Onward from Anchorage

Tuesday, July 10, 2018 through Thursday, July 12, 2018 Anchorage to Wrangell Overlook

We spent a couple days hanging out in Anchorage at JBER FamCamp while Mike got new tires for the RV - yep, 6 new tires (ouch!)  It's a new ride and we feel safer since we hadn't replaced any of them since buying the RV almost two years ago.

We hit the road after finishing up the tires and landed in a spot outside of Glenallen that is an overlook for the Wrangell mountains.  Quiet and the view can't be beat.

We got a sunny day for the ride but rain is predicted for the next couple of days.  We hope to get sunshine again in down in Valdez. Good to be movin' again.

Anchorage Art Museum

Monday, July 9, 2018 - Anchorage, AK

We'd hoped to get the alignment on the RV worked on today so Mike took it over and I went to the art museum.  It's four floors in two wings.  They had several temporary exhibits that I worked through as well as the permanent display of the artifacts of the many Native American Tribes in Alaska.

The artifacts were exhibited by tribe, with an explanation of their region, language, customs and history.  There were also live videos running in a loop telling the stories of their current existence.  Very well done, kept my interest and I could see where there would be something new each visit.  It was not suitable for photographs as everything was in protective glass with low lighting.

There was an exhibit called the Inheritance Project that used donated and rescued linens, crochet, needlework to create pieces of art.  The donors were asked to record their memories of the maker of the pieces as well.  Amazing pieces.

I took in the Aurora Borealis film at the Planetarium and then did the coolest interactive art! The artist, John Grade, built a piece representing earth covered ice heaves, called pingos [isn't that a great scrabble word?] and shared holographic images of the landscape around one that could only be seen with special head mounted viewer.  I wandered around that for a good hour!

In 2017 the museum was greatly expanded and they have an exhibit entitled "Unsettled".  It references the multiple meanings of the word; unsettled territory and the unsettled native cultures in North America.  Fantastic pieces that delivered the message in a multitude of ways.  This double image compares the image of Princess Lea from Star Wars to the 1906 photograph of a Native American woman.

Things Are Looking Native - Nicholas Gallanin

And these totem poles were made from golf club bags - the totems of different "tribes"

I loved this artist's idea of preserving the story in a woven piece by weaving a QR code into it.  So Madame Defarge!

The last exhibit I got to see was a collaboration between an artist, Ken Johnson, and a geologist Ray Troll, who spent almost a year travelling the Pacific coast from the Arctic to the tip of North America to record the fossil history.  It's called "Cruisin' the Fossil Coastline".  The artist used cartoon style images to explain the findings - made me want to study geology!

North America Crustacean Period

pre-historic dinosaur emerging from fossil bed

Turns out The RV can't be worked on until Wednesday so I plan to go back to the museum and see the rest of their collection!

Back in Anchorage

Wednesday, July 4th thru Saturday, July 7th, 2018 Anchor Pt to Soldotna to Hope to Anchorage, AK

We went into Home for pizza at Fat Olives on the 4th and took in the outdoor market they had set up.  Some folks were shooting off fireworks down on the beach below the bluff at Anchor Point in the evening.  It's starting to almost be dark about midnight, though I admit I haven't been up that late on purpose.

9:30 pm from bluff

On the 5th we soaked up the quiet and got packed up to move on.  We went a short distance back to Soldotna where we stayed the night in the Fred Meyer parking lot and took a stroll along the Fish Walk - a boardwalk that parallels the river and has steps down to the water at intervals for folks to fish from.

We left this morning (Saturday) and explored the little town of Hope on the far side o the Turnagain Arm.  The historical museum was packed with artifacts and had several cabins depicting life in the early 1900's.  Mike said this stove reminded him of one in his house as a child that he had to fill with wood for heat in the morning

I had to snag pictures of the crazy quilt stitched by one of the two women who were there at first and of the recently completed memory quilt.  We drove on toward Anchorage and stopped at John's gold panning where Mike panned out a bucket and got some gold flakes.  The Resurrection River was running high and most of the snow is gone from the mountain tops as the weather has been in the 70's for about a week.  The local visitor center guide told us it was quite unusual for them to have such a stretch of sunshine.  The prediction is for cooler temperatures and windy conditions.

We're going to stay at Elmendorf Richardson base on the edge of Anchorage for the coming week and then head out for the other side of the Kenai Peninsula - Valdez - before our reservations the end of the month in Denali National Park.