Of course I have discovered in the last two days that Alaska is nothing like an elevator. After a few hours of sleep, we headed out into the bright Anchorage sunshine. At 9 AM it was a breezy 67 degrees that knocked the drowsy right out of us.
100 years ago the Corps of Engineers laid this city out in a perfect grid that remains unchanged today, so navigating downtown is as easy as A B C, 1 2 3. This particular grid is bounded by Cook Inlet to the west, Ship Creek to the north, and Delaney Park to the south.
The park is a lovely green space 4 blocks long and 1 block wide. It was originally left undeveloped as a fire break, but it also served as the first landing strip in town once airplanes were introduced in the 1920s.
On the far side of the park we found a well-fortified chain-link paddock and were amazed to discover a reindeer named Star within it. A little research uncovered the tale of a typically eccentric pioneer couple who, after helping to settle Anchorage, decided in 1962 that they wanted a wild animal for a pet.
The little reindeer we saw is actually Star the VI, and while number one lived a long life, II through V were not so lucky, but that's a story for another day.
Down toward Cook Inlet we visited the Oscar Anderson home. Built in 1915, the little six room wood frame building was one of the very first houses constructed in Anchorage, and is pretty much in its original condition with many of the family's furnishings. In many ways, the story of the house tells the story of the town, and we learned a lot about both in our 45 minute tour.
Everywhere we went people told us how extraordinary the weather was. "I've lived here all my life and I love it," one young woman who chatted us up on a corner while waiting for the light to change said. She swept her arm from the park across the way, its beds brimming with amazing begonias, dahlias, snapdragons, and hollyhocks to the jagged peaks of the Chugach Mountains behind us. "It's beautiful here and with days like this, why would I ever leave?"
100 years ago the Corps of Engineers laid this city out in a perfect grid that remains unchanged today, so navigating downtown is as easy as A B C, 1 2 3. This particular grid is bounded by Cook Inlet to the west, Ship Creek to the north, and Delaney Park to the south.
The park is a lovely green space 4 blocks long and 1 block wide. It was originally left undeveloped as a fire break, but it also served as the first landing strip in town once airplanes were introduced in the 1920s.
On the far side of the park we found a well-fortified chain-link paddock and were amazed to discover a reindeer named Star within it. A little research uncovered the tale of a typically eccentric pioneer couple who, after helping to settle Anchorage, decided in 1962 that they wanted a wild animal for a pet.
The little reindeer we saw is actually Star the VI, and while number one lived a long life, II through V were not so lucky, but that's a story for another day.
Down toward Cook Inlet we visited the Oscar Anderson home. Built in 1915, the little six room wood frame building was one of the very first houses constructed in Anchorage, and is pretty much in its original condition with many of the family's furnishings. In many ways, the story of the house tells the story of the town, and we learned a lot about both in our 45 minute tour.
Everywhere we went people told us how extraordinary the weather was. "I've lived here all my life and I love it," one young woman who chatted us up on a corner while waiting for the light to change said. She swept her arm from the park across the way, its beds brimming with amazing begonias, dahlias, snapdragons, and hollyhocks to the jagged peaks of the Chugach Mountains behind us. "It's beautiful here and with days like this, why would I ever leave?"
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