August 7, 2015-Breakfast at our hotel, Flattop Mountain hike, Ulu Knife Factory, and more, dinner at Glacier Brewhouse

ANCHORAGE

The buffet breakfast at the hotel is ok but I prefer the buffets at places where they have an egg station and you can request an an omelet, eggs over easy, etc.  This hotel does not offer this.  There are hot choices in warming dishes like scrambled eggs and sausage, the usual cereals, juices, etc.  A toaster to do toast.  There is a small waffle maker with premixed bottles of waffle mix but there's a line up there.  Only one at a time so it would be a lengthy wait to get a waffle.

Cereals

Juices

Fruit along with separate dishes of oranges and bananas

Scrambled eggs

Sausage

Pastries, English muffins, bagels

Waffle mix

Waffle maker

Coffee and hot water for tea

Today is the last day we will have our car as we have to return it by 4:30 pm.  The Hertz office in the downtown location is not open on the weekends so it must be returned today-Friday-as we fly to Fairbanks on Sunday.  I have planned for us to hike Flattop Mountain so off we go with water bottles in hand.  The drive to get there isn't to complicated or long.  There is a huge parking lot but half empty as we have arrived early in the morning.  There is an area where you fill out info on an envelope of sorts, put the parking fee in it (I don't remember the exact amount, maybe $5 but it wasn't much), place in in a locked box, and then put a receipt sort of paper inside your car on the windshield.  This is to verify that you've paid for parking.  There's also some signs with maps.  We will start by doing Flattop Mountain Trail to the Blueberry Loop Trail, back down.  Then the Anchorage Overlook Trail.  The first part is not as easy as I thought it would be.  Going uphill is a bit hard on my old lady legs.  Glad I brought plenty of water as it is getting warmer as we hike.  The Anchorage Overlook Trail is very easy hiking/walking on flat surface with nice view of the city.  We've spent more time here than I thought.  I had planned for us to continue over to Eagle River Nature Center but it's a long drive just to get there and back and I'm thinking about the time we have to return the car.  I scrap those plans.  We will head back into town to see some sights instead.  I think my legs have had enough hiking for today!

View of Anchorage and Cook Inlet

View from Anchorage Overlook Trail

This is the map for the first hike

View from Blueberry looking at Anchorage Overlook Trail

We go to the Ulu Knife Factory.  We stop to watch people fishing for salmon at the Ship Creek Fishing Platform first.  Then Ulu calls.  We watch a demonstration on how to care for the knives.  There is a wall of windows where you can see into the factory part.  We see workers packing boxes.  There are lots of knife sets.  Some have cutting bowls with them.  There are different handles on the knives.  Some have a bear etched on it, some just Alaska, some a fishing motif.  I buy 3 sets-one for us, one for my daughter, and just a knife for our neighbor across the street who is also a very good friend.  I get him the fishing motif knife.  I also purchase some other items.  This is a very large store with lots of items other than knives to buy.  Of course my reason for being here is the knives.  The Ulu knife was originally used by the native tribes when getting fish ready to cook.  It is a very unique knife.  We stop at Resolution Park.  This is where we find the Captain James Cook monument/statue. On his 3rd voyage in 1776 on his ship "Resolution" he surveyed the northwest coast of America and Alaska trying to find the northwest passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  He failed and turned, ending up in Hawaii where he met his death in 1779.  On a clear day you can see some amazing views-maybe even of Denali.  Unfortunately at this time of day the clouds have rolled in so no stunning views.  Then it's on to Lake Hood/Spenard Baech Park.  Parking the car is easy.  There are benches where you can sit and watch the float planes take off and land.  It's very busy and we spend more time here than we realize!  Time to return the car.  We have driven 797.3 miles.  We get gas to fill up the tank $26.  It is returned to the parking garage.  We then turn our keys in at the office and are good to go.  Walking around town we see a family on segways.  So cool! 

Making the chopping bowls

One of the machines used

Demonstration on how to use and care for the Ulu knife

This sign tells you what you can see on a clear day

Float plane landing Lake Hood

Take off

In the distance

Landing

Landing

Around downtown area

Family outing on segways

Dinner is a short walk over to GLACIER BREWHOUSE.  Richard orders his favorite-amber ale and I just want a tall glass of water.  Salmon salad wedge and jambalaya completes our dinner.  Bill $47 including tip.  Richard buys a T shirt here that he loves for $21.95  I must admit it's very nice.  Orangey brown in color with a logo of the Glacier Brewhouse and a picture of amber ale on the back.  We then do a bit more walking around and head over to the visitor center where we call for our hotel shuttle to pick us up.

 

Dinner

Jambayla

Salmon wedge salad

Busy place

Our hotel shuttle

Back to our hotel we again try to use the pool but again it's the same group of families as the night before.  The kids are running all over the place and I'm just waiting for one to really get hurt.  The adults do nothing.  For a brief moment I consider going to the front desk but decide not to bother.  When I do my survey request from the hotel I will mention this to them as a negative during our stay. Unfortunately like most hotel pools there is no lifeguard/employee present to oversee things so..........

Tomorrow we will try to do the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the Anchorage Museum along with a stop at the Alaska Wild Berry Products store.