Anchor Town

Ben and I were lucky enough to be able to spend a little bit of time in Anchorage (the locals refer to it as Anchor Town) before we headed to the bush.

Now, we were only in Anchorage 2 1/2 days and in that time we had to squeeze in 16 hours of restraint training for my job as an aide, shopping for all of our freeze and fresh groceries, getting a bush compatible cell phone as well as a few other odds and ends. Not to mention the sun was almost all the way down by the time I finished my training each day.

So…all in all, we didn’t have very much time to discover what Anchorage has to offer. But we certainly tried to make the most of it…and it just left us wanting more!

When Ben and I travel, one thing we love is trying new food!

Once my sister asked us, “Would you consider yourselves foodies?”

And Ben said, “What’s that?”

So if we can be called foodies, we are definitely inexperienced, but gosh darn, we like finding good eats.

One food blog I follow had this link–>it’s a list complete with the best burger in every state. So naturally, we had to try Alaska’s Best Burger. Tommy’s Burger Stop it was! And it was delicious! It’s definitely kind a dive of a joint-they only have 4 cramped tables-but the burgers were totally phenomenal (even after sitting in the car for about  an hour before we were able to enjoy them)! Also, Ben got carrot cake there…and let’s just say that when we get to missing food out here in the bush, that carrot cake (and let’s be real-the burger too!) is one of the first things we bring up! Super delish!

Since I’m talking about food…I might as well mention the other spot we tried while in Anchorage. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures…but we ate at a place called Charlie’s Bakery…which (the name doesn’t give it away at all) is a Chinese restaurant and bakery. We totally loved it! Not kidding you-it took us right back to all the best parts of eating in China!

So…you know, if you’re ever in Anchorage, you have our high recommendations to both these places 🙂

One thing that totally got me jealous in Anchorage is the abundance of trails! You know, for running and outdoorsy stuff! We stopped at one of the trails and walked a ways on it. It was very cold and the snow was basically just packed into a thick ice…so it definitely wasn’t easy going, but even so, we passed several trail runners, bikers and hikers. And a sign we saw near the parking lot said that the trail was also used for cross country skiing, snowshoeing, even mushing! Wish we could’ve seen more of that!

The other cool thing we did in town was go the Anchorage Museum. I would say this is a definite must for anyone who visits the area (not that I’m an expert or anything). But it had SO much to see! And it had gobs of information on native life and culture. Ben and I agreed that we could have spend so much more time there than we did (we only left because it closed).

 

They had this really cool interactive area for kids. Or 20-something year old couples. Whatevs. In the above picture, Ben is encircling himself with a giant bubble. Everyone dreams of that, right???

 

 

 

Our favorite part of the museum was the information they had on native culture. There are so many interesting aspects of Eskimo or Indian life that we didn’t know much (or anything) about. We knew they hunted whale (up north they still do!), but the miniature representation of it made it even more wild! I mean, towing that whale back on the tiny boat?!?!? Just around the corner of this they had an actual stinky old, Eskimo boat…so, just saying-the depiction is accurate: teeny boat, big ol’ whale.

Here’s a close up on the action:

Craziness!

There are several different tribes throughout Alaska, and they had an exhibit showing different pieces of clothing from each of the tribes. It was cool to see how different each tribes’ style was. And it was even more impressive to see the ingenuity and hard work that was put into each piece of clothing!

Take the coat above. It was made out of dozens of squirrel pelts!

And that one up there? Seal intestine. Not kidding you! But hey, it’s waterproof!

I loved how intricate these gloves were. I want a pair for me!

The museum was also doing an interactive Van Gogh exhibit, which I thought was pretty cool. Again, the museum was totally worth it!

So that was our whirlwind time in Anchorage! We had a blast!