Anchorage Celebrates the Fourth of July

Pictured here is my friend who caught this halibut last week. . . he needed help landing it, as it overwhelmed him and the boat. It cut the day of fishing short, as there was no room for anything else in the boat. . . taking it back to shore, no scales to weigh it, but it was estimated to be 400 lbs. Kenai Peninsula is about a 4 hour drive from Anchorage, and most charters guarantee you a fish or two, like in the background, but not like this!!!

Our weather has not been cooperating in the morning, but by mid-day, the sun seems to find it's way, and baseball prevails in our six week season. I am speaking of the Alaska Baseball League, but August follows with the American Legion games.

Every weekend bring another bike rally or fun run, and the turnout is pretty heavy for all of them. It's become a great fund raiser for npo's and the Anchorge Bucs joined this method with success just last week, with the start of the 6k run from Mulcahy Field (our ball park).

Fourth Avenue is the main street of Anchorage, and tourists are filling up the too-narrow sidewalks daily. Most highlights are within walking distance of the Visitor Center, but there are free shuttles to the further venus, ie. Sourdough Mining Company (that's a restaurant) and the Heritage Center. This latter site has a very complete setup for the visitor to view all the Native tribes, as they've built a pond where you can walk around the circle and view huts and Eskimos doing crafts, wearing native dress, etc. Drumming is performed in the main hall, with different groups. My way to remember the names of the main tribes is the name of a former downtown store called Taheta, which is an acronym for Tlinket, Athabascan, Eskimo, Tenana, and Aleut.

As you journey out of Anchorage, you have a limited choice, as there are two main highways . . . one to exit on the Glenn Highway, and the second to head south on the Seward Highway. The Glenn Highway takes you to Mt. McKinley in Denali National Park and on to Fairbanks, or you can continue to Tok, and then to and thru Canada to the other part of USA. The Seward Highway takes you to Seward, obviously, or to Homer, which is the "End of the Road". The Alaska Railroad goes to both Fairbanks, and Seward, but the latter is perhaps my preference, as it doesn't follow the road, but takes you into the back country to see Spencer Glacier and other beautiful sights. So anyhow, I surely hope I haven't bored you with all this, but I can only assume the reader is not familiar with "My Alaska." Signing off for now.

Summer Solstice in Anchorage

These are the beautiful days of summer, with daylight until almost midnight, and our 'crops' growing pretty swiftly. Personally, we have about 6 tomato plants with blossoms on them, so you'll see a happy gal here when we get to pick some tasty red babies.

Tourists abound, and Fourth Avenue is tee-shirt row once again. The bars and restaurants are doing a great business, and this summer, for the first time in several years, we have cruise ships arriving at the Port of Anchorage, within a mile of town.

Altho' I still don't go sleeveless, many locals do, and even jump in Goose Lake for a swim, but let's say the golf courses satisfy my appetite for outdoor activity. (I bike to an indoor pool at a high school nearby.) Our short baseball season is in full swing, and the Anchorage Bucs have two losses already in the Alaska Baseball League. Things will get better, as the players are still arriving from the lower states. We're hosting a relief pitcher, who is a Brett Favre look-alike.

Fishing season had a dubious start, because catch-and-release was the rule until today. Now anglers can keep king salmon less than 46 inches or more than 55 inches.

The Women's Run for Breast Cancer over the weekend drew over 7,000 runners and raised a health amount for the cause. I think it was over $100,000, if I remember what I read. Nope, I didn't run, or walk either. Slacker! Sorry I'm not posting a picture on this quickie blog, but I have a new program on my computer and I can't seem to save images to a file . .. just print them. Guess I should take some time on my learning curve.

June is Busting Out All Over Anchorage

With the beautiful weather we've been having in Anchorage, it's easy to see why we will never leave our home state. This is the time of year when moose are birthing on our front lawns, and munching on the beautiful flowers and fauna. Also, baseball starts it's short season on the 6th. This year we have a quality field to compare with the major leagues. The American Legion sponsored this construction, which you can read about here. You can also read about the players and see the schedule for the Anchorage Bucs here.

Other outdoor activities include marathons and bike races, 5 and 10k charity walks, and farmer's markets on several locations. Recently, our famous Chilkoot Charlie's owners has donated his big parking lot for the Spenard Farmers Market, and it's been growing over the last few weeks.

Indoor activities are not left behind, and while the movies are not attracting their winter crowds, the restaurants are full up. This is mostly with the large tourist influx. We also had our first cruise ship arrive right downtown (1 mile north) for the first time in 25 yrs., with more sailings to come. Anchorage is large enough to absorb a few thousand extra bodies on the street. Fourth Avenue has become a Tee-Shirt and Sandals Row, hardly leaving room for the vagrants who have moved further east. This is my own observation, of course.

So it's time to cut my blog short, and hasten for a bike ride . . . check back.

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!

Spring Fever in Alaska

This is the season we've been waiting for, as the long winter was getting us down. Alaskans are going every direction these days, with many choices. Even the golf courses are open now, altho' they are still using temporary greens until the turf takes hold. Speaking of grass, one of the 'biggies' is the new baseball field at Mulcahy park. This is a downtown site that is used by American Legion teams, high school teams, and the Alaska Baseball League. You can imagine it gets well worn over the short summer season, so it was well needed, but it is top quality plastic turf with a real dirt pitcher's mound. It was funded by grants to the American Legion, and even the dugouts and scoreboard are new.
You can see the construction in images that detail the work done over the last few months by clicking here.

The Museum has finally put up it's sculpture, which has turned out to be not unlike a robot. It's an example of the English getting even with us for the revolution.
This image shows the erection, and weight of this giant tinker toy, but I haven't heard one person speak positively about it. The Limey designer skipped town shortly after the opening toast ... which was the wise thing to do as he would have been lynched had he stayed. But then, it only cost us $550,000 plus, so what could we expect. The fellow in the red hard hat in this image is from our local company, SteelFab, and one of the 3 who put the plans together. He's a great guy, so I hope he doesn't have to be blamed.

TBA, a local theatre company at Alaska Pacific University is putting on a production of The Sound of Music, for 6 performances, and it is great. Somehow, they came up with the 7 Von Trapp children locally, who sang beautifully and outdid the great movie of years past. The costumes are also wonderful, and the set designed on a rotating circular stage were first-class. The pianist, a local elementary music teacher, carries the whole score admirably, too!

If you are a regular reader of my blogs, you know I'm not reporting everything that's happening around here. There's a fun run, women's run, or some run every weekend, plus bike races, trail walking, and skiing is waning. There are outdoor fairs, trade shows, soccer games, clean-up trail days, and the tourists are starting to clog Fourth Avenue, too. Whee! So why am I sitting indoors writing this. Whoosh, I'm gone!

Second Try for Spring in Anchorage

Just when we thought it was really spring, Mother Nature gave us a few more showers of snow, but that's okay . . . we're really into spring now, and the sun is shining, and we're all busy doing spring cleaning. . . and planting . . . and sunning ourselves. Some of us have harder chores, like this image of Mike Miller and his large animals. He's done a great job with his Alaska collection of live animals, and it's a treat to visit his refuge between Girdwood and Portage. For those of you who don't know, that's about 40 miles south of Anchorage on the most scenic highway anywhere. But along with the beauty, there's a lot of traffic accidents, too . . . the cause can be attributed to speed, sightseeing, dozing, etc.

There's so much going on in Anchorage, it's hard to find time to visit Alyeska for the spring festival. The slush cup is not to be missed, and I hope to post some good shots of it after this weekend, for you. Skiers end their run by trying to ski over a pond of water about 30 ft. and most don't make it. .. it's pretty chilly to get dunked, but feeds to a cheering crowd. There other novelty races, all topped off by a super dinner at the Double Musky, a world-class restaurant. At the other end of the restaurant list is the ever popular Bake Shop with it's bottomless bowl of soup, and cinnamon rolls to die for.

Weekends mean trade shows in town, too, such as the Sportsman's Show, the Women's Show, etc., and with the new Dena'ina Center, we have a lavish convention hall to house these big events. (I like to pronounce this phonetically, but actually it's correct to say Dee-9-a, which is a native tribe) The University of Alaska Anchorage also has several jazz events, plays, speeches, etc., and it's only the impossible parking situation that keeps me, and others, from attending more. Their sports program has also accelerated, with the woman's teams being recognized nationally. I am speaking of basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics. ... . The men are hanging in there, but the hockey program is still struggling, and swimming was cut out when the feds told them they had to comply with women's offerings in equal amounts. I will be posting more pictures soon . . . just don't have time these days. ... but check back!

Spring Breakup in Anchorage?

This is the scene downtown on Saturday night . .. the Glacier Brewpub is one of the most popular restaurants in town, and it is adjacent to Orso's Restaurant, also first-class. Between the two is a small indoor mall with a classy new shoe store called Shusz-Q. It just had it's big opening, and this is where the crowds are found. However, this image shows what a young gal with a pickup truck can do after a few drinks. Yep. She crashed it into the horse-drawn carriage parked outside. Fortunately, the horses escaped injury, but not some trauma, as the 130 yr. old restored carriage was totaled. . . not a typical night in old Anchor town.

This morning, we woke up to a treat. . . one more snowfall. I was pretty surprised, but then it's not unusual to get one last blast. It's warm enough now to almost melt completely when it hits the ground.

This is election day and I'm sticking to the addage of "Vote Early, vote often". I didn't really, but I know there are some of another political pursuasion that don't know you vote 'once'. Check back, and maybe I'll be posting prettier pictures.