Sunday, May 1, 2011

Alaska Day 13





We drove into Anchorage to join John for his day off.  He flew back into ANC from Chicago and we joined him at the Hilton after he had a chance to rest for a few hours.  We brought snacks from the Big Lake house, but found the room didn't have a refrigerator to put the cold stuff in.  So what do you do?  In Alaska, you can just open the window and put it on the ledge, it's cold outside.  That's our yogurt on the window sill.
 I'm sure a great hotel like the Hilton doesn't mind food on their ledges.






On to some fun, well at least for me.  Geocaching.  This one was a block away from the hotel, so a natural to go for.  It's in there do you see it?  It took a bit, but I finally noticed it. 













Then on to a little prospecting.  We didn't find anything though.







Then back to geocaching, this is a model of an Alaskan cache, used to store things so bears and animals can't get into them.  It's in the Anchorage Welcome center.  There is a real geocache there also, and they have a brochure about geocaching they give out to visitors with list of geocaches in the area.  John had found this cache for me before, but I wanted to actually come and "find" it myself and bring a travel bug here for a visit.



 We had lunch at the Teriyaki Box a little place downtown near the hotel where John eats sometimes.  Chicken, Shrimp, or Fish, with rice and a cabbage salad, pretty good.  While eating, I checked for other caches, and saw one across the street, a multi (that was kinda like a puzzle) where you had to find the coords from the signs that went with the two totem poles.  I figured it out (I think!), but I had to wait to find stage 2 since it was a few blocks away in the opposite direction John wanted to go.






Next up, to the other visitor center, where they have short movies to watch and taxidermy animals to see.  Only one problem, see the other sign above that says Federal Building?  Well you have to show I.D. to get in the building.  Guess who lost their I.D. the first day we got here?  Yep me!  So I stayed outside with the knife Ian had in his pocket, another item not allowed in there.  So instead of feeling bad, I just went shopping! 
 John often tells us, when he calls home, that he is going to get a reindeer hot dog, this is where he goes.  The same guy is in the same spot all the time, and he has his dog with him, or in his truck.  Another little piece of John's world away from home. After they were done, we walked around the shops downtown some more, then the boys went back to the room for a nap, while Kamryn and I bought some gifts to take home.  Later we went to the mall to eat at the food court, then in for the night.
 Though I'm not a city person, it was a beautiful view as the sun went down, and the lights came on, with the mountains in the background.






This was our view in the morning, F22's practicing above Elmendorf Air Force Base.  Ryan especially loved it.  These are his photos.

1 comment:

  1. Love the evening city shot!!! How were the hot dogs? Did ya try any?

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