We woke up around 7:00 and decided to eat at the hotel's coffee bar instead of yet another buffet. After breakfast and tidying up our bags, I decided it was time for the top stitch to come out. Using an "itch stick" to numb my wound, Shawn's reading glasses, and my iPhone's flashlight app, I was able to clip the top stitch. I had to wait a bit to gather up my courage to slide the stitch out. There was a slight pinch and a stinging sensation but overall relief. That top stitch was really tight and was getting red and itchy, so I was glad to have it out.
Then we went to the riverbed to do some more exploring. I love to walk around the water's edge to see the differences in the sizes of the rocks, the pebbles and how they get pulverized into what we Florida folk call silt but the mountain people termed "glacial flour". I could wander around this shore line forever. (Is it a shore? What constitutes a shore?). There's virtually no human evidence around...only two sites where someone had a little bonfire. No straws, no plastics, no cigarette butts, no balloon strings...nothing but rocks and logs. Many of the logs do have flat edges which would indicate that the trees were purposefully cut down. However, most logs and limbs appear to be just excellent specimens of the finest driftwood ever!
After a scenic drive alongside the Turnagain Arm, we stopped at the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center to view some critters.
A bear!
Musk Ox
Reindeer/Caribou Shawn in red jacket, Summer in red vest and Nicholas in blue parka.
Close up!
Really close up!
I finally saw a bear! He was in an enclosure but a black bear nonetheless! I spied him on the ridge of a hill a few miles before we got to the park. That makes me feel renewed confidence in my bear spotting abilities. So, I haven't given up hope of seeing a true wild bear yet. I'd also be quite satisfied with any large terrestrial mammal: moose, elk, deer, bison, oxen, grizzly, goat, sheep, Sasquatch, Yeti...
Once our animal time was over, we boarded the bus for Anchorage to stop at the Saturday Open Air Market. We paired up: my folks together, Nicholas with Shawn, and Summer as my buddy. (This is how we usually roll since keeping six together is too tough in a crowd.) Summer and I went to the right and stopped at various booths along the way until we came to an ice cream shop. I know it sounds silly to buy ice cream in Alaska but it seemed like a nice treat. Summer and my mom, who caught up to us, had a coffee flavor and I had a lovely lavender shade single dip of "Fireweed Honey". (Fireweed, thanks to my wildflower identification book, is a purple-blue flower that we saw all along the riverbed where we walked yesterday.) The ice cream looked like a ball of cotton candy but the flavor was of a very subtle honey. Score one for me and my "local knowledge".
The kids each got shirts at the market. Summer chose a gray pullover hoodie with Alaska written in cursive and the Big Dipper made out of hearts - to mimic the state flag of Alaska. Nicholas got a t-shirt with the "John Deer" logo but written as "John Moose".
Once the shopping was over and we checked in to our hotel, a Marriott, Nicholas and I decided to go on a little walk around Anchorage on our own.
We saw a beautiful orange poppy.
And a tiny snapdragon flower. My picture of it wasn't very clear. But it was so cute! Thanks to my wildflower book, it's called "butter and eggs".
We saw the Alaska Railroad, nice "waterfront" homes, and a huge field/park that was cleaning up from a different event. I later found out that the celebration was for Juneteenth. (How did my phone know Juneteenth was a word? And how long has this word been a word? And furthermore, why doesn't my iPhone know parka? Or Denali? Or some other very basic words?!)
During our walk, it was evident that Nicholas' feet were tired. So, I piggybacked him a few blocks until we were up to our hotel. Then, the kids went swimming in the indoor pool in the hotel. I sat there and typed my blog while they swam. After a while, I took a little nap in the warm humid chlorinated air. I don't know why that smell is so comforting, but it is.
We ate dinner at the hotel and took over a large dining room table made out of a single tree trunk. Scrapbooking materials were strewn about and I finally got the kids all caught up and on the same day! Thanks to some generously filled wine glasses, the scrapbook extravaganza was over in no time!
Dinner was delicious and the day ended with the kids and my folks going on a short walk while I prepped our stuff for an early wake up call.
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