Anchorage - Week 5

April 21^st – April 27^th 2014

Work days. Average weather – 32 for night, 45 during the day. Snow is pretty much gone. Mountains – still snowy. Streets and roads – being cleaned. No wild animals. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – work, car repair (struts). Checked several repair shops – it is expansive here. Decided on one close to the hospital and about 2.5 miles from our place. Dropped the car on Tuesday and walked home. Colder. Gray. Kind of ugly streets. University and hospital campus. Attempted short cut – lost in the park, snow knee deep, wetlands – water in the shoes. It almost felt like near death experience – well, so much for short cuts. Unable to finish strut replacement, had to order parts from Seattle. Walked back to the repair shop and picked the car up. The same on Wednesday, no short cuts, and car got fixed. It gets complicated (as we travel) to deal with normal things. Our bank is not here. No idea about the repair shops, stores, and other services. Worked out fine. Thursday – switch day – nothing to say. Unfortunately, J. had couple of really bad nights (sleeping poorly) and it took some fun out of our trip. Life happens. We planned the trip to Soldotna and Kenai area with an overnight stay. 

We left at nine o'clock on Friday, sunny with few pretty clouds. Big part of this drive was known to us (the same road leads to Seward, about an hour and half). It is very scenic and pleasant drive, this time we got something extra: weather. We left more less sunny Anchorage, along the Turnagain arm we got more clouds and eventually it started to rain, that later turned into rain and snow with completely dark sky. There was pretty much nothing to see. Interestingly strange. We turned, the road goes east for about 40 miles and then turns southwest (more less). Still the dark sky and rain mixed with snow. Half way to Seward intersection it changed and we got partly cloudy sky with relatively pleasant temperature. The road (a bit past Seward junction) joined the river and it stayed like that the rest of the way (the river was not always visible). We also left the mountains and drove kind of flat land (not as pretty and interesting as one would think). Several stops along the way but nothing really spectacular (sites, hikes, towns). It looked like it was pretty much set up for fishing. Few boats on the river but otherwise nothing else. Cooper town – bunch of houses and businesses along the road – mostly for fishing again. In some way it is sad to see those settlements (storing all kinds of stuff on the property – old cars, construction equipment, junk) and behind them this incredibly beautiful nature. Town of Soldotna. http://visitsoldotna.com/ It is on the main road to Homer (the road ends there). Unappealing shops and stuff along the road. Visitor's center – many stuffed animals and fishes. Apparently the biggest salmon was caught in Soldotna. Basically, most of the activities around the town (and the area) are tied to the river and fishing. Nice lady in the visitor center. Board walk to the river – gray and somewhat sad looking (again, apparently in a month or so there will be fish jumping up and down). A bit further up the road was Wildlife refuge visitor center – kind of small. Next to it they are building new and nicer one. Drove to Kenai. http://kenaichamber.org/ Normal drive. Same “shopping experience” while entering the town. Visitor's center – nice display of animals, artifacts, and model of oil rig. Apparently there are some oil extraction going on in the water. The road continues another 25 miles north of Kenai and we were told that part of it is quite industrial. Small drive through “old town” Kenai – not much to see. Old Russian Orthodox church (I may be too critical because I lived in Europe) – small and unimpressive. Breezy and cold. View of water. View of mountains across the water. Unfortunately too cloudy to see all the volcanoes. Drove north – Captain Cook State Park – the road ends there. View, small beach, not set up for winter time. Guy drove on the beach and got stuck there. Two girls watching for wildlife. Drove back through town of Nikiski – industrial and strange. One of the magazines described the town as “quaint”. The writer had to be really high on pixie sticks. Kenai – few stores, some parks and few stops. Motel by the airport – fully booked and “lost” our reservation. Unpleasant. Apparently we booked it on Sunday and the person working that day overlooked it. Nice. The lady called around and could not find empty room. Again, apparently there were some strange things happening and there were too many people. Room in Soldotna, we had to drive 20 minutes back, got the room and ended our day. Not the greatest day but not everyday is a holiday. Saturday. Slow and easy morning in Soldotna. Except a sliver of blue there was gray and ugly sky. J. had another bad night. We had a breakfast and left the town. We had to get some gasoline (about 35 cent a gallon more than in Anchorage). Drive. Obviously, with limited number of roads here, we had to take the same road back. I believe I forgot to write about a moose I saw yesterday as we were close to Soldotna. It was on the side road – we turned around but it was gone. It was still quite nice to see it (even so briefly from moving car). There was different route – close to Skilak lake – unfortunately on the beginning of the dirt road was big sign saying “soft surface – travel at your own risk”. After we saw yesterday the car stuck on the beach we did not feel like taking the risk. We saw few people on the river – fishing. Stopped by the Russian River area. We decided to take a walk (hike) to the falls. About 2.5 miles, nice path, nice views, gray and cloudy, breezy. J. called it rapids. It was pretty nice site, it just was not an impressive falls. Well, at least some physical activity. As we got closer to the turn we got some rain (light to heavy) and it lasted quite a while. Cloudy and gray in Anchorage (no rain). Lazy and easy Sunday, J. was sleeping as she was switching. 

Anchorage - Week 4

April 14^th – April 20^th 2014

SPRING IS COMING TO ALASKA:

There are many people who are driving with serious cracks in their windshields (even we have one now). There are older articles about Alaska being the land without fast food restaurants – gone, baby, gone. Especially Anchorage is not much different from any other city in the US, Subway seems to be very active here. Also, another Alaskan myth: the ratio of men and women (so few women). It is true that Alaska has the highest ratio (about 107 men to 100 women) in the US but it is nothing terrible. Just few notes, for now. The week started with J. coming home from the work (her night shift ended Monday morning). She slept part of the day, the rest of it we just took it easy and had relaxing day. Some errands, she went to gym, probably some television, small walk – normal life. Relatively normal switch day. Finally it looks like the freezing nights are over, the temperature is holding above freezing. On Tuesday, we had slower morning and decided to stay in town (it was supposed to rain – it did not). We drove to Wild Berry Chocolate Factory – one of the Anchorage's attractions. Snow is almost gone and the city's workers are starting to sweep the streets – they use a lot of gravel in here. The chocolate place (very quiet and almost empty) has self proclaimed largest chocolate waterfall in the world. It is pretty big but it is just decoration, they are not using chocolate for anything else. We stopped by the bookstore. We went to Wells Fargo Museum (another attraction, during winter Native Heritage Museum is closed) that claims to have quite nice collection of native art. A bit strange because it is located within bank's building. Bigger room with quite a lot of artifacts – it was pretty interesting what can be done with ivory. There was a replica of some boat (from ivory) and apparently it took 8000 hours to build. Nice … Grocery store. Visit from the landlord – someone looking to rent after us. Quiet evening – J. got a movie called Hope Springs http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535438/ because on the cover it stated it was funny. Not really. 

We made really nice plan for Wednesday and we managed to leave the house by nice o'clock. Overcast. Few patches of blue sky. We drove north to the town of Palmer. Same freeway, almost no snow – just dirt and grayness all over (kind of sad). And mountains in the distance. Palmer – small town, few stores, and not much else for the moment. We left the freeway and drove up to the Hatcher Pass and Independence State Park (it used to be mine). It is interesting how people here like their space. Along the road (miles and miles from the town) there were cottages, houses, and shacks. Most of them had large lot but also could see their neighbors. I think it is interestingly strange choice to live like that. Oh well … As we were climbing up there was more and more snow. Our plan was to see the mine area, take few shorter walks and drive along the dirt road with apparently incredible scenery (and cross the Hatcher Pass). Few parking lots where it was possible to park (snow was plowed). Incredible scenery and amazing views of the valley with more mountains in the distance. It was magical. Snow around us, on the other hand, was quite real. We got to the area of the Independence mine, there was Lodge open and we could see the structures of the state park (mile away or so). The road ended by the lodge's parking lot. There were some ski trails and estimated three feet of snow on the rest of the road. And, getting to this parking lot we passed the turn for our dirt road (closed with a lot of snow). We were almost blind from all the snow and decided to walk towards the mine, it was nice, cold, and really bright. Change of plans, drive to Wasilla, and find pretty much nothing there. Eastern European store – kind of funny. Home. I guess for higher elevation places winter is not over yet. Thursday, J. slept in until almost eleven o'clock (like a bear as we are apparently in bear country). She will be switching and staying up tonight so this should help her to stay up. After breakfast we went for a walk to the nearby Russian Jack Park. Still snowy but spring is definitely coming. There is big parking lot and municipal building in the middle of the park. On the edge, by the main road, there are some greenhouses. Apparently Anchorage has great display of flowers during summer and they grow them here (or at least some of them). There is also tropical greenhouse open to the public. Nice (relatively small) two chamber greenhouse. The first one had aviary and fish pond and bunch of planted plants. The other part had decent selection of plants in pots – also some cacti. It was really pleasant place. Back home. Errands, grocery store, cooking, and other monkey business. Friday and Saturday – J. worked. Nothing special. No wild animals. Relatively stable (and mediocre) weather. School, errands, relaxing, and other monkey business on my side. J. had day off on Sunday but because it is just one day she did not switch (she slept during the day and stayed up). Time is flying.

BE BEAR AWARE

Anchorage - Week 3

April 7^th – April 13^th 2014

It got colder again. Monday and Tuesday were first two night shifts for J. Apparently they were fine. On Tuesday, there was a bit of snow and it snowed throughout the day some (it was gone by the evening). Winter does not want to leave Alaska, we do not enjoy that. We got used to “warm winter” in California and Arizona, it is going to be hard to be back in Michigan. Otherwise nothing really special. We are trying to plan our longer trips because between night shift schedule, distances, and many things being still closed – it is not easy to plan it. Wednesday, J. got home after the second night shift and went to sleep. It was her “switch day” - sleeping part of the day and then going to sleep in the night – and it did not work super well. Yes, “Monsters Inc.” was back (unfortunately). Because it was the first switch day in very long time it was quite hard. We took the afternoon and evening easy and did not do much. It was another cold morning on Thursday. J. could not go to sleep and then slept terribly, not a most pleasant morning. We got ready and left the house a bit past nine o'clock. We were heading to Seward to check out Kenai Peninsula. As most of the Alaska's road, this one too was scenic. We drove along the Turnagain Arm toward Portage, nothing really special there. The mountains are still covered with snow and we did not see any Beluga whales either. When we lost the sight of the arm we saw the landscape that was even more “wintery”. The road was just fine but the mountains and everything along the road was covered with quite a bit of snow. It is definitely very different picture of Alaska but unfortunately it also makes our stay somewhat difficult. Several stops along the way as we were enjoying the scenery. There are several trails along this road but they are mostly long (paradise for those who enjoy several days of backpacking and crossing the mountains), there are few shorter trails but not really for winter season. Kind of quiet and empty country. Pretty good road, some frost damage. Just before the town of Seward (population of about 2700) we turned and wanted to visit Exit glacier (one of the few glaciers that are easily accessible). Not much snow around us, almost no snow except on the mountains. We got stopped by police because they were shooting a movie (Sugar Mountain) on the road.

We were offered detour but there was another guy with police car. We left with the thought that we will try later. We quickly stopped by visitor's information (again, not much to do in town because of the season). Small town, harbor, commercial fishing (Seward is apparently number 9 on the list of the US fishing ports based on the value of catch), and really breathtaking view of water and mountains. We drove a mile down the road (it ends there) and were going to take a walk on the trail along the coast, J. did not want to because we would be walking really close to another loud couple. Drive to the Exit glacier again – the road closed and (we were told several different things) apparently about 5 miles to the end of the road (to walk) and another mile or so to the glacier. More than we wanted to do so we left. We drove to the other side of the bay (more incredible views) and unable to find one of the shorter trails. End of the road again. Seward is really quiet and sleepy in winter. Otherwise it is cruise ship port so in summer it is probably busy. We returned on the other side of the bay and walked the trail we originally wanted to walk. Relatively flat, not many views (a bit back from the coast, in the woods). Snow. Pleasant walk that ended (1.7 miles or so) in small bay where river meets ocean. In summer (based on information from the trail head) there are bears catching salmon. Now it was quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. Walk back. Dinner (recommended restaurant where we sit down and saw sea otter swimming by) and motel. Both tired. We could sleep in as long as we wanted to (pretty much) and J. slept until nine o'clock. It was Friday morning in Seward. Not horribly cold, sun was up, and all around us were snow covered mountains. We drove through the town to the Alaska Sea Life Center http://www.alaskasealife.org/. It was interesting and quite informative but it was far from the top experience of Monterey Aquarium in California. Some fish. Salmon. Seals. There was really nice area with bunch of ducks. It was pretty small place but we spent there almost two hours. After that we started driving north towards Anchorage. Several stops along the way, the same beautiful scenery. We had still some time left so we took a detour to a small town of Hope (about 15 miles from the main road). It used to be mining town on the Turnagain Arm, there are still some houses, paved roads just ends, and there are some amazing views of water and mountains. No more wild life. And there was really nothing to do in Hope, apparently it is somewhat “livelier” in summer. Still, the drive was incredibly scenic. And … drive back home to Anchorage. That was pretty much all. Weekend and actually the end of our third week in Alaska, Saturday and Sunday. J. had her normal work days (went fine). It is warming up (there was at least one night that it did not go below 32 degrees) – summer is here! There is still some snow. Other than that … life goes on. On Sunday, after I picked J. up at work we saw moose eating a tree just across the street from the hospital's entrance. Finally real Anchorage moose. 

 

Anchorage - Week 2

March 31^st – April 6^th 2014

It is still cold in here (especially in the night). The days are relatively pleasant because of sun. On Monday, J. had her last day of orientation, it was quite short. Quick stop at the grocery store (we had to go to the store so many times – what is going on?). Quiet evening – we are still planning the trip home, slowly booking one motel at the time. By now we are in Cranbrook, British Columbia. On Tuesday, day off, we went to downtown (quite small), parked in the garage and walked to the State of Alaska skyscraper (19 levels) to get receipt for J.'s nursing license. Easy. In the same building was DNR information center. We bought state park's pass and talked for a longer while with the lady that was working there. We tried to figure out what we can do during April (snow, not a “tourist” season) but she told us that we have to see. Most of the parks are open but the trails will be snowy, icy, and muddy. Apparently she enjoys fishing and hunting and was quite happy when she got hunting rifle from her husband for her birthday. She also told J. had she is canning salmon. Or how she came to Alaska over thirty years ago and much of today Anchorage was swamp. Apparently her in-laws had a chance to buy bunch of land few miles south of the town (in mid seventies or so) but they did not while saying “who wants to buy a swamp”? Could, would, should … We also (apparently) slept though small earthquake that happened during the weekend. There were some incredible views from the building. It was still cold. We walked to the old federal building where is a public lands information center (theater, info center, exhibits). We were there (just for a moment) after we arrived, and like then we had to go through the metal detector. We watch three movies (about Native people in Sitka, Alaska railroad, and Carter administration's protected land laws) and there was just two of us. Alaska is definitely interesting state. It is impossible to describe or think here about the resources that Alaska have. Should it be nature? Should it be oil, gold, and gas? Something in between? In the last movie President Carter was saying that during state fair in Alaska people could throw balls at either him or Iranian leader Khomeini and apparently people preferred him (by a large margin). Strange. We talked with the staff for a while about our possibilities during April. Small walk around the town. We do not really leave the house (on the days off) until 11:00 am or later (when it finally gets warmer), and it was the case also on Wednesday. We were going to check out some trail heads to Chugach State Park http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/chugach/ within the city limits. It is hard to know what will be easily accessible and what will be closed or covered with too much snow. About 10 miles on the road. We were on the foothills (those were apparently without houses 30 years ago, now it is just sea of lights) of the mountain range and enjoying small neighborhood roads. Some oversized homes, some million dollars views, and still a bit icy roads. Approaching the area, we actually saw an Anchorage moose. According to magazines and articles, there are about 1500 moose within city limits, finally we saw one. First trail head, we got out, walked a bit around (less than a quarter of a mile) and saw the city and whole area, some majestic mountains in the distance. More driving (tiny roads, huge houses), climbing up, Glen Alps Trail head (starting point for the Flattop mountain hike). Flattop is the most popular hike (about 3.4 miles round trip) in the area. It was very scenic and pleasant drive. We were not planning to go all the way up, but we wanted to get a feel of the area. There was a detour sign for a Flattop trail, we felt lost and ended up on the top of the hill off the lower trail loop. The views were spectacular, even though it was a bit windy and chilly. It was strange to be warm (from walking) and cold (weather) at the same time. It was definitely interesting experience to see it mostly covered with snow. And … no tourist. Again and again, there are benefits and drawbacks to be “off season”. No idea how much did we walk but there was no way we could do the top of the mountain this day (too tired and too cold). People with dogs. On the way down we found the real trail and it was much shorter and easier. If we would take this trail we would know that we were on the middle loop trail. Oh well … next time. Drive home, quick stop at the store (J. needed padlock). Another day gone … 

(OUR FIRST ANCHORAGE MOOSE. BETTER NOT BE THE LAST ONE!)

(SOMETHING PERSONAL. THAT IS ME WALKING AROUND FLATTOP.)

 

J. had her day shift orientation days on Thursday and Friday. It was fine. Get thermostat fixed on the car, errands, and some more monkey business. Gray and sad looking days. It is strange season in Alaska, I guess not much different from Michigan or any other state with four seasons. Winter is pretty much gone, spring is not quite here, and it is messy and dirty everywhere (some snow left, gravel, slush, garbage). It just feels like the period between winter and spring is longer here. Saturday morning was very similar to our other mornings. It is too cold and gray to do much until at least 10.35 am. Even though Saturday morning was somewhat warmer (maybe spring is slowly coming). We got gasoline, we had some car issue, and left the city a bit after midday. Few miles on the highway, turn to Eagle River (town), and continue along the Eagle river for 11 miles. Relatively nice road, wide valley (apparently carved by glacier a while back). Some snow, higher to high mountains on both sides, mostly frozen river, houses (all the way to the park). Nature center – Chugach State Park – there is a trail connecting this area with Girdwood (village on Turnagain arm): 23 miles one way. We went into the center, talked to one of the volunteers, got a map, and pad a parking fee. Some nice display: birds, animals, and furs. About six miles of walking (we combined few trail for a bigger loop). Almost completely cloudy, relatively pleasant temperature, no wind. Small nature trail next to the creek, apparently salmon is here in summer (making babies). Trail: gravel, packed snow, ice, melting ice, mud, debris – pretty much all the options were present. It was pretty pleasant walk. The river was mostly frozen, some parts of the trail were really horrible (washed out), some parts were still “winter wonderland”, all together it was great (even a bit too long) walk. The creek area did not have much snow left and it was just gray and “sleeping for winter”. Two trumpeter swans. http://www.ernc.org/ (Eagle River Nature Center) We got back, drove to the highway, and stopped by the bookstore in the city http://www.wavebooks.com/ (Title Waves Bookstore). We got two older James Bond movies and some other stuff. Later we watched Octopussy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086034/, Bond movie from 1983. Who knew those old ones were so awesome. According to the forecast Sunday was supposed to be uglier than Saturday. Bunch of liars. We could see at least a bit of blue sky. Milder morning. Some talking, reading, breakfast eating, and other monkey business (still the same idea: mornings are too unpleasant to leave the house). Finally we decided to go and see Anchorage Museum https://www.anchoragemuseum.org/. Free parking on the street next to the museum (it was Sunday). However, we discovered that in winter (until the tourist season starts) the museum opens at 12:00 (and it was 11:38 am). Across the street was a mall, so we went in there and just wandered around for twenty minutes. The museum has two full stories and additional two more stories in different building. Some modern art and impressive views of the mountains (those views are from any higher building in the city). GYRE – very sad exhibition about the environment and all plastic products that end up there (ocean, rivers, everywhere). There were few shorter movies, some paintings, and some installations from “garbage”. We, humans, should be really proud (just to be clear, I am being sarcastic). Second level had a Smithsonian affiliated exhibit – Native people and Arctic studies. Incredible exhibit with many artifacts (interesting), many informative displays – data and time lines (very interesting), and several screens playing bunch of short documentaries in loop (amazing). The short documentaries were showing the life and the culture of many Native tribes. http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/ The rest of the museum had some modern art exhibits, photographs from the earthquake, “hands on” play area, and the time line of Alaska history. Short description of different periods (Russians, statehood), artifacts, articles, and so on. The museum was not too big and it really had so much to show and tell about Alaska that overall it was just amazing. Our second full week in Alaska is over. Surprisingly, time is flying.