scenery was well worth the effort.  

The view of downtown Anchorage.

After I had returned my bicycle, I walked to the Oscar Anderson House Museum for a tour. A sweet elderly woman showed myself and one other couple around the first wood frame house built in 1915. She gave us a brief history on the beginnings of Anchorage and how life for the Anderson family would have been. The highlights for me were the phonograph and piano which both still worked. I love history and I especially love old houses, however I tried to keep the pictures to a minimum here.

Next, I walked through downtown Anchorage to visit the Anchorage Museum. The building was beautiful and there were amazing exhibits about the native tribes of Alaska. After the museum I met up with Matt and his co-workers to have sushi for dinner. I flew home the next day. I foresee many more trips to Alaska in the future.

Adventure #214

We spent our next day in Anchorage by taking a hour drive to visit the Portage Glacier. We arrived at Portage Lake to board the cruise boat. During our hour long journey we listened to information about the glacier from a ranger of the U.S. Forest Service. We would brave the rain by going to the upper observation deck to view the lake and glacier. We definitely enjoyed seeing our first glacier. The blue ice is an impressive color.   

Our ranger tour guide and ice in the cooler from the glacier.

Our drive back to Anchorage was a winding road that followed the coast.

We picked up Matt's co-worker from the airport and stopped for some lunch at the Tasty Freeze. Then we decided to visit the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which is where injured animals are cared for until healthy enough to be released back into the wild. We were fortunate enough to arrive just as the bears were being fed.  

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center was amazing. We had excellent opportunities to see wildlife up close including: elk, buffalo, musk ox, moose, caribou, deer, eagles, and a fox. I loved seeing the animals and recommend a visit to anyone traveling to Anchorage.

Adventure #214

Matt has been traveling for work most of this past year, so when he went to Alaska I went with him for a few days. We arrived on separate flights in the late evening. I still have to fly standby and took an earlier flight to ensure an open seat. I took a cab to the hotel and he arrived shortly after with the rental car. The next day we decided to drive from Anchorage to Denali National Park. Please do not look up the driving distance. It is forever. I had one of two goals while visiting Alaska. The first was to see Mount Denali, the tallest peak in North America. While we were driving we stopped at a view point to see the mountain. However, it rained the entire day and I never had a chance to see Mount Denali. Next time. In the picture below Mount Denali is covered by the clouds. 

My second goal while in Alaska was to see wildlife. Thankfully to my absolute delight we spotted a mama moose and her two calves on the side of the road. Not one moose but three!

We stopped for lunch and did some shopping along the row of souvenir stores outside of the park.

The only way to visit the deep wilderness of Denali is to take a bus, so we stopped as far as we could go and took a short hike along a river.

On our way back to Anchorage we stopped at a lake to explore. We finally made it back to Anchorage and stopped for some delicious pizza at Moose's Tooth.