Anchorage awaited us for many reasons. One, we needed to restock or resupply many necessary items. Shopping in Alaska is much different than the lower 48. Yes, there are various grocery stores in larger towns, but major chains (i.e., Walmart, Target, Costco, etc) are few and far between. As a matter of fact, there are only 7 Walmart stores in the entire state of Alaska and 3 of those are in the city of Anchorage. We really just needed our "city fix", as we like to call it.
Another reason for our visit, and the most important, was to see a friend from our high school days at Boca High, Marcy Fergueson. Marcy was kind enough to meet us upon our arrival and brought us the most decadent items from Fire Island Rustic Bakery. Yummy 😋! We then met again the next morning for breakfast at Snow City Cafe and had an awesome chat about our current lives, the past and everything in between. She also took us on a walking tour of the downtown area and enlightened us with some historical facts. The view from downtown was beautiful.
We really enjoyed our visit and hope to meet up again on our way back through Anchorage.
We stayed at 2 Harvest Host locations while in Anchorage, Alaska Botanical Gardens and the Native Heritage Center. The botanical gardens were very charming, however most plants were still young as it was the beginning of the growing season. The gardens were filled with many unique sculptures, including Magpies made out of twigs and various other creations.
While in Anchorage, we visited many breweries (as you can imagine) and restaurants. We also drove out to the airport area to see the "Seaplane Base" at Lake Hood. In the 30 minutes we were there we must have observed over 20 float planes taking off and landing. The lake is completely surrounded by planes and their corresponding small sheds, docks, etc. It is a very unique area. As stated in our last blog entry, it's amazing how many small planes there are in Alaska.
Our last night in the city was spent in a Cabela's parking lot, along with 35 other RVs. Pictures below were taken at 10:30pm. Notice how light it was?
We headed down the highway in search of Girdwood Ak. This is another breathtaking drive. They seem to be one right after the other. The highway follows along the Turnagain Arm (north branch of Cook Inlet), where the tide was extremely low as we passed.
Girdwood is a small town mostly known for it's ski resort, Alyeska Resort. We did find another brewery there, as well. 😜
The next day we rode the Aerial Tramway at Alyeska to the top of the mountain. The views were spectacular. The amount of snow still present, in the middle of June, was incredible. They were trying to push it down the mountainside to make more walking areas. As we were coming down on the tram, you could see the green growth spreading up the mountain and beautiful lakes and waterfalls.
Our friend Marcy had told us of the phenomenon known as the Alaska Bore Tide. There are only about 60 bore tides across the world, and Alaska has one of the largest. This happens on the Turnagain Arm, when the incoming tide rushes back in and combines with the outgoing tide which forms a wave. The wave can actually be large enough to surf, but this only happens during extreme tides (super low and high tides). We definitely wanted to observe this, so we set up in a pull out on the highway, cooked brats as an early dinner and waited. It was supposed to be a BIG bore tide that day, but unfortunately that didn't pan out. It was very interesting though to see most of the water gone and watch the tide come back in with birds in tow.
Our next destination was Whittier, a very unique town all in itself. The only way to enter by vehicle is to use the 2.5 mile long Whittier Tunnel. This is a vehicle/railroad tunnel that only has one-way traffic. The original railway was retrofitted so that vehicles could use the same path. Because of the one-way traffic, each direction moves every hour, with a train going through in between. We were in line for approximately 40 minutes and were joined by over 30 dump trucks, several RVs, cars and trucks. As we exited the tunnel, the opposite direction line was building, but they had to wait for the train to make it's way through.
Whittier was surrounded by mountains still undergoing snow meltdown, with so many waterfalls we couldn't count them. This was the backdrop of our campsite.
Another tunnel, pedestrian, had to be used to walk under the railroad area to reach the harbor.
The harbor was beautiful, even on a dreary day, and we enjoyed walking around this small Prince William Sound port town.
Alaskans do not always have access to certain parts or supplies. During this era we live in, with supply chain issues, it is even worse here. Residents must be innovative, at times, as evidenced here. 😂😂
Another fun fact about Whittier: Most residents (over 80%) live in one apartment building, Begich Towers. This is a 14 story building which was formerly used as Army barracks. It also houses a police department, post office, convenience store and other services. The children that live here use an underground tunnel to walk to school, which allows them to stay inside during the winter.
As we exited the tunnel, leaving Whittier, we passed Portage Glacier. Even though we couldn't see the glacier, there was ice floating in the lake. 🥶🥶
Our next leg took us further into the Kenai peninsula to Hope Ak. We stayed two nights in a state park overseeing the opposite side of Turnagain Arm. We looked for the BIG bore tide again, but as before, it did not happen. Oh Well!!
On our way to Soldotna/Kenai to visit new friends, Chuck and Val, we passed these beautiful flowers (Lupine) lining the road. We moochdocked several days in their driveway, did a little sightseeing, went to a great restaurant for fish and chips, and just relaxed. We plan to return during the late Sockeye salmon run in July.
Our final stop for this post was the Cooper Landing area known for it's "Combat Fishing" of salmon. The reason it's called that is everyone lines up on the shore to fish and you have to "fight" for a spot😜. We donned our gear and stepped into the ring, "The Russian River".
It was absolutely beautiful there and we fished for several days.
VERY FUNNY 🤔 STORY
On our second day fishing, the river had risen several inches due to snowmelt. Scott was standing in water to his hips. As most of you know, I am vertically challenged 🤪, so I did not venture out too far. The current was raging and I would have been waist deep. NO WAY! I stayed close to shore and watched from the sidelines. Scott turned around and calmly said, "Honey, there is a bear behind you". Well, much to my dismay, there WAS a grizzly about 20 feet or so behind me. I would say I totally lost my emotional control!! I didn't splash or try to run. It wasn't even possible for me to hardly move through the water. I just said to Scott, "I need you here now!". He was kind of laughing and telling me not to worry. NOT POSSIBLE! Everyone on the other side of the river was yelling "Bear!" as I stood there thumbs up thinking, "No Sh*t!". I again told Scott, "I need you here now!". He said later I just wanted more choices for the bear. Maybe so 🤔, but I was scared enough that the tears were ready to flow. We slowly moved upstream and the bear went into the woods, after he scooped up some salmon carcasses for dinner. Next day, Scott wanted to go the same spot to fish and I said, "NO WAY!". We used the ferry to fish on the other side with many more choices!! Sorry no pics of this actual event. Too traumatized to take a photo 😊.
This is what I thought I saw!
This was closer to reality!
Either one, I was not a fan. 😂😂 I can laugh now, but not then. On our way to the campground, we saw two black bear cubs playing in a tree and mom down below eating. It was definitely a "Bear" kind of day!
Our last day of fishing, Scott finally caught a fish. Initially thought it was a salmon, but it turned out to be a Dolly Varden. It was delicious, no matter what it was.
So long for now...
NEXT UP: ALASKA - PART 3 "MORE OF THE KENAI, KAYAKING, & FISHING, FISHING, FISHING!"
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