Anchorage Again

After our whirlwind tour, we returned to Anchorage to recover and prepare for our trip home. This was our third Anchorage stop, having overnighted there between leaving Valdez and setting out for Homer. It will probably not be our last.

While in town, we again dined at the Glacier Brewhouse and had lunch at the Europa Bakery Cafe. The Europa Bakery is a local operation that provides artisan breads that are sold in supermarkets, Costco, and served in the fine restaurants. One of their breads, the spent grain loaf, includes the depleated malted grain after it has been used at the Glacier Brewhouse microbrewery. Not surprisingly, this is the bread served at the Glacier Brewhouse restaurant. It's delicious.

This is a festive time of year in Anchorage. Winter temperatures rarely rise above freezing, so ice sculptures can last quite a long time. In a local park next to the Anchorage Performing Arts Center, a sunken area in the landscape design is filled with water to create an ice rink. Around this rink are placed blocks of ice that are then carved into a variety of shapes and illuminated with colored light.

Anchorage

Alaska, it seems, is a good place to begin this blog. I have visited there many times, most recently in February of 2006, and while it's always a beautiful place, I think my favorite time is the Winter.

This is 4th Avenue in Downtown Anchorage. Kind of a main drag through town, it's also the site of the ceremonial start of the famous Iditarod sled race. Looming in the distance is the Chugach Mountain Range.

Anchorage is a substantial city, the largest in Alaska, with most everything a city would be expected to have.

The Chugach Mountains illuminated in the colorful evening light.

In winter, Anchorage at night can also be very pretty, its snow-whitened streets reflecting the light in an eerie glow.

During this first Anchorage segment, we stocked up on items needed for the trip and got settled in and re-accustomed to driving in the winter conditions, and took some time to visit family living in the Wasilla area.

A favorite Anchorage restaurant is the Glacier Brewhouse. They have recently opened a sister operation in the same building called Orso with a little different style menu. Each has access to the other's extensive wine and beer selection and other treats.
Some of the local population are ... quite robust indeed.