We awoke fairly late for a vacation day, about 9a, but that’s OK — I had designated Sunday as a relaxing free day out of fear that the one hour layover in Denver would bite us and cost us a day (as United doesn’t have any other flights to Anchorage than the one we made). We choked down some Holiday Inn Express free breakfast (about worth what we paid for it — honestly while we love Holiday Inn Express the free breakfast has gone waaay downhill since 2010). I had some weak scrambled eggs that demanded salt and some granola mixed with some kind of Kellogg’s berry cereal. It was OK.
We walked out to the car which we had parked out at the rear of the parking lot which bordered a little marshy area that I was just sure would harbor a moose. A quick background on me and moose — despite visiting the Adirondacks for years and years as well as Maine, Quebec, and the Rockies, all areas that are lousy with moose — I’ve never seen one. It is something that my daughter particularly relishes taunting me about. Alas, this pond harbored no moose.
Engine warmer cord -- yeah, it gets cold in Alaska
Unfortunately, however, our car’s tire harbored a nail. We just didn’t know it yet. Our low tire pressure indicator was on so we drove up towards Enterprise near downtown, taking the opportunity to stop by Title Wave used books (love the name) and pick up a tour guide to Alaska as well as some breakfast from McDonalds for Addison. We also drove through downtown — seems like a promising place to visit at some point, if a little touristy. It even has a Hard Rock Cafe! That Enterprise location was a bit unhelpful. Their repair guy discovered that a nail had caused a very slow leak and pumped it up enough to get us back to the airport to swap the car (as they had no Santa Fes available and we’d grown quite attached to it).
Downtown Anchorage
Drove back to the airport but sadly they had no Santa Fes either and the tire place they used was closed (it being Sunday). So they swapped us out for a Subaru Outback. It is a little smaller and lower to the ground, and we prefer the Santa Fe, but on the plus side it was a hybrid or somesuch — gets well over 500 miles to the tank. In Alaska that’s a definite asset. It also has quite a bit of get-up-and-go to it. So while not exactly happy we decided to make do rather than keep the Santa Fe and bring it back on Monday as that’d mean not having a car (as we didn’t want to get a flat somewhere) for Sunday.
Our faithful new steed, a Subaru Outback
Left the airport and headed for lunch, trying a place called Gwennie’s Old Alaska Restaurant not far from the hotel. A charming two story restaurant with very generous portion sizes, this turned out to be a great find. I had chicken fried steak and eggs over medium (I know, I know!), Addison had a steak sandwich, Michelle had a shrimp salad (if I recall correctly), and Genetta had Eggs Benedict. All very tasty. The waitress was friendly too. Leaving stuffed, we decided to head to Kincaid Park, a very large park just south of Anchorage and the airport.
Gwennie's Old Alaska Restaurant -- great food!
View from Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska
Chalet at Kincaid Park
Kincaid Park is on land that was formerly manned during the Cold War with anti-ballistic Nike-Hercules missiles. Scattered throughout the property are launch bunkers complete with painted unit designations and the like. Very cool.
Nike-Hercules launch facility
Many, many trails for both walking and mountain biking, but also dog sled and cross country / Nordic skiing are found throughout the park as well as several ponds and a disc golf course. After parking at the large “chalet” which commands views of Cook Inlet (which splits into two arms that go west and south of Anchorage) we took several trails for a couple of miles, enjoying the beautiful mostly sunny (with very isolated sprinkles from time to time) 70F weather. One really cool thing was that many 747s flew very near as the park is adjacent to the airport. What I didn’t realize until later is that all of them (they were arriving less than five minutes apart, one after another after another) had no windows to speak of — they were all cargo.
Cargo plane inbound to Anchorage
View of Cook Inlet and the Alaska peninsula beyond from Kincaid Park
Anchorage is a town of 300,000 in a state with a total population of nearly 800,000. In fact it is the town with the second highest percentage of people relative to the population of the state (New York City being first). Despite having 300,000 people that certainly doesn’t warrant a constant stream of 747s. Turns out that Anchorage is one of the biggest air cargo hubs in the world and handles one-fifth of all air freight coming into the United States. This is largely due to an almost perfect placement within 9 or so hours of 90% of the industrialized world (since it can reach Europe quickly via Arctic flyovers).
On the way out of the park Michelle noticed some people pulled over looking at something just beyond a chain link fence. A moose! Finally! Though I didn’t get a great look it was unmistakably a moose and that was good enough for me.
Headed out of town on Seward Highway (AK1) after stopping by McDonalds for some drink. Kind of a ho-hum drive for a few miles and then, WHAM!, this amazing view of Cook Inlet and then eighty miles of probably the prettiest road I’ve ever been on. Ok, I lied, not probably — definitely. And over the last five years and 12,000+ miles and 42 states I’ve seen a lot of pretty roads.
Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm
The road is mostly two lane with the occasional extra lane for passing slower traffic when going uphill. It runs just off the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet the entire length with only the Alaska Railroad line to keep it company. Gorgeous green mountains (as it is late July most of the snow has melted) on the south side of the inlet with higher mountains on the north side and much higher mountains further to the east near the head — with some visible glaciers as well. Cascading falls and the milky white glacier water streams flow into the arm, cutting little gullies in the tidal flat’s mud. Genetta saw some mountain sheep or maybe goats but we didn’t see them. We stopped at several scenic vantage points and despite the low-hanging clouds still had some amazing views.
Glacier seen from Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm at low tide
Turnagain Arm
Prettiest railroad ever
Close-up of glacier near Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm
Turnagain Arm
Nearing the head of Turnagain Arm (named during Cook’s exploration of the Inlet hoping to find the Northwest Passage and having to turn around yet again) we turned the car back west towards Anchorage. Along the way we stopped at a marsh just south of town called Potter Marsh. Absolutely worth it! Though we didn’t see another moose, nor bear, we did see our first bald eagle. Not only did it take flight several times (seemingly to settle a beef with nearby ducks) but it raised its head while in the nest a few times.
Potter Marsh near Anchorage
Bald eagle flying in Potter Marsh
Potter Marsh
Hopped back in the car and got dinner near downtown at a Mexican restaurant called La Cabana. It was quite good — bean dip and beef and cheese enchiladas. Addison had steak fajitas, Michelle has flautas that were huge, and Genetta shrimp scampi with delicious garlic bread. After that we headed to see a movie at a theater northeast of town. Like the airport, they ran with the Northern Lights motif to great effect.
La Cabana Mexican restaurant in Anchorage
Interior of the theater with cool aurora borealis theme
Exited the movies around midnight and headed back to the hotel, staggering into bed at midnight and (again) failing to blog. This would catch up to me at some point for sure! Still a great, if long, day.
Route for Sunday, July 12, 2015