Anchorage Springs Spring

We thought it would never come, but it is the beautiful season in Alaska. Trees are budding out, and sun is warm and moods are good. Just remember to not look down, because the puddles this year are bigger than usual, what with the record amount of snow.

Surely we have to accept some sadness along the way, such as some house fires, roofs falling in with the weight of the snow, and the recent find of a missing barista who disappeared two months ago.

But spring is also the season for birthing of new pups for future Iditarod Races, and also the moose calves will be appearing out of nowhere with their offspring, as well as the 'city' bears.

The new baseball season will be upon us shortly, and the Anchorage Bucs are moving their offices to the former gym on the park strip. (City-owned) That will make them lots closer to the Ball Park, and it's a new ball game without the founder/manager with us . . . he passed away over the winter.

One blunder I feel the city made was their choice of a 'statue' outside the newly expanded museum.

Note this picture, oops, it's upside down, too . . .which I scanned from a magazine, so it lacks quality, however, you can see that it is a bunch of blocks sitting on the grass (no foundation), on the far corner of the museum property. You might think it was created by a nursery school in their tinker toy class, but no . .. the half million dollar structure was designed by a Brit, who supposedly had great credentials. Oh, well, it's still a beautiful city and it's MY city. I'll try to update my posts a little more often, really!

Here We Go, Anchorage

Time flies when you're having fun. The tourists are arriving in Alaska via cruiseships, planes, and bicycles. Now don't laugh at that, they really do have many long distance bikers here, or coming here. This week, they had a 'fun' bike ride to Arctic Valley. See image above! This is a hill only a few miles from downtown, and it's all uphill. It's surrounded by military property. Did you know that the two military installations here have merged, and now it's called Elmendorf-Fort Richardson. Makes sense, doesn't it? At the crest of this Arctic Valley Mountain is two ski-areas. . .. on military, and the other is civilian.

It's a great place to learn to ski, and surely more affordable for families than our chic Alyeska Resort. But, in the spring it turns into a great place for hiking, or biking. Some bikers choose to commute to work

Weekends bring many benefit rides and rallies, plus farmer's markets and Tai Chi in the Park. But, there's a lot going on indoors, too. It's a nice time to Alaska, and the Visitor Guides can direct you to some form of your interest. Come on up and visit the Great State.

May Day - May Play

It didn't take long to welcome in spring, and change our lifestyle. Yes, it's time to put away the snow boots, mittens, and skull caps, and bring out the flip-flops. And none too soon. I don't know how long our beautiful weather will last, but it's outdoor play for me. Our Hostel Council has set up for a bike ride on May 21st, and the Mayor has given up a proclamation staing just that. I hope the sun tunes in, and give us a beautiful day for the ride and ice-cream social following it.

There are bike races, footraces, and biatholons every weekend, it seems. And as for indoor sport, the ice hockey team, the Alaska Aces, is on it's way to winning the Kelly Cup again! The summer baseball season is also looking good, with it's first game coming in just a month!

As for indoor events, I would say that the graduation ceremonies of the 5 high schools in Anchorage takes the limelight. However, Blue Man Group is coming for a week. They send their own cleaning crew, both for the stage and the first few rows, which gets it's share of the flying 'stuff'.

If you've seen the show before, you'll understand. They even bring their own wash machines, I hear. So let's hope our beautiful Performing Arts Center looks the same after, as before.

As you may know, I'm a travel consultant, and I might just add that the cruisetours in Alaska, and partially Canada, are well worth the extra expense after you get off your cruise. Oh, yes, I book cruises too, but I want you to know that the interior of Alaska has a lot to offer, as does Dawson City, Canada,m so I am just mentioning that because I just set up a page for this blog - whynottravelalaska.blogspot.com -- read it when I get something up on it.

An Alaskan April

None too soon, April is upon us and it has brought a much-needed respite from the long, cold winter. Don't get me wrong, as Anchorage is beautiful any time of year, but as I get older, it gets harder to accept the long, dark nights. However, it's all forgotten now. I guess it's obvious that I haven't finished my learning curve of this blog, because I just made an error. You see, I have returned to booking cruises and cruisetours with Why Not Travel and was trying to set up blog for them. Well, instead of doing that on her account, I did it on mine, and it's taking me forever to switch it over to her. So if this blog doesn't make sense, it's because my mind is elsewhere right now.

But I must tell you some of the things happening in Anchorage, because we have had a deluge of events. On a personal note, I gave a speech at the Liars Club (it's the truth) and we had a Kids Fair and Womens Fair and a grand opening - three big things this weekend. The opening was our War Museum, and they cordoned off Fourth Avenue to display military trucks, Hummers, etc. and had a festival type atmosphere inside. Evidently, Alaska is the last state to get a war museum, and there were veterans there from the last 4 wars. Am counting right? They all wore their dress uniforms, some unbuttoned. There were lots of walker, wheelchairs, etc. Some ladies did a line dance, and musicians continued the entertainment. . . we did it right!

On the ski scene, this is the last week for skiing at our Alyeska Resort and the slush cup in coming. I simply must get some images to post here for you next week. It's always a fun event. Even the tourists have started arriving, and it looks like it'll be a wonderfulsummer. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

A Ho-Hum Anchorage Spring

This image of a Gulf Oil Rig (to clean up spill from ruptured oil tank offshore) appeared in the Anchorage Daily News, and my immediate reaction was that it was a 'steal' from our new statue outside our museum . .. I hope you've seen the earlier blog that showed the $550,000 sculpture of a man? or robot? or tinker toy? placed on the far corner of the Anchorage Museum Block. I'm still trying hard to accept it, but it doesn't work . . . not unlike the apparatus (above) that doesn't work either.

Another spring thing is the annual Strawberry festival for the residents of Pioneer [retirement] Home . . . always a nice event put on by the Pioneers of Alaska. We serve coffee, strawberry shortcake, and have some nice music of the ages (me). Also, there are 3 theatre productions and a choice of dance recitals this week, too!

Flags are at half staff all week for the passing of Gov. Wally Hickel, whom you may remember on a national basis for being Secretary of the Interior, under President Nixon. So many of the founders of the new Anchorage are leaving us, but rapidly being replaced by heirs and new arrivals. ('new' means in the last 50 years). If you are reading this from outside Alaska, you may not know that a newcomer here is called a 'cheechako', still. Many of the old traditions are fading. You don't see fur parkas around like the old days, and no one knows what a billikin is anymore - even the Billikin Lounge is closed. Businesses come and go, and one of my favorite stores to walk thru was Killer Designs. But I guess that was the problem . . . there are others like me who walk thru and don't buy.

Sometimes I drive by an empty lot that wasn't empty yesterday, and two of the recent disappearing buildings are the big house on the SE corner of 5th and L, that used to house doctors' offices, etc. and another building gone is a one story commercial building on F Street, south of 6th Avenue which perhaps was cleared to make parking for the new convention center. You see, the large parking garage that was built across the street is only for the State of Alaska employees. So no tax dollars coming in from there. Yes, careful planning is the key and the Assembly doesn't seem to mind things like - - - no parking built at the museum with the new multi-million addition. Oh, pardon me, I think I'm in a mood, so I'll cut this off here!