Anchorage Fun Times

It was sometimes hard to gather the motivation to go out into the crisp Anchorage air when we were cozy at home base with a little snuggle man.

Luncheon was held at Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop.

There was soup and sammies. I was pretty surprised at how cosmopolitan this place was. A lot of places that we've seen so far have been more... rough around the edges.

We decided to give Ernie a good learnin' at Anchorage Museum.

There was a kid's area for lil guys.

They had a lot of cool Native Alaskan stuff.

I liked this area a lot. You could pick up a telephone and hear audio and watch a retro news program about various Alaska topics. I think a couple were about the changes the discovery of oil brought to Alaska and how the people of the time thought about that. One bit was a bunch of interviews of citizens on their thoughts about what should be done with the state's oil revenue.

The history of Japan invading Alaska's Aleutian Islands during World War 2 is barely talked about compared to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I thought this was a very strange story with a St. Louis connection.

"The Mythical Billiken

The billiken is a good luck charm created by a Kansas City schoolteacher in 1908. At the height of the Nome Gold Rush, Inupiaq carvers in Nome began copying billiken figurines given to them by souvenir merchants. Before long, thousands were being sold in Alaska as figurines, earrings, letter openers, and over courtroom gavels. Their popularity as "Alaskan" charms peaked in the 1960s. The myth that these still-popular trinkets are traditional "Eskimo figures" is widespread."

The billiken is also the athletic mascot of Saint Louis University.

Today's hike was a little trip to Thunderbird Falls.

I did see a bird but it didn't seem to have any influence over thunder.

We went back to Wild Scoops. Luckily we were not accosted by shoplifters like yesterday.

Lydia likes ice cream a whole lot.

Not Killed by Bears in Anchorage

One nice thing about traveling with Ern is that his presence in our travel party forces us to go slower and in the process enjoy more of the little things about being in a new place. Today we had a more leisurely day in the Anchorage area.

The White Spot Cafe has a humorous name and has been making delicious fried halibut sandwiches since 1959.

It's like the Land Before Time over here. This phone booth even had a little PHONEBOOK.

We decided now that we were full of delicious fried fish it would be a good idea to hike around near a bunch of bear warning signs at Eagle River Nature Center in Chugach State Park.

I instinctively start licking my lips now that I know how delicious these thin white birch trees really are.

We checked out Diamond Center Mall. They had an ice rink that was currently dyed pink for some breast cancer thing.

I went solo to Wild Scoops to bring some pints back to our headquarters. It was an odd experience. There were a couple of druggy looking younger people ahead of me in line. The sketchy girl said they were homeless and asked me if I would buy her ice cream. I declined. While in line they stuffed some merch into their clothes. When they reached the ice cream counter they asked the staff if they could have anything free. The staff said no. They asked me again, I said no. Then they left with their stolen merchandise. I was happy to be out of there and that they weren't waiting for me in the parking lot.

The ice cream was amazing, though, and they had really fun Alaskan ingredients. One had birch syrup, another Alaskan sea salt, and the third fireweed.