Alaska – Anchorage Day Two

June 21 Thursday Decided to do a little exploring around Anchorage. We headed downtown to the visitor's center. We had stopped at the sod roof visitor center the night before, but across the street from it is a big building which is also a visitor information center and houses displays of Alaskan history. It also shows films of Alaska and rangers provide interpretative tours. Surprisingly, this is a federal building so we had to show ID and go through a metal detector before being allowed in. We watched a film about the earthquake that hit Anchorage and the surrounding areas in 1964, This was the largest earthquake to ever hit North America, 9.2 on the Richter scale. It was very interesting, lots of eyewitness accounts, and the devastation was unimaginable especially seeing the city today.

We had lunch downtown, our first reindeer hot dog! Really didn't taste much different than the hot dogs we are used to eating, just spicier.

We also wanted to visit the Ulu factory in Anchorage. For those of you who don't know , it is a curved steel blade with a wooden handle on the top which is used for cutting and chopping food. Very sharp! We have been seeing these wooden-handled blades all over since we hit the Yukon, but some are definitely not  made as well as others. I think we got a good one at the factory and at a better price than I have seen elsewhere. I really know very little about it, but I bought a set that included the blade, block, bowl and a CD so I can learn how to use it.

Pilot from Elmira

We thought we had better search out the airport as we will be picking the boys up tomorrow, so we drove there to check that out. While there Gary spotted the aviation museum, so we had to stop and take a tour.  It was pretty interesting...aviation has such a history in Alaska as it was one of the first ways to get around and remains one of the main means of transportation today. Many, many pilots here!  Lake Hood next to the airport is the world's busiest float plane lake. There were also displays of historic aviators and one of theme was from Elmira, NY.   I have included a picture of the write-up that was on display.

Float plane from Lake Hood

PBY being restored

We ended our day with a trip to the Fred Meyers store to pick up supplies for the boys' visit. I am still in search of some fresh bagels, but that is on tomorrow's agenda.