The Wandering Gossage Duo

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Alaska Heritage Center

This is actually the Anchorage Visitors Center in downtown Anchorage.

The Alaska Heritage Center had replicas of winter homes for natives by their area.

This group is primarily in eastern Alaska and northern Canada. Their houses are 2-room log houses. One room for cooking and one room for everything else.

This is a fish catcher.

Many dwellings were built underground. This one had a fire pit, but most didn't, they were just heated with body heat! But even then it would be 60 degrees inside compared to -60 outside.

This group separated the single males and females. The males went into the large shelter at 5 years old and the females went into the smaller shelters.

The female shelter.

One of our tour guides holding a whale's bailing that filters the small fish.

Polar bear skin.

Whale jawbones were used to mark the location of a shelter. With the shelters underground they were very hard to find in the winter.

Grey whale bones.

The heritage center from across the lake.

Our guides telling about one of the groups.

The entrance into the shelter. The shelters in western Alaska and on the Aleution Islands had no wood. There is no wood there! They used bones from fish and game.

Tow shelters from across the lake.

Inside a shelter.

This shelter was from the group that lives on the coast around Kechikan. Notice the totem poles.

More totem poles.

The shelter with a totem pole to the right. Very informative and fun to visit.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Tour of Anchorage

We went on a bus ride today around Anchorage. Our first stop was Earthquake Park which talked about the Good Friday Earthquake in '64.

As we were walking in we spotted a cow moose eating her breakfast.

Signs from the displays.

The view from Earthquake Park.

We liked the overlay of Alaska in relation to the lower 48. Fun fact: Alaska is the westernmost state and Alaska is the easternmost state! The Aleution Islands are over 1000 miles long and actually cross the international dateline.

The moose we saw earlier, but look closely: there is a calf behind her and another just above her! This was a real treat!

Another view of the cow and calves.

The big tires on some planes are tundra tires and the gliders are for landing on all the lakes. There are more private planes and pilots in Alaska than all their states combined.

I liked this guy! He was right across from the Hard Rock Cafe where's we had lunch.

The Anchorage Hard Rock Cafe.

Alaska Wild Berry Products-- chocolate!! Fun day, fun tour. We have another day in Alaska tomorrow then Denali!

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Homer to Anchorage

One of the volcanoes from the Richardson Highway on a clear day!

We stopped for lunch at Summit Lake. This was taken looking south.

This is looking west.

This is looking south. Just part of the lake shows.

This is facing north on the highway.

Glaciers to the east. Beautiful drive today!

Homer

Saturday was a laid back day. We didn't do a whole lot, but we did explore the Spit. We walked out to close to the end of the Spit (it's 5 miles long). As we walked we watched quite a few bald eagles flying around. This hook is just before a marina.

One of the boat marinas.

Cute shops. This is one of several groupings.

Lots of flowers. The leaves say lupin, but the plant sure looks different! We also went to a fun farmers market in town and drove around some. Today we drive to Anchorage.