June 11 - Exploring Anchorage

Wednesday morning we slept in (for us) - until after 8am, which is really something considering it had been light for about 4 hours by that time. We got ourselves together, the weather was perfectly clear, which is a first for this trip to Alaska.

We both wanted to explore Earthquake Park, which is on the waterfront. It details the 2nd largest earthquake in recorded history on the North American continent. It happened Good Friday 1964, lasted for 4 minutes and was 9.2 on the Richter scale. It really reshaped Southeast Alaska - parts of Anchorage fell up to 12 feet in a very short amount of time. The ensuing tsunamis it triggered were even more damaging that the earthquake. Alaska is at the meeting of 2 tectonic plates: the Pacific and the North American. As a result, there is a lot of seismic activity all of the time here, most of which is not perceptible by humans. However, in 1964, the friction between the 2 plates (the Pacific is being forced under the North American) suddenly and dramatically gave way, triggering all kinds of effects. We read that the effects were even worse in Seward (where we were on Monday), because the industrial waterfront caught fire from all of the spilling of fuel, setting the ocean on fire. As a result, the tsunamis that engulfed the town were literally on fire.

Earthquake Park is on the Coastal Trail, which is a paved path running 20 miles along the coast (very much like the Greenway in Wake County). We decided to enjoy a walk on that trail and enjoy the views. Our effort was paid off by a distant view of Denali, which is normally obscured by clouds. The other mountains around were also gorgeous. It was a lovely day to be outside and enjoy the sunshine.

That's Denali like a ghost hovering over the land. She stands over 20,000 feet; we are about 130 miles from it here.

Cook's Inlet in the foreground, the Sleeping Lady behind (aka Mount Susitna)

The Alaska Range - from here it looks like the snow goes to the waterline.

Leon was still recovering from his very bad cold, so we walked about 2.5 miles before returning to our car to find lunch. We opted for pizza at a nearby place, then decided we would visit the Anchorage Museum. We were surprised at the fee of $25 to visit (which make us appreciate the wonderful FREE museums we have in NC), but it was well reviewed so we decided to go anyway.

I have to say that it was interesting - it was part Alaskan and native history, ecology, science and art museums under one roof. We close to 4 hours there. I really enjoyed seeing the Native Alaskan tribe pieces that were displayed and had good explanations with them about what they were made from and their significance. There were large displays for all 5 of the major tribal groups. Extremely interesting to see how the design of clothing and hunting/fishing articles were different depending on the tribe's location/what they were able to harvest from the land. The handiwork on the ceremonial pieces was impeccable and the design of the animal and plant motifs were just beautiful.

I loved this painting of a native woman juxtaposed with the iconography of the Madonna.

Tidal pool they had on display. The starfish were huge! It was look, don't touch.

I loved the whimsical polar bears doing yoga.

A romantic, large painting of Denali, which apparently every artist that comes to Alaska is obliged to paint.

This waterproof tunic was crafted from the intestines of seals and other animals. Ingenious!

We were pretty tired after all of that touring, so we headed back to our place. We were lucky to have leftovers, so we were able to have a quiet night. Leon went to bed as usual. I stayed up until 11:30 and there was still plenty of daylight.