Alaska Aug. 2012 Days 5 & 6

Saturday, Aug. 18^th Day 5

After enjoying a couple more hours in the cute little town of Talkeetna, we headed south again.

First stop was in Wasilla at the Iditarod Headquarters to look around.

Then we drove by Sarah Palins house.  Well, we got close at least.  Susie was thrilled to get a glimpse of it.  Hers is the brown house in back of the fence.

Next we drove to Palmer to the visitor center.  Kathy really wanted to go through the Colony Museum but unfortunately it had just closed.  We watched a video on the settlers though and got a real understanding of what they had gone through those many years ago when the government moved 200 families up to the Matanuska Valley during the depression.  It was really interesting.

I had told Susie that we were going to stay at a Hostel in Anchorage.  Now I’ve stayed in many, many hostels in my travels and LOVE staying in them.  But Susie has never stayed in one and was NOT happy about staying in one on this trip.  She was getting more and more nervous the closer we got to Anchorage.  Was she EVER relieved when we pulled into the Marriott and found out it was all a joke!  She quickly forgave me for putting her through all the anguish once we walked into the beautiful room.

 

Sunday, Aug 19^th, Day 6

We headed to downtown Anchorage for breakfast and was greeted by a bagpipe band playing in a park.  We pulled over to see what was going on and found out there was a marathon and they were playing as the runners passed by to encourage them.  That was a special treat.

Our next stop was at the Snow City Café for breakfast, a restaurant featured on drive-ins, Diners & Dives.  We had to wait an hour to get seated but it was a beautiful day and there was a pot of coffee that we could help ourselves to as we waited.  It was well worth the wait.  We had the meatloaf sandwich and seafood chowder.  Oh, so good!

After breakfast we walked across the street to Resolution Park overlooking Cooks Inlet.

By this time Kathy and Susie were getting tired of me telling them it was picture time so this is the shot I got of them J

The next place we visited was the Alaska Native Heritage Center.  What a wonderful place to learn about the history of all the different tribes that originated in Alaska.

We walked along a path that led to several different types of houses the Native Alaskans lived in.

A guide talked in each of the houses and told of each of the tribes customs and ways of life.

I got another shot of Kathy and Susie as they were taking a break from the tour.

Since we had visited the dive bar in Fairbanks we decided to find the oldest tavern in Anchorage.  The Cabin Tavern was the place!  It’s been serving drinks to Alaskans since 1940.

What a beautiful old log cabin with wooden floors and a great stone fireplace.  The bartender was a sweetheart and told us we had to try her special Bloody Marys.  They were great!  Since Susie is a bartender she was thrilled to get the special recipe that she’ll take back to Wenatchee and serve her customers.  This was the perfect drink to have before going to dinner and back to our motel.