A Place for Fish

 July 7 – Flight to Anchorage

The day started off in San Diego, heading over to Sam’s mother’s place for a pool party with the family. Ava would be staying with Mima (grandma) and attending surf camp in La Jolla during the day for the next week while we would head off to Alaska. We figured it would be a bit slow for her between hiking and trains and viewing nature, so this way everyone got a bit of what they wanted. Getting flights that fit our plan, however, led us to some more annoying options and had us making a dramatic transfer in Seattle followed by a late arrival in anchorage. That stated, it went off without a hitch – although Seattle made it tough with inaccurate flight boards…

July 8th – Arrival and first day

We landed in Anchorage around 1am and made it to our Airbnb about 2. I didn’t really think about it then, but it was still light enough that finding the right place and walking down the streets wasn’t really an issue – sort of a late dusk. This was the darkest Alaskan sky we would see for the whole trip. Sam booked the hotel in an area outside of downtown called Spenard The reviews of downtown that she read were not positive, so we went to what seemed to be a cute neighborhood. It was, though it wasn’t very neighborhoody. I think for short trips, staying downtown is probably more than fine. We would end up down there on the return and enjoyed it just fine. This place was perfectly fine – we were a bit locked out at first, but did manage to get in and collapse on the bed.

We didn’t get up too early, as the only plan of the day started at noon. But we still woke up early enough to get some coffee and walk to the downtown area along the turnaround again inlet. It was actually quite a nice walk and had a few signs that let us know about Captain Cook and the mudflats, both of which we’d hear plenty more about over the next week. When we arrived in downtown, we wandered around the tourist areas, poked our heads in gift shops (a surprising number of moose themed star wars shirts), and said hello to the statue of the Hollywood famous sled dog, Balto, which is roughly at the ceremonial starting point of the Iditarod.

As it approached our pick up time for our trip to the wildlife conservation center we went to Snow City Café to grab a bite and we learned an early lesson about Alaska in the summer (one which we never really mastered though…). You need reservations. You don’t need them super far in advance, but you need reservations. Without them, this café was an hour plus wait. I have no facts on why, but my theory is simply that for the 2-3 months when they get a bunch of visitors, they simply don’t have the staff or number of locations to properly scale up to meet the influx of visitors. A surprising number of places were mostly outdoor seating areas and there were far more foodtrucks than I would have expected. We also had a few conversations with restaurant staff that were in Alaska on seasonal visas from Romania, Mongolia, and others. Not to mention every person living there (even if just for the summer season) having 3 jobs. Heck, I was even offered the chance to start taking over a job as a driver for next year…

In the end, we went to the sandwich deck for some breakfast – I had reindeer sausage, which tasted exactly like pork sausage… take what you will from that, but still quite tasty even with a 20 minute wait.

At noon we were picked up by Cheyenne in a van. Cheyenne and her partner had adopted the life summering in Anchorage. The partner was a travel nurse, and she was a summer tour guide here and a winter ski instructor in Oregon. Pretty neat really. Cheyenne was a lovely, happy guide who picked us all up and would give us insights over the next hour as we drove to the conservation center. 

She told us about the mudflats. Anchorage has crazy tides, the Turnagain Arm tide is  3rd highest in the world and highest in the US. Something like a 30 foot shift. This was combined with the inlets containing a lot of fine glacier silt to create a non-newtonian beach at low tide, one with some shared properties with quicksand. It was apparently quite common for cars to become stuck as well as having people drown in the rising tide with their legs fully trapped in the mud… that’s a pretty terrible death. We would also hear that it was common for boaters to carry hoses onboard to give to those stuck in the mud to breathe through while they waited for rescue crews to come with the proper equipment. Breathing through a hose while being trapped underwater is also terrifying… Apparently car rentals also explicitly prohibit driving out onto them. Fun stuff.

She told us about Captain Cook - he of Australian fame Hawaiian demise - and his time in Alaska. The Turnagain Arm was named as he spent time looking for a northwest passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic and had heard stories of a great river that could possibly be an option. He sent a Lieutenant up the inlet to find the river’s mouth, but after a bit of sailing ordered the boat to “turn around again” and hence the name. Not that exciting, but who doesn’t love a literal name?

She also told us about the bore tide. With the dramatic tides In turnaround again inlet, a bore tide can occur twice a day. A bore tide is a single large wave that is created – here it can be 6-10 feet high - and one of the cool things about it is that people have taken to surfing it. The result is that those that catch it can surf for as long as an hour as it goes across the whole channel. I ended up watching videos of it – it's neat and not something I’d ever heard of before.

The drive itself was great, full of great scenery and dramatic views. By the time we got to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center I’d already had a nice trip. The center housed injured animals to rehabilitate (or permanently home, for those that could not return to nature) as well as a breeding ground for wood bison to help repopulate herds throughout the state. They had successfully released an entire herd not too long ago and were working on the next one. Filled with musk ox, bison, elk, moose, porcupines, wolves, coyotes and reindeer, it was the bears that stole the show. They were out and about throughout the day and having a good time. Made for a nice Alaskan ‘zoo’ trip.

The return trip was just as lovely, even seeing some kite surfers out on the channel. Sadly, so beluga whales – apparently it wasn’t quite the season for them here. We had Cheyenne drop us off downtown and made our way to the 49th state brewery for dinner. Here too, there is a proper dining area we wouldn’t see (no reservations), but they had a fantastic beer garden out back where sam and I reverted to our Germany trip and ate pretzels, had sausage, and drank a few beers. We were pretty tired and had an early train ride the next day, so we called it early for the first day – though with the sun full on it felt like bedtime at 4pm.

July 9th – Train to Talkeetna and the faux flight

Still refusing to made reservations, we simply got up really early and arrived at ######## café right as it opened. It would fill up fast but we did get a table. It was very good. Better than the breakfast we had the day before… but not by much. It was, however, a lot cooler. We walked to the train station after breakfast, leaving early enough to accommodate for the fact that our original planned timing hadn’t fully read the ticket info, as they wanted us there 30 minutes earlier than we had planned to arrive… good luck on our side, though I doubt it would have really been a problem. We were scheduled to take the Wilderness Express to Talkeetna and the McKinley Explorer on the return trip. Both were similar in that they were glass ceiling cars that were fully catered to tourists and had meal service, bars and guides for the duration of the trips. They are attached to Alaskan railroad trains but are operated independently from them, so you have to board through a separate process. (The McKinley Explorer was operated by princess cruises, not sure about the other.) We boarded the car, found our seats amongst the group travelers, then listened as the various hosts went through their spiels talking about the food, drinks, and safety information. Ari was our main host and – as much as I generally find these types of guides annoying – he was quite charismatic and won over the crowd.

So these trains are interesting and not a terrible way to travel. Given our limited time, I think it was the right call. We could have rented a car and driven, which might have been nice too, but who doesn’t love a good train now and again. The glass tops let you really see everything too. Very touristy, but I didn’t really mind it, it was quite a beautiful and calm ride all the way there, not to mention that Sam spotted a couple of moose along the way.

RETURN TO ANCHORAGE

Upon arriving in Anchorage, we checked into our hotel - in downtown this time - and checked out a music festival happening in a central square. After which we grabbed dinner at another brewpub in town, Glacier Brewhouse. Sam made reservations this time, which was a good idea as the place was packed. Honestly, this was the best food we had in Alaska - it was legit great by NYC standards as well. Plus we had nice flights of beer - a win all around. After dinner, we took a nice walk, grabbed some last souvenirs and then prepared for the flight back in the morning.

July 12th – Back to SoCal

Heading back was far less eventful then the frontend of the trip. Our Lyft driver was a talkative old dude who also had 3 jobs as well as an eventful life - seemingly like every other person in town.

Last thoughts - Overall it was fantastic. I don’t think there was a thing we did that I didn’t fully enjoy, and the plane was a top 5 travel experience for me. I will say, however, that I had expected a far more physical trip for the days we were out, instead I just ate heavy foods and did very little exercise, but thats on us (also by design, given my hurt foot preceding the trip). While on the rafting trip, our guide mentioned that for people like Sam and I, the best way to go would have been to have rented an RV and gone a bit more off the beaten path. That is probably the right option, though I was honestly content to have a much lazier time while still hitting all of the tourist highlights. If we had 2 weeks and more time to plan, it definitely would have made sense.