Day 27 Saturday, July 26, 2014



Day 27  Saturday, July 26, 2014

While reading a local newspaper at breakfast on Friday, I found out that this very weekend an annual “Big Deal” local event was to take place- the “Arctic Thunder” open house shindig at Anchorage’s own Elmendorf Joint Air Force Base.  I asked around and found three fellow diners at Gwinne’s Restaurant, all enthusiastically approving of the event as more than worthwhile.

The Bev and I overcame some early traffic jamming and found another way into the base and the fun began.  We were thrilled to wander around and in some of the enormous planes on display- a bright yellow 4-engine Canadian Air rescue plane, a Sleath bomber, a mini red helicopter, a gigantic C-5 cargo jet, a hurricane-hunting weather jet for starters.  We tanked up on fish tacos (The Bev) and burgers (Howard) as we watched the stunt pilots utilize the fabulous (again!) weather, firing off endless photos and videos of the action.  The finale was the precision flying of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds jet fighters, showing off the best that branch of the service has to offer. 

We left a bit early to avoid the crush of traffic exiting Elmendorf Joint Air Base, and made a return trip to the nearby fish hatchery to try for a few more action shots of the fish leaping upstream.  To finish our visit, we visited the Ulu Factory Store, the Anchorage Alaska Railroad Terminal, the Alaska Statehood Monument, and finally a walk to pay homage to the downtown Balto statue.   Balto was the famous lead dog in the team that made the heroic run to Nome, Alaska in 1925, and has an impressive statue in his honor along with a Disney movie to his credit.  Nice.

We headed to a supermarket to buy sandwich provisions and fruit for the Anchorage to Houston and Houston to Philadelphia legs of our journey home on United Airlines.

We drove to the Anchorage Airport to drop off our trusty Alamo rental car and fly home on two pleasant and uneventful 6-hour and 3-hour flights, arriving in Philadelphia mid-afternoon on Sunday.

It was the best month of my life..................

Day 26 Friday, July 25, 2014



Day 26  Friday, July 25, 2014

Well, it finally happened- shitty weather.  A day long damp day of on and off rain was forecast.  No matter- we had planned a day of museum fun away, so Ha-hah!

We headed out for a much anticipated breakfast at a hallmark Anchorage restaurant, Gwinne’s.  Reading the reviews of this placed, it seemed that either diners leaving Gwinne’s either really loved it or really, really hated it.  Well, we loved it!  We found it super charming and our experienced waitress to be lovely.  The portions were wildly generous with my pancakes giant-sized and Beverly’s crab omelet absolutely stuffed with delicious chunky hunks of crab, much to her delight. 

We wandered across the street from the restaurant to visit the Harley dealership (where I had planned on selling the K 75 S on consignment) and serendipity struck yet again- there was Sean, my deaf friend riding the Victory motorcycle that I had stopped to assist near Whitehorse in the Yukon a week earlier.  Go figure!  Another fond, yet brief reunion.

We navigated into downtown Anchorage and after a spin through the J.C. Penny and several local souveneir shops we braved a cloudburst to enter the Anchorage Museum.  We educated ourselves, with fascinating informational exhibits about the struggles of the native Alaskan citizens over the centuries as well as a wonderful exhibit about the scourge of plastic and general trash in our oceans.

After a nap back at our room, we found a lovely restaurant, watching the 11:00 P.M. sunset as we enjoyed a late dinner in the downtown area to savor our very last night in Anchorage.

Day 25 Thursday, July 24, 2014



Day 25  Thursday, July 24, 2014

The Bev and I awoke fresh and daisies, had the in house breakfast offered by the Valdez Best Western and set out for the ride back to our final destination in Alaska, Anchorage.

Remembering some wonderful photos of bears showed to me by a fellow tourist at the Gulch Fish Hatchery just outside of Valdez, we detoured off of the Richardson Highway (Route 4) to check thing out.  We dead-ended at the highly controlled and secured Valdez Marine Terminal, end point of the Alyeska Oil Pipeline before doubling back to explore the nearby Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery.  We did not come across any opportunistic bears at the hatchery, but we did marvel at the ancestral and irreversible battle waged by the swarming, densely-packed hordes of surging salmon as they tirelessly threw themselves against the current of the rushing water flowing into the Prince Williams Sound as well as the adjacent waters of the fish ladder.

Continuing back on the virtually empty Richardson Highway en route to Anchorage, we were awestruck by some of the most magnificent mountain/glacial scenery of the entire trip in the Chugash National Forest and the Wrangel-Saiant Elias National Park and Preserve.  Thoughts of romance filled the air near Glennallen as we turned westbound onto Alaska Route 1 for the final run into back into Anchorage.

We detoured into Wasilla at Beverly’s request for a photo of the “Welcome to Wasilla” sign, however we ran afoul of the law while momentarily occupying the center turn lane of a major four-lane roadway to take a picture of the sign.  The burly Wassila policeman who harvested my driver’s license, insurance, and rental car paperwork was unamused by our photographic endeavors, and after allowing me to uncomfortably stew at the prospect of receiving my second violation of the trip for far longer than I had taken to shoot the stupid photo, he asked if we were tourists, and let us go.  This enabled us to leave Wassila and not think even worse of Sarah Palin than we already do.   Good job, officer!

After a series of directional mis-steps, we arrived at our goal for the afternoon’s destination- the Alaska Jewish Museum at  35^th Avenue.  We received a personal tour of the $4 million Museum by curator Leslie Fried and their impressive featured exhibit explaining “Operation Maginc Carpet” the story of how Alaska Airline pilot flew 420 flights to bring 49,000 members of the persecuted and impoverished Jewish Yemenite Community to Israel.  Not a single casualty resulted during the Operation, but “six babies were board on board the flights!”  We also were treated to a personal audience with the Chabad Rabbi of Anchorage’s “Chosen Frozen”, Yosef Greenberg, who offered Beverly a job at the Anchorage Chabad on the spot when he learned that she was lovely and the office manager of the Chabad of the Main Line in Merion.  Sorry, Yosef.

After a lovely dinner at a Mediterranean-style restaurant suggested by Johnny Pappas via the internet, we rolled east on Northern Lights Boulevard to attend the Friday night service at Congregation Beth Sholom led by Rabbi Michael Oblath.  We were glad to have the chance to attend the service in such a far-flung Jewish environment, but we found the experience un-inspiring.  After the service, we sought out the famous rough and tumble bar/nightclub “Chillicoot Charlie’s” but the limited bar food offering were not the dinner experience we sought that night and we fled Charlie’s without fulfillment of our hunger.