Yesterday was another fun day although not a very touristy one. We started slowly with studying and snacking and connecting with people online. Always a fun time. One of the people I was trying to connect with, Margaret, lives here with her family. Two kids, a dog and a husband. I met her back in 2002 when I was driving cross country and we road tripped together for about three days. Since then, we haven't been in touch but my good friend Meg has stayed in contact with both of us and when she found out we were going to be in the same town she connected us again! Jamie, Jeremy and I went over there for a reunion cup of coffee and met the family. What a delight to catch up and hear where people have been in their lives.
After visiting Margaret we meandered over to the Salvation Army (we love a good thrift store) where Jams bought some board games and I got a few white button down shirt (per my dress code). The salvation army here was a lack luster. Lots of bizarre 80s exercise equipment and and pitiful looking furniture. It felt pretty run down and wasn't cheap enough to reflect that. The cashier checks EVERY BILL you handed her. Every bill. Even $1 bills got held up to the light. Perhaps an indicator for the clientele that frequent that store? Or her idea of the clientele.
Anyway, after Salvy's we tried to visit some friends but they had already gone adventuring for the day so we set off to Kincaid City Park. Which, is huge. We walked past the sand dunes for the Motorcross track and up and onto the bluffs. It was another spectacular day. Again we could see the Turnigan Arm and Fire Island but we were right up on the coast this time. We strolled for a bit past very healthy people out with their dogs. Lots of runners and walkers and LOTS of dogs. I feel like every group out there had a dog. The tree cover was all pretty low and stunted and, right now, still brown. In fact in corners of the park that managed to stay hidden from the sun, they still had snow.
Out in the parks, the people walking around are exactly what you would see in any park where people are out exercising. Mostly white, relatively fit people wearing appropriate clothing (gear, puffy jackets, Solomon trailrunners) and they all seem to be dog owners.
In town, however, Anchorage is a pretty diverse area. It has one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the US and has the top 19 most diverse schools - diverse includes white people in this instance.
That’s pretty impressive and it surprised me. That being said, while racially and ethnically it’s pretty mixed, it seems like it’s economically pretty divided. I’ll do a bit more research on that. Anchorage is huge, by the way. Bigger than Rhode Island. 1900 square miles. Rhode Island is only 1200. Population wise, though...not so much the same. RI has about a million people and while Anchorage only clocks in at about 270,000.
I digress. After our hike, we decided that a brewery adventure was in order. We started at King Street brewery with a flight of 7 beers so we could get a full sampling. I liked them all, generally. Their IPA were a little to bitter and their New England IPA had too little flavor but they really nailed it with their Pilsner, Blonde, Hefe, and Stout. All Delicious. They don't serve burgers there but they do have a “Grizzly Dogs” hot dog stand out front and we had a reindeer dog to tide us over until dinner. Pretty delicious.
Next we walked about 30 seconds over to Anchorage Brewing Company which had lovely atmosphere, fire pits, allowed dogs and had great art but I was not overly impressed with their beers. They all tasted a bit sour (and to the chagrine of the bartender - I tried 7), they were all super high in alcohol content and compared to King Street, expensive. Our ice friend Dugan and our new friend Joe came to meet us there and after a beer we left to go back to King Street.
Joe’s partner Doug met us there to say hello and give us all the deets about the Cabin that he’s going to let us stay in tonight and after another round of beers we went to the an adorable little 50s style diner called City Diner.
Other random things:
Sunrise today was at 6:36 and sunset is 9:22. They gain about 6 minutes of sun a day.
Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia for only .02 an acre totaling about 7 million in 1867. (109 million today). At that time, Alaska was being used for the fur trade and as that trade was losing profit, the were ready to give up Alaska.
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