June 14, 2018

Native golf bag totem

Big Plans

We have some plans today other than just wandering about.  Later we will learn that plans can unravel quickly or just be ill conceived.  Maybe both.

We start with our usual hotel breakfast.  Our primary entertainment at breakfast is watching the hordes of people line up on the sidewalk across the street at the Captain Cook Hotel waiting for their buses.  Luggage spills almost to the end of the block going away from us.  In Greece the locals referred to this as the march of the elephants as the big white buses come lumbering up the street.  The Alaskans seem to be members of a unique social culture, but ‘there is gold in them thar buses that bring strangers into their midst’.  Everyone seems to be having a good time.

We hike in a new direction this morning down 6^th street heading, we think, east.  We get our first peak at some of the big shopping that we missed while on our sweatshirt hunt.  There is a Penneys and Nordstroms in full throwback mode to downtown free-standing department stores.  There is also a real downtown mall with smaller retail.  There are a couple Costcos on the outskirts of town and REI is moving into a 49000 sq. ft. space that formerly housed a Sears.

Destination number one is the Alaska Heritage Museum.  This is a four story monster sitting on nicely landscaped grounds.  Any city would be proud of the facility.  We are instructed to start on the fourth floor and work our way down.  That seems to be the chronological approach as we are starting with early art and artifacts of the original inhabitants. We are a little surprised (but shouldn’t be) that there has been trade, commerce, battles and comingling of the original clans between Alaska and Russia for thousands of years.  Included are all of the original native tribes that spread across the western half of North America.

Spices of the Americas

Moving downstairs the history moves through tribal customs and relations, hunting wildlife and coping with a less than ideal environment.  Then the relationships with government, oil companies, railroads and military.  The continuing theme throughout is the loss of heritage through “civilization” and the recent rediscovery of the culture that had been feared lost.  The whole thing was very interesting—three hours interesting which is a record for us.

It is after 2:00 when we get back to the shuttle bus pick up spot on 4^th street.  If you want to get to any interesting sites in town this is where you get the shuttle to them.  Our next destination is the zoo which specializes in critters of this part of the world.  There is a hand-written sign on the shuttle schedule that tells us that the last shuttle to the zoo is at 12:15 and the zoo will be closed at 3:00.  We haven’t mentioned that this is a top ten Anchorage weather day with temps pushing 79 and bright blue skies.  Why didn’t we go to the zoo first?  Why didn’t we do the museum tomorrow with rain predicted? Idiots.

OK, new plan.  We will get another sausage sandwich from the guy on the corner and then catch the shuttle to the Ulu factory.  We opt for bratwurst today which is a more sensible choice and go with the kraut instead of the jalapenos.  The Ulu is a native cutting tool that looks like a pastry knife but is suitable for making salsa or dismembering a whale or sea lion.  It is also used for cleaning and prepping a salmon for drying.  They are sold all over town but the reality of using one seems like a losing proposition.  We have spent 3 hours today looking at pictures of native Alaskans wielding their Ulus in all sorts of scenarios so now we get to see them made.  That is a semi-interesting half hour and we succeeded in escaping the gift store without buying ulus for all of our friends and relatives.

We grab our late afternoon beer on the roof of the 49^th State Brewery along with ahi nachos that are dynamite.  It is 70-degrees out and we loll around watching the planes land and the tide come in.  A good way to finish the day.  And finish we did.  No hotel happy hour and no dinner.  A little TV and we almost got to sunset at 11:37. A low activity day and we will only have a couple more of those on this trip.

Sun almost set 11: 35 PM

Observation of the day:  No sales tax on anything.  What a surprise when a restaurant check comes and it only includes the prices on the menu.