Alaskan Favorites

Today is our last day here and we spent it getting organized for the trip home and took a quick side trip. Larry ships a lot of his sample clothing here and he has to send it back. We needed to pack up as well since we have an early flight tomorrow. We drove down to Girdwood this afternoon, a resort about an hour from here. It's back in the mountains and we heard it was a nice place to see.

Before we leave I thought I'd like to share a few of my favorite sites and sights with you.

Anchorage is an unassuming city, but in the summer hanging baskets of flowers can be seen everywhere. They hang about 100,000 baskets.

Parks abound as do walking paths. Alaska is ahead of the game when it comes to bike and walking paths. They may not have a lot of roads, but every major road has an asphalt trail on one side and a dirt path on the other side, even if there are no towns or houses nearby.

Pull offs and parking areas make it possible for people to park and walk. Of course, wildlife like bears and moose are there as well, so caution is advised. My favorite thing about the parks is that each one, big or small, has a sign identifying the family or families that have adopted that park and maintain the flower gardens or pots.

I love the Oscar Anderson home, built right on Cook Inlet. The home is quaint, original and one of the few buildings that survived the 1964 earthquake and tsunami. It was lived in until recently. Anderson was the 18th person to settle Anchorage. As he tells of his arrival, he was eager to get here arriving across the inlet in April. No one wanted to risk the trip across the water but he found a 19 year old young man who was willing to row him across Cook Inlet. The water was rough and the young man fell overboard. Anderson pulled him in the boat, gave him dry clothes to put on and finished the crossing himself. He was the 18th person to arrive at the tent that housed the 'residents'. He went on to become a leading business man in the new town.


Potter's Marsh is a large accidental wetland just outside of town. Before people understood the benefits of a marsh, the railway built their tracks along the coast on a raised bed, trapping much of the water inside, and re-routing the creekbeds. The accidental benefit is that it filters the run-off from the hillside behind it. It attracts a lot of water birds, beaver, moose, and other animals. A long boardwalk with lookouts, and panels that identify birds and habitats is busy in the evenings by photographers, elderly, and children alike. It is one of our favorite places to go after dinner.

Airplanes are everywhere! A trip out to Lake Hood is fun anytime of day. Small planes take off all day. It was the original airport before big planes started coming here. Kids learn to fly before they learn to drive. Many parts of Alaska are only accessible by plane and most little towns have an airstrip. A trip between outlying areas may take a couple of hours, but you could fly there easily. The first time we were here we were amazed at the number of airplanes we saw.

Seward is a great little town. I really enjoy going there. Each year they hold a mural contest. I'm not exactly sure who all participates, but there is a nice variety of murals. The winning mural is painted on the outside of a building and the accumulative effect is to have a town dotted with murals. Last year's winner featured wild flowers. One of my favorites is of the towns founding fathers. The picture above was this year's winner.

My final favorite thing is the Alaskan flag. When Alaska became a territory it had no flag. The governor held a contest among school children to design the flag. A 13 year old boy from Seward came up with the winning design: Blue for the color of the midnight sky and the state flower, forget-me-not, the gold stars of the Big Dipper; gold from Alaska's past and the stars that brought his father home from fishing, pointing to the north star: the northern most territory in the U. S and pointing to a bright future. How cool is that! What a great kid!

We've come to the end of this year's tour. Hopefully I will get to come back again. I'm already planning what I hope to see next time!