An Anchorage Walkabout

After a full day of drinking and eating on Wednesday, we decided (well, actually our bodies decided for us) we should just take it easy today.  Very easy.  Easy like Sunday morning.  Sorry, I digress.

Last night after we got back to the room, Joe passed out and I did two loads of laundry.  I'm not kidding.  I was hoping to hold out until Fairbanks to do some laundry, but after a quick underwear/jean count it was clear that we couldn't wait.  So I sorted and Joe snored.  Sorry I don't have a picture.

This morning...well about noon...we motivated and set out to find some lunch.  We took the hotel shuttle into downtown and headed for the Captain Cook monument.  On our way, there was a noise that sounded like a multi, multi-car crash right next to us.  I don't startle easily, but this racket made me come up off the sidewalk about four inches.  It was extremely loud and incredibly close.  It was a fighter jet (from the nearby Elmendorf Air Base).  It flew over us and then - with a blast of afterburner - sped straight up into the air then took off.  WOW!!!  It really reminded me of when I was a kid in Amarillo, and we'd hear sonic booms from the jets flying out of the Amarillo Air Force Base.

A few minutes later, we spied the Blue Angels flying overhead.  Turns out they're all practicing for an airshow this coming weekend.

We found Captain Cook.  He's famous here in Anchorage, although he never actually MADE it here.  In 1776, Captain Cook set out on his third voyage - aboard his flagship “Resolution” - to find a north-west passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. He surveyed the coast of Northwest America and Alaska, but, failing to find the passage to the Atlantic, turned south from the Bering Sea and sailed to the Sandwich Isles where, on the island of Hawaii, he was killed.

For lunch we settled in at the Slippery Salmon.  I had a reindeer dog.  Grilled, spicy, covered in chili, cheese, and sauted onions.  Sorry Santa...your reindeer are delicious!  Joe had halibut for the second day in a row; he may develop gills.

Time for a nap and one more load of laundry.  Tomorrow is a really long day.  We're taking the train up to Fairbanks.  It will be a fabulously scenic ride, but an incredibly long one.  So we'll go to bed early tonight.  That's getting harder and harder...the days are getting longer and longer.  Evidence:  here's a pic of our hotel at 8:30 pm.