Day 37 -- Exploring some of Anchorage

Thursday 7/27/2006

We should point out that the cleanup issues we had with the trailer after coming back from the Dalton Highway has so far lead to a cascade of changes in our schedule. For example, we stayed two days longer than we had planned for in Fairbanks. To make up for that we ended up taking out one day from Denali and one from Anchorage.

After breakfast, I first tried to make a reservation for a boat cruise down in Seward. The weather changed a bit and it looked like Friday was going to be nice as well. I was able to make a reservation for a full day cruise with Major Marine, where they have a US Park Ranger on board to talk about wildlife and to answer questions. He then headed out for some errands. The kids and Lilli stayed behind at the campground. They took care of a backlog of laundry, did some cleaning in the trailer and the kids surfed the web a bit. Isabella painted a bit with her water colors and Karl played outside the trailer with his cars. We needed a new tire for the trailer, to replace the one we punctured on the way back from Deadhorse, and we also needed to replace the oil in the truck. I had found a Good Year dealer in town through WiFi for the laptop at the campground. He then used our GPS and laptop to locate the place, which was along a major road towards the center of Anchorage. They had it in stock, but it would take them a few hours to complete the job. This was perfect timing for me to go over to the nearby Chevy dealer and get his oil change. This dealer had drive-thru service. This meant that you drove into their garage an talked to a service technician that sat at a desk. When you were done, you handed him the keys and walked over into their waiting room. We guess that this setup helps everyone in the winter. I used this as an opportunity to get rid of the fuel filter and fuel that got left from the filter change along Dalton Highway.

The oil change was supposed to have been an easy one. I had specifically told the dealer that I had brought his own oil and that I only wanted that put into the truck. As soon as I got into the truck on the dealer's parking lot it was evident that they had not used my oil. So I walked back in a again and had them redo the oil change, which included dumping out 10 quarts of fresh mineral oil. When things were finally done he drove by the Good Year dealer, where the tire was taken care of. After that he headed back to the campground.

Today we wanted to explore a bit of Anchorage. We did not have any direct plans. So we started by taking a drive into town. After we had made it all the way into down-town we circled back out again to get a feel for the general area. We concluded that it was a much larger city than Fairbanks. With the exception of downtown, the city was fairly flat. We drove back into town again. Lilli wanted to visit the Ulu factory. The Ulu is a traditional Alaskan knife with a curved blade and a handle on top instead of at the end. There was no free parking there. We parked the truck at a for-pay parking area just in front. It took no more than 60 seconds to buy a ticket for the truck at the machine. When I came back to the truck an attendant was already in the process of writing him a penalty fine for not having a ticket!! Talk about speed.

The ULU factory in Anchorage

The boys mixing a fake salad with wooden tools while Lilli is looking at shelves

The showroom was surrounded on three sides by an actual factory, where workers were making Ulu knives and other traditional tools. The boys were in particular amused by a MnM dispenser shaped as a Moose; you can see it in the lower left corner of the picture above. You loaded it up with candy and then lifted its tail as it dispensed "droppings". As we got outside, we wandered around a bit and saw that the factory was just next to a river where fishermen were fishing for Salmon. The kids got very excited. When Lilli and I mentioned that we wanted to walk a bit in downtown, the kids said they wanted to stay behind and fish in the river. Fortunately, we had all their gear back in the truck.

Lilli and I took a small bus from the Ulu factory up into town. It was completely free. We walked around a bit and enjoyed the sunshine and peeked into some of the local stores. When we came back to the Ulu factory, the kids were down by the river. Erik was wet all the way to his chest. He had apparently fallen into the water (with the truck keys in his pocket). They had not caught anything, but they had had a lot of fun. Erik got a chance to quiz some of the local fishermen about lures and other things.

Erik and Isabella, fishing Salmon with the locals in Anchorage

Isabella is working with Karl's fishing rod (standing with sandals in the ice cold water)

A couple of happy fishermen (notice the waterline near top of Erik's chest)

The kids were definitely happy, even though they had not caught anything. Each time they go down they learn something new. As we approached the truck by the Ulu factory, I thought it was leaning a bit more than the pavement around it. Sure enough, another flat tire. Alaska has not been kind to us. It is probably fair to say that the highway tires we've got on the truck are not really appropriate for the sorts of roads we are driving here.

Flat tire #5: It later turns out a sharp rock had gone through

So right now the score is 5-4 in our Flat tire versus Clogged fuel filters. On our way back we talked about eating Chinese Food. There was a take-out restaurant, named How How, not far from the campground. Erik and Lilli had seen that they offered a buffet. But when they ordered it turns out that this was only offered for lunch. So they took a few dishes and we went back to the trailer and ate it. We watched TV for awhile and then went to bed.

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All Pictures (c) 2006 Hamnqvist, Background features the rocks in Ship Creek.