Weekend in Anchorage

'Tis Monday and the rain and clouds persist so we will make do with what we are given.

Friday we arrived in the mid-afternoon and received a royal welcome and tour of brother Tony's super garden: the things that man can grow here in the land of summer sun: corn, sunflowers, beets, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, herbs [Mary's specialties] and fruit trees. Supper included a salad from the garden plus fresh halibut from a neighbor.

Saturday we walked around Lakes Hood and Spenard which house tons of float planes which were great to watch land and take off. The rest of the day Tony and Mary scurried to get ready for a party so that we could meet their friends and get to re-know a cousin, Lonnie Laurent. And again the food was superb. Cozied around a chiminea fire when the house put the yard in shade. [It never really gets dark here in the summer.]

Sunday we enjoyed breakfast burritos and then Tony took us downtown to see the Anchorage Museum at the Rasmuson Center where we could see some great displays of Alaska's cultural heritage and artifacts from its history including the gold rush, the railroads, the fur trapping era and the oil boom. There was also a traveling display from the Smithsonian Museum's Arctic Studies Center. It showed clothes, tools, toys and other items from all of the native groups that have called Alaska home over the many years. From there we walked downtown to find a reindeer-dog for Jim. Then we drove to Earthquake Park to see how the land changed in 1964 when a 9.2 earthquake destroyed the area.

Today we plan to hike around downtown and along the Knik Arm. Tomorrow, it's off to Denali for a few days.