DAY 273 SUNDAY 8th JUNE 2008

Anchorage, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28160)

A cold wet morning here in Anchorage – such a contrast to the bright warm sunshine of yesterday. Never ones to be discouraged by the weather we decided to head off into town. Anchorage is not what we expected; it is a modern city with a number of high rise buildings. We had visions of something more rustic but alas it is very much like many other small cities throughout the USA. Arriving at 11:00am on a Sunday morning is not necessarily the ideal time to see Anchorage at its best, as it is at this time only just coming to life (although the pulse is still weak!). Our plan for today was to visit a hands-on science discovery centre (the only one in Alaska!!) in downtown Anchorage called the Imaginarium. A great place for a cold, wet day! As we said Anchorage was slow to wake up on this Sunday morning, and this was true of the Imaginarium as well. So to kill some time before opening we headed into a number of the many gift shops in downtown.

As the clock struck noon we head to the Imaginarium. Inside the exhibits cover the range of sciences from biology, physics and cosmology; and they are very hands on. Jack and Emily particularly liked the bubble making, especially the giant bubbles you can stand inside. The older Hoblets headed inside the darkened room where there is a slide show running of photographs of nebula and other astronomical marvels shot by the Hubble Space Telescope. The effects of the darkened room, warm temperatures, stunning photographs and serene music were very soporific – and if we hadn’t had the grace to get up and look around some more the room would have resounded with the rasping tones of adults snoring. Luckily there was a presentation on some of the reptiles on exhibit in the Imaginarium, so when the lights came up we were rudely woken.

We spent two hours in the Imaginarium, which the children enjoyed very much. By the time we left the weather had significantly improved, in fact it was turning out to be a very pleasant afternoon. When we returned to the Bed & Breakfast Jack and Emily were immediately drawn by the magnetic attraction of the lake. Chris our host kindly let them use the pedalo (paddle boat), so off they set complete with fishing rods, to try their luck further out. After several minutes they managed to work out how to steer the boat and guide it towards a spot where they are told the fishing is good. Despite reaching a potentially more bountiful spot their efforts are not rewarded and somehow one of the rods is dropped into the water. In the ensuing melee Jack somehow manages to fall into the lake, luckily it is not very deep or infested with alligators or snakes, but it is very cold. After a rescue by Chris and his father-in-law, Larry, Jack makes it to shore his teeth chattering – nothing wounded except his pride. So after this escapade we get Jack and Emily to bed and join Chris, Larry and Mary (Caroline’s mum) for a quite chat on the end of the dock and to drink some of the local beer – Moose’s Tooth IPA (very delicious!!).

DAY 272 SATURDAY 7th JUNE 2008

Anchorage, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28130)

The weather has changed for the worst. Mind you we never expected this to be a beach type holiday. It is both cold and damp today – but we had come to Alaska prepared so we layered up and set off to the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. Luckily we get some complementary passes so we get in relatively cheaply – but even if we had to pay the full price it was well worth the expense. There is an indoor exhibit area, theatre and cinema but we decided to join a quick stop tour of the outdoor exhibits – which celebrates the native Alaskan cultures; the Athabascan of interior and southcentral Alaska, the Yup'ik and Cup'ik Eskimo of southwest Alaska, the Inupiaq and St. Lawrence Island Yupik of northwest to northern Alaska, the Aleut and Alutiiq from Prince William Sound to the end of the Aleutian Island chain, and the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of southeast Alaska. For each culture there is reproduction of a typical dwelling house and inside a guide to tell stories of the particular native people and introduce their way of living using everyday objects.

The first house we visit is that of the Eyak who live in the southeast area of Alaska which has a milder and wetter climate – these people lived in large building constructed from the cedar tree. Another distinctive feature of these people was their large totem poles (similar to those we had seen in the museum in Ottawa, Canada manufactured by the native people on the West Coast of Canada). As we moved to the other areas the house designs were radically different. The other native Alaskans built their houses to survive the cold winter months of Alaska. The houses were generally subterranean with small entrances to protect the inhabitants from the cold and snow, but also unwanted visitors such as raiding tribes and polar bears in the far north. The tour was really good but a little to much of the whistle stop variety – we planned to go back around at our own speed later to talk to the interpretive guides in each dwelling (for one reason or another we never got around to this).

After the tour we headed back inside (to warm up as much as anything else). On the stage in the Visitor Centre were a group of teenage Native Alaskans demonstrating some of the typical games played by the Native people. The derivation of these games had originally been to hone the skills and strengths of the people throughout the long dark winters, but had nowadays turned into competitive sports. There is even an world championship in these Alaskan sports. To you and I these sports are quite unusual – the ones demonstrated involved hitting a suspended ball with various parts of the anatomy (mainly the feet and hands) by balance and leaping. Other sports included carrying weights by your ears or carrying four men hanging from your neck as far as possible. Most strange – but when you understand the explanation of each you can see where they come from in terms of testing the skills and refining the strength of the native folk.

Following the sports activities a native dance group made up of family from the Yu’pik region. The dances are somewhat reminiscent of the Hula we saw in Hawaii in as much that is primarily done by standing in one position – no leaping around the stage – but has none of the allure or sexuality of the Hula. In fact the movements are quite stilted. The accompaniment is provided by simple hand held drums and voice, which somewhat limits the tonal qualities of the music. Like Hula and many oriental dances the movements are used to depict stories of bravery, love and other great deeds. The dancers looked like they were having a fabulous time, especially the oldest lady of the group who was really into her music. After the main show there was a chance to get up and dance, Emily was up for this so while she volunteered Mark and Jack went into watch a film on life in the wilderness (which involved lots of killing and slaughtering of animals and fish). When Mark and Jack returned the audience participation had moved onto playing of the drums and Jack was much keener on joining this than the dancing.

By the time we had finished all of this we were tired and decided to return to the B&B for a bit of an afternoon siesta. On the way back we got to see our first moose in Alaska which was happily feeding close to the edge of the highway.

DAY 271 FRIDAY 6th JUNE 2008

Anchorage, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28100)

From George, WA we drove 500 miles south back to Ashland, OR. It was far from an unpleasant trip through the Cascade Mountains. The reason for coming back to Ashland, is to gear ourselves up for our trip to Alaska and then flying back the UK, via New York.

It was quite nice to spend a few days in Ashland catching our breath after a few weeks of covering a lot of country.

From Ashland we headed up the middle of Oregon, stopping briefly in Portland for lunch. We chose to go to Fuller’s Coffee Shop in downtown Portland for lunch. As is often the case in this part of the country it was raining, and also unusually cold so it was wonderful to find a place selling simple hot food. Emily, the fussiest of us when it comes to eating chose a burger, but the rest of us had a hot beef sandwich with mashed potato covered in steaming gravy. Just what the doctor ordered. Good old Road Food wins again!

Eventually arrived in Seattle yesterday for our overnight stop before flying to Anchorage, Alaska today.

We arrived in mid afternoon at our Bed & Breakfast, the Anchorage Lakeside Jewel, which will be home for the next three nights. Our hosts are Caroline and Chris a very nice young couple. Our suite is called "The Top of the World", and its first floor situation provides a fantastic view of the garden which runs down the lake. It is a lovely evening and of course Jack and Emily are magnetically attracted to the lake - so we all end up spending some hours down their enjoying the long summer's evening. Chris lends Jack and Emily some fishing rods - but despite numerous castings into the lake, with plenty of small fish joyously leaping from the water celebrating the arrival of summer, their fishing endeavour ends fruitless (or fishless). It is around 10.00am before we get them into bed and it is still like the middle of the afternoon ... the sun does not set until around 11:40pm and it really never gets dark throughout the night. The blinds in room are not very efficient so it is very difficult to get to sleep - especially the over-stimulated children. We do allow Jack to get up and sit out on our balcony just to prove he can read his book up here in Alaska at midnight.