We only had two things we really wanted to accomplish today: find a geocache large enough for Wes to drop off the Alaska traveller trackable he's been carrying around and get some smashed pennies. I had located places for both of these before we left so we knew exactly where we wanted to go. The problem is that these places were all downtown and I'm pretty cheap and did not want to pay $12 to park in a lot nor did we have a bunch of quarters with us to pay for a meter. After driving around for close to 30 minutes, we finally found the edge of metered parking and were able to park for free on Barrow Street (in case you're planning to drive in Anchorage).
A walk of a few short blocks later, we found the place for the geocache and it was the first one either of us had encountered that was hidden back inside a public building. One of the first ones I ever found was hidden in the front entrance of an REI store, but this was an ammo can and we had to ask the staff about it. Only one of them knew about geocaching and just said that it was in the room not behind their counter. We found it easily enough and Wes was able to leave the trackable for the next person to find and move around Alaska. He's taking another one back to Texas, its goal being to travel the world.
After procuring our smashed pennies in two nearby shops, we grabbed lunch at a tourist trap with bad service called the Glacier Brewhouse. I was disappointed because I ate here on my last trip and it was pretty good. Anchorage was overrun by tours today! We saw at least five large tour buses drive by while we ate. I guess we came a little too late on this trip to really miss the start of the tourist season. I view ourselves differently since we're independent travellers but we're probably just as bad. So many people also come up here just to work for the summer so even the staff is rarely native.
We hung out in the hotel for the rest of the afternoon since we had to try and get to sleep early as our flight is at 06:20, meaning we need to be up at about 04:30. I got together several digital photos to be printed at Walgreens so I can construct my photo album while we're on the plane tomorrow. Wes went out to pick those up and to get some dinner at a restaurant that was highly recommended to us called the Moose's Tooth. I'm going to see if I can't get close to eight hours sleep.
The Raven and the Bear
Poor halibut, how tasty you are.
Anchorage: Air Crossroads of the World—umm, okay.
Back side of the visitor information center, err cabin
There totems are my favorite artwork in Anchorage. Left: Raven Stealing Moon and Stars; Right: Eagle with Giant Clam
There are espresso stands all over Alaska!