Anchorage Air Museum

Day Seven

We were traveling again today. First, we went to the little town of Gustavus to catch a plane back to Juneau, where we in turn caught another plane to Anchorage. Though there are highways and trains, you have to take a plane to get to many places in Alaska. We didn't make reservations ahead of time, so we spent our first hour in Anchorage at the airport calling about 15 hotels to find a room. (Playing it by ear is a little tough in Alaska in the summertime, when many hotels are booked). Finally, we found a room at a place not far from downtown. After a nap, we walked around Anchorage, stopping to eat at a place called the Firehouse Cafe where the coffee was really good and I had an excellent ham sandwich on homemade bread. We hung out for a while listening to two musicians playing Bee Gees tunes. It was early, but we were tired so we left before the end of their performance and headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

Day Eight

We missed the one daily train to Denali, which left at 8:15 a.m., so we remained in Anchorage for another day. But that was OK with us because Anchorage is a pretty hip town, with lots of coffee shops and brew houses and eclectic restaurants. We spent the day shopping, enjoying a really good Italian meal for lunch and browsing through the Alaska Museum of History and Art. The museum was definitely worth the visit. One exhibit I found really interesting was in the history area. It had pictures of Anchorage's founding families and traced their origins and their succeeding generations, up to present day. The art section of the museum included the work of Eustace Paul Ziegler, who painted the people of Alaska as they were in the early 20th century frontier days. After the museum, we went back to the hotel for a nap. That night, we went out to a Mexican restaurant.