Day 11 - 08/30/25 - Anchorage
Today is our transition day between the end of the 10 day sea/land excursion and the southbound sailing from Whittier to Vancouver BC. Since we decided not to drive to Seward, our backup plan was to transfer our goods to the Hilton hotel, and have them store them for the day. We then took a special trolley tour of Anchorage that lasted one and a half hours. The regular trolley tour only is an hour and doesn't have as many stops. Our tour was scheduled for 11 o'clock, and we had about a half an hour to do some shopping. So we went over to the polar gift shop and stumbled across a close out on some nice Alaska raincoats. We purchased a couple for $15 less 10% coupon special and then return to our tour embarkation point in front of the little park on Fourth Avenue.
There were 12 of us on the special tour and we sat with a couple from Connecticut. The tour went down the hill by the railway station to the Ulu knife store where I bought a new and smaller knife. I really like the knives and I use them pretty frequently to slice vegetables and meats. To continued pass the railway station and out to earthquake park where we had another stop and a chance to learn more about the effects of the 1964 earthquake. From that location, we then went by the airport and focused our attention on the seaplanes at Lake Spenard and Lake Hood. We were able to get out and take some close-up pictures and then watch a couple sea planes takeoff. We then drove around and made our way back to the start point. Our driver, ACE, is a native Alaskan who lives in Wasilla. He was a good narrator and full of little bits of information about Anchorage and its history.
We had noted that there was a farmers market being held near our hotel so we went there in shopped and looked. We ended up buying some caramel corn in bacon and regular caramel flavors. We ended up mixing the two which makes for a pleasant treat. We also went to another booth and had a reindeer burrito that was quite good.
From there, we decided to do a "little "walk. So we headed down the hill and by by the train station and found the start of the Coastal Trail. It's a paved and winding trail that hugs the coastline for I think at least 11 miles. We didn't begin to walk that far on the trail but about a third of it. There were lots of scenic spots and we stopped at a little late for a little snack and then made our way back on 15th Ave. to H St. On H Street we walked north through the residential area to the downtown and commercial area and back to the Hilton where we checked in and retrieved our luggage. All totaled we logged about just over 5 1/2 miles. We highly recommend this trail.
After shedding our backpacks and other things, we headed out once again to find some dinner and we ended up at Tequila 61° which is a Latin flavored restaurant. We had shrimp ceviche and rock fish tacos. Both were excellent and highly recommend them. Back at the hotel, we purchased a high energy cookie for breakfast and returned to the room. As is our custom, we will pack our bags tonight and be ready to walk back down to the rail terminal to board the Alaska Railroad train to Whittier. I suspect that our train will also be pulling Holland America railroad cars, but we are not on a Holland America excursion. I had booked this rail trip months ago. We have a 9:45 AM departure time with arrival in Whittier about three hours later.
We both were really pleased with our change of plans for today and the chance to walk quite a bit and not just stare out of a windshield. Along the way we've met a number of people who will be on our cruise ship and we look forward to seeing them once again.
The major objective of this trip was to be in Anchorage (my birth city) on my birthday. That will happen tomorrow, Sunday, 8/31/25. This birthday is a significant one as I'll be 80.
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