Anchorage, Alaska
Trip Start
Jun 25, 2009
1
44
74
Trip End
Sep 10, 2009
Anchorage,
Alaska,
United States
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Our tour bus picked us up at 9:00 for a tour of Anchorage on this rainy Wednesday. Our first stop was a visit to the Native American Heritage Center, which shares the rich heritage of Alaska's 5 major cultural groups. We were introduced to Native traditions and experienced authentic Native song and dance, artist demonstrations, and Native Games demonstrations. We had the opportunity to interact with some of the artists who were creating jewelry and garments.
We drove through the industrial part of town, some neighborhoods, and past the oldest cemetery in Anchorage where whale hunters are buried under whalebone gravemarkers.
Alaska Native Heritage Center
The Ulu Factory was a place some of our group wanted to visit next. The ULU knife (pronounced ooloo) is the most renowned knife in Alaska. Native people of northern Alaska invented this knife centuries ago. It is used for hunting, fishing, skinning, filleting and every other imaginable domestic cutting need by the Inuit (Eskimo) people.
The traditional ulu was an Eskimo cutting tool made of slate and bone, with a sharp edge for cutting or carving. The Eskimos made them in all sizes, from a small blade for cutting skins to a cleaver for carving meat. Today's version is manufactured from stainless steel and provided with a hardwood handle for ease of use. They are sold in almost every gift shop.
The bus took us to downtown Anchorage next and some of the group went to the visitor center, while others chose to browse through some of the shops and grab a bite to eat. We did the latter. I noticed a sidewalk cart selling reindeer sausage, but we passed that up and got pizza instead.
After a couple of hours back at the campground, a bus from the Sourdough Mining Co. shuttled us to the restaurant for dinner and a show.
We arrived early and had time to visit the Alaska Wid Berry Products showroom across the parking lot. They sold chocolate, souvenirs, wildberry jams and jellies made in Anchorage from hand-picked Alaskan wild berries, Alaskan salmon, smoked halibut, reindeer sausage, smoked cheese, and honey, mustards, and sauces
Alaska Native Heritage Center
. We also viewed some salmon swimming upstream in the creek behind the restaurant.The Sourdough Mining Company Restaurant is a replica of an old mill house. Our dinner consisted a variety of selections; Halibut, Barbecued Chicken and Ribs, Coleslaw, Waffle Fries and their famous homemade Korn Fritters with whipped honey butter. Dessert was a "build your own ice cream sundae."
Following dinner, we could retreat to a heated tent area with bleachers inside to be entertained by Dusty Sourdough who was billed to take us back to the gold rush days with song, storytelling and humor. The only place we wanted to be taken back to was the motorhome. There were some others who had the same idea and the shuttle bus driver was willing to take us regardless of whether the entire group was boarding.
While we waited approximately 20 minutes for the shuttle bus to arrive, Art and I strolled over to Alaska Wild Berry Park and Village where we followed signs along a garden path to see their reindeer. There were two reindeer in a shed and we were able to coax one of them out by offering it some leaves. Its antlers were covered with soft velvet and she let us pet her.
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Comments
Thanks for your postings
Boy you guys are really having a great trip. It is one that I would really like to take but will never get t by myself. Let me hear from you when you get home. MAry Ellen & Bear
Thanks for your postings
Boy you guys are really having a great trip. It is one that I would really like to take but will never get t by myself. Let me hear from you when you get home. MAry Ellen & Bear