Walking around Anchorage

It's a quiet morning in my house today. Mike went to Anchorage to run some errands and Lilly is napping, something she hasn't been doing much of lately, napping or sleeping for that fact. We've had a wonderful long weekend. A nice thing about the Air Force is something they call "family days," essentially a day off, usually combined with an already given holiday. For example, they were given Memorial Day off, so to make it a four day weekend Friday was a "Family Day." Pretty cool right. I love four day weekends! 

We started this one out by meeting Mike in Anchorage for dinner at a new-to-us restaurant/pub/brewery The Moose's Tooth. We were pretty impressed, for those of you familiar with Rock Bottom, Moose's tooth beer is, well, I hate to say it, better! There main food is pizza, pretty good too, as well as their wings! Wings that will have to suffice as Buffalo Wild Wings doesn't exist up here in the Last Frontier. But enough about that, how about something with photos.

Friday, we had to go back to Anchorage to pick up Mike's car and get groceries. So off we went. Instead of doing just that boring run we decided, at the recommendation of our guide book, to do a walking tour around Anchorage.  Now I won't show you every photo, mainly because it wasn't really all that interesting. It was a beautiful day however and we enjoyed walking and being together. The walk itself has 24 stops I think and is supposed to take a couple hours. It includes stops at local breweries for those that need a rest, though some of those planned stops are right around the corner from the last stop, needless to say, we didn't do any stopping. A few historic buildings here and there and several bronze sculptures as well as the starting line for the Iditarod. (none of which I took photos of) During this trip we discovered our soon-to-be Sunday adventure but that has to wait for another day.  A brief photo tour of a few of the things we saw in Downtown Anchorage.

This is where we started, notice the fuscia plants? I have never seen any so big, seriously these things have trunks a good inch in diameter. Yes I know, most people don't care too much about such things but I do, I really do! Also if you look closely in the window you can see our reflection.

Another stop along the way. Mike let me take the camera and he pushed the stroller. If we keep it up, maybe my photography skills will improve. Ha! There is a history lesson for most of this but, well, I honestly don't remember it and don't feel like looking it up in the book. So if you are just dying to know, the name of the building is on the sign and I'm sure you know how to use google :-)

I'm not going to guess how many of these stands we saw. Kind of like hot dog venders in New York's central park I would assume, as I have never been there. Only difference is, here they sell Reindeer sausage. One of these days I'm going to try it. It certainly smells fantastic. 

Yes, I just had to put this in here, isn't it lovely? There was a huge bed of these in one of the parks on our walk. I could have stayed for hours. Such perfection and it all starts in one little seed!

Lil tolerates her stroller, hat, and seat belts, complete with shoulder harnesses (a bit extreme right) quite well for a little one. Mike figured out yesterday that her straps convert to just a lap belt so she doesn't have to have shoulder the harnesses. I can't imagine being shoulder harnessed into a stroller for hours. ~The reason for such torture though, she wants to turn around in the seat and climb up the back and that could very easily result in a face plant on the concrete~ Anyways, she's happier now that she can lean forward as we explore. 

I had to put this photo in! It's a stop on the walking tour and is described in the guide book as "unremarkable" they are right, not much to look at. The Pope did visit there in the '90's. 

And last but not least, one of Lilly and I. In this photo, we are on the opposite side of the bay from one  taken months ago. The ground was covered in snow then and I'm pretty sure the bay was mostly frozen. At one point in time they were going to connect the shores with a bridge making another way into the Valley. I'm not sure what is going on with that project but so far it hasn't happened.

So that is the end of your walking tour of Anchorage. For those of you just dying to go, let me know I'm sure we can take you. For the others, like me, a couple photos is plenty. Besides, there are prettier, more interesting places to go when you come visit. We really did have a wonderful time, even if the sights were pretty much well, "unremarkable" if you will.