Day 50: Anchorage, Alaska

Sunday, June 19, 2016
Anchorage, Alaska, United States
As we expected, it started raining during the night, making it great for sleeping. We got moving about 11am, only because we knew we had checkout by noon. Oscar was out and said he got up early to get the fire going before the heavy rain hit! We on the other hand, flipped on the generator to get the microwave and Keurig machine running! I walked Sara on the sledding slope near our campsite, then said goodbyes to Oscar, and pulled out about 12:15pm. We headed first to the downtown Anchorage Farmer's Market - found parking for the RV in a lot next to the market, probably this lucky thanks to the ugly weather. It seemed many vendors did not show up as there were many blanks in the rows, but what was there was very interesting! Food trucks, local crafts, beautiful carvings from antler, caribou, jade, and elk. And some different foods - we split a salmon quesadilla, quite delicious! We passed on the KoolAid pickles, but tried the birch tree nectar (quite good and apparently therapeutic) as was the fresh turmeric root (looked like sweet potato ginger!). Found a few purchases, then returned to the RV and headed south to get close to RV store, a regular grocery, and a second Costco - we've just had distressing news from the homeland that Costco's is ceasing sales of our favorite black rice, requiring me to begin the nationwide search for the remaining stock of Costco black rice! I did locate Lynn's Rib Rub that she has been unable to find, and Campari tomatoes at Costco #2, but alas, no black rice! We made a few Father's Day phone calls, then headed out to Kincaid Park along the waterfront, Cook's Inlet. This area is very close to the Anchorage Airport, so we passed many airplane hangars and felt the airliners coming in directly overhead as we drove through the parkland. Apparently this section of the city park is used for soccer fields (at least 10 fields), and Nordic skiing (105 miles of trails), plus bunkers dug into the ground from an old WWII military base. Altho, it had stopped raining, it was still windy cold (only 64 degrees, but damp cold!) so we bundled up in our winter jackets and started a hike down the trail. We had been told this area had a lot of moose in the fall, and we walked past many marshy areas that we thought would be great areas to see moose, but again, none! Until we were about 1 hour into our hike - I don't even know what caught my attention, but between two trees in the trail, I saw a large, brown, moving animal reaching for the tall trees. I stopped Linda, and as we stopped in our tracks, a biker went whizzing past us, with us stuttering at his back, "moose ahead!!" I guess he had seen it as it was in the center of the trail, but he went up very close and we watched as they stared each other down! Then there was a move from the left, and into the scene enters baby moose! Now we're worried this bold biker is going to cause the mother to attack, so I'm backing up and Linda is cautiously trying to snap a few pictures. The moose mother and baby are standing directly in the trail, staring down the biker! Finally, the biker turns around, and rides past us, saying "better be careful, she has a calf" - duh!!! Now we're alone, and backing up slowly, not sure if she would charge us instead, but we made it away without incident, and Sara never even seeing the moose (busy sniffing for garbage on the sidewalk!). So that seemed a good time to turn back - this time Linda came around the curve in the trail, and another moose is standing in the trail! This time we are closer to the moose, and Sara sees it, and is straining to get closer! My camera battery is dead, so Linda is snapping pics and we are slowly backing away. The moose continues eating on the side of the trail, but I point out that we have nowhere to go if we turn back, we didn't see any more paths except that labyrinth of skiing trails. So we decide to make a little noise, hoping to scare him away from the trail. He did slowly meander to the side, and just then 3 joggers came up behind us - we told them about the moose, but they ran on by, so we decided to jog right behind them since I could still see the moose in the woods. Our jog lasted a few hundred feet, and then we resumed our quick walk back to the RV - OK we've seen our wildlife, check that off the list!! Our last objective of the day was getting to the RV dealership where we planned to camp out in the parking lot til 7:30 am for our service appointment - but, gates were closed and locked, so nowhere to park (despite the service dept reassurance that gates would be open Sunday!). But maybe we were later than they planned, so Plan B was that Cabela's Outdoor Store was only a few blocks away and we heard they support Boondocking in their lot - so here we are til morning! Dinner was an arugula salad with quinoa, lime cilantro shrimp from Costco, and tomatoes - awesome!! And we even get TV while the generator is on! There must be 20 RVer's here with us, so we are in good company, but can't brag about the view. But it's been a big day, and Sara is already asleep, so guess we better get to sleep early tonight!
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Comments

vidalia1
2016-06-22

Ginny & I are loving the blog. We can't wait to talk to you when you return...a trip like this is now on 2018 calendar...

2025-05-22

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