Monday, 7/31 – Anchorage

We slept late and made breakfast in the tent. It was warmer than the past few nights, so we didn’t need the heater.

It was a sunny, clear day, so we went downtown to the visitors’ Center and took the 1-hour trolley tour. We found a public parking lot and paid with Park Mobile.

We boarded the tour trolley at the Visitors’ Information Center.

The tour took us around the historic downtown area past City Hall, the Alaska Railroad station and headquarters, through a neighborhood and the private aviation section of the airport. We stopped briefly in front the 3-story underground home of an architect.

We enjoyed some street food after the tour. We had reindeer hotdogs and sat on a low wall on the grounds of Old Anchorage City Hall.

We walked through trinket shops and rolled our eyes at all the Chinese-made “Alaska” tchotchkes.

We did stumble upon Alaska Art Alliance, a real Alaska art store. Lynne was looking for a Billiken carving. (See Wikipedia) Billiken is supposed to be a good luck charm. Her neighbor asked her to buy one if she saw one in a shop.

The owner of the shop did not have any, but took us to the workshop in the back of the store. The workshop is the Tlingit Iñupiat Athabascan (See website) where artists make various pieces from “ivory” i.e. walrus tusks, baline, wood, and stone. It was fascinating to see them working. One of the artists, who was sanding a piece of baleen, stopped to talk with us about his work.

About 12 to 15 artists come in and use the workshop. The owner of Alaska Art Alliance buys their work, but they don’t have to sell to him. They can sell to other outlets if they want to.

After some back-and-forth texting, Lynne’s neighbor decided to order a Billiken in the style and size she wanted. The owner of the workshop will make it and ship it to her.

We bought some beer at 49th State Brewing.

We walked around town taking in the sights…

…and noticed many beautiful flower beds.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at Costco to pick up a few grocery items.

Beth and I went on to a grocery store to finish the food shopping. Lynne took her bike to the Harley dealer to have the 10,000 mile service done and I went and picked her up.

At the end of a very nice day we had cocktail time, dinner, and bed.