Fortunately, getting off the plane getting to the hotel was very fast. Our room was available, so we could dump our bags and hit the hotel restaurant for breakfast. This included unlimited coffee refills, so my condition improved dramatically, and unlimited diet coke refills, so Linda’s did too. After breakfast we retired for another power nap before hitting the streets of downtown Anchorage to see what adventures it held.
Found a nice restaurant and tried the soup of the day: Beer Cheese Soup. 3 words that I would not normally associate with a single menu item, but it was nicer than it sounds. I reckon that it was the reindeer sausage in it that made it. Walked around for a bit, then saw a movie about the northern lights, since it was the wrong time of year to see them for real. The movie was a collection of images captured over the last 20 years or so. Entertaining, although it’s possible that we may have snoozed a little.
After the movie, we wandered down to Ship Creek (yes, really) to see the local fishermen failing to catch salmon. The salmon run had started, and we could see plenty in the creek, but we watched for an hour or so and no-one caught anything.
Fishermen failing to catch anything
Here they are…
We then walked the 3 blocks (straight up!) to the hotel for a nice dinner at the Slippery Salmon and a decent sleep.
The next day we went to the Anchorage Museum, which has a lot of exhibits on the indigenous tribes of the state. There is also a good section on the modern history of Alaska. Didn’t spend as much time here as we would have liked, as we had to be back at the hotel to get picked up to be taken out of town for the must do event of the holiday: dog sledding.
We were picked up and driven an hour north out of Anchorage to the Knik River Lodge (which is pronounced “ka-nick”). From there, we were placed in a helicopter and flew 20 minutes to Troublesome Glacier, where the dogs live over summer. There is permanent snow here, but as the camp is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains, there was no wind, so it was not too cold. After a few minutes to meet the dogs, we were split into 2 groups, Linda and I, and the other 3 in the group. Linda was offered a drive of the team but declined, she was quite happy to be a passenger. This meant that I got to drive the rear sled for the whole session – the other team swapped drivers between the 3 of them. We did 2 laps of the camp in total, for a total run of about an hour. It was cold and bumpy, especially when going over the parts where the rain the previous night had washed the show off of the ice. I however had a ball. To quote Linda: “You should have seen the smile on his face after it. You who know him well will know that smirky grin he gets from ear to ear.”
Yes, that grin
We returned to the hotel, with a brief stop at a scenic spot to view the glacier, and a moose that the driver, a seasoned hunter, could see clearly in the distance, but was a struggle for us.
Wayne, Linda and a moose. Yes, it is really there….
The next day we transferred to Whittier to join our cruise ship. I went back down town and did the 1 hour trolley tour around Anchorage, Linda was too sore from the dog sledding. I saw a young moose – within the township. Apparently within the urban area there is about 1 moose per square mile. They love to eat the local apples, which ferment on the tree at the end of the season, so one of the autumn hazards in Anchorage is drunk moose.
Alaskan traffic calming device
Fortunately, this young female moose is sober… it’s too early for the apples to ferment. The fence is to keep the moose off the roads in winter, when there’s only 4 hrs of daylight per day. Yes, she is on the road side of the fence – they can get under it in summer (when there’s no snow….)
Apparently moose is a highly sought after meat, a hunter can apply for a license to shoot 1 per year, which will give meat to 2-3 families for a year. There is also a lottery for roadkill moose, the guide said she got one last year which she shared with 2 of her friends.
The tour also drove past the float plane marina ( there are nearly as many planes as cars in Alaska, and about 800% more planes than there are licensed pilots ), and a Captain Cook statue ( yes, the same one ) – he mapped a lot of the area looking for the North West passage shortcut to Europe on his last voyage. After being repulsed by pack ice during winter, he headed south and started the trend for Alaskans heading to Hawaii for Christmas. Alas, that was as far as he got, and a bloke by the name of William Bligh took over and returned the fleet to England.
On the way to Whittier, we stopped at Beluga Point, but could not see Beluga whales, even though they are due. Also made a short stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see moose, musk ox, red and grey fox, caribou, and black and brown bears. Not as good as seeing them in the wild, but at least now we have seen them.
A Brown Bear. Apparently we arrived at bath time.
A Black Bear. Not his bath time.
Caribou, or Reindeer. They are the same – in Canada, wild ones are called Caribou, farmed ones are called Reindeer (and Delicious).
A moose, at bed time
We arrived at the cruise ship in the afternoon, boarded, and settled in. Stay tuned to this station for more details in the continuing adventures of Linda and Wayne in North America.
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