Upon leaving the beautiful Hatcher Pass, we headed south to Anchorage. We arrived to a cloudy and chilly city nestled between mountains and the bay. We drove through downtown and weren’t really sure where to go. We headed out of the main strip a little ways to a scenic overview point. From here we could see the city right on the coast with the mountains behind it. The water was trafficless and it all looked pretty grey yet serene.
We read about a place called Lake Hood where float planes land daily and decided to check that out next. In fact, Lake Hood is the busiest and largest seaplane base in the world with 500 takeoffs and landings on a peak summer day. We pulled into a parking spot right next to the water, made some sandwiches for lunch, and watched the planes on the water. Not only were float planes constantly dropping on the water, they were also stored on and near the lake as well. There were tons of float planes everywhere. Adam saw a few for sale, and let’s just say... he’s interested.
We left Lake Hood and headed back toward downtown Anchorage. When we originally arrived we drove by a river that was swarmed with fishermen. After reading a little about it (in Milepost) we realized this was Ship Creek. It’s one of the busiest places during the salmon runs and the fishermen were all within a short distance of each other (5-10 feet) casting and recasting over and over. It was pretty entertaining to watch. We didn’t fit in with our sneakers, since everyone wears high rubber boots.
One of my old college rugby friends, Kayla V., now lives in Anchorage. I had reached out to her earlier and just as we were leaving Ship Creek she was getting off work. We met her for dinner at Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria. We had heard this was a must-eat-at venue, so it worked out perfectly. I haven’t seen Kayla in years, and it was nice to catch up and hear some insider advice/stories on the great Alaska! I have one blurry picture to prove our reunion!
We left Anchorage kind of late and headed south on the scenic Seward Highway. All the sudden I felt like I was really in Alaska. That Alaska I see on postcards and always imagined was happening at this very moment. The Seward Highway starts following the coast and has beautiful views of snowcapped mountains jutting straight up from the pristine blue water. I high-fived Adam: We made it to the real Alaska!
Since it was getting late, we drove to the small town of Girdwood which was only about 45 minutes from Anchorage. We stopped at a gas station on the way and filled the van’s water tank so we had drinking and cooking water; oh the duties of living in a van. Onward. Girdwood reminded me of a ski town in Colorado. It was a couple miles off the highway and pretty small. It had a good feel and was surrounded by mountains. It has one ski mountain/resort that draws some people in during the winter, and it has hiking/mountain biking during the summer. We drove around checking it out and parked on the street next to a few other campers. This would be fine for the night since we were just going to passssssss out.