BAKED ALASKA

This summer we visited Planet Alaska. The proper luggage to bring to Alaska is a big plastic cooler secured with duct tape. We didn't find this out until we got to the luggage claim, but it worked out okay because we didn't need to transport anything that needed cooling.

We arrived into Anchorage at something like 12:45 am and didn't get to bed until about an hour later so we spent our first day decompressing and kicking around the city. Bob dragged me down to the statehood monument which is an extremely strange looking bronze statute of a very uncomfortable looking Dwight D. Eisenhower (just a bust)

[Aside: BOB (enthusiastic teacher voice): "Honey, do you know why it's Dwight D. Eisenhower?" ME (not that interested): "He freed Alaska from the Russians?" BOB: "He was the President when Alaska became a state."]

with an eagle sort of embracing him from behind. You can't see its claws which might explain ol' Dwight's look of discomfort.

We went to the Alaska Railroad Depot, mainly because there was a brewery there. Looked at the historical stuff for about 10 seconds and then grabbed an outside table. I ordered the Whistlestop Wheat and liked the foamy fizz. A whiny child of about 7 sat behind us. She and her brother spilled an entire 16 oz. 7-Up just moments after the waitress set it on the table which of course, Bob and I, thought was the funniest moment of the day.

No one goes to Alaska to hang out in Anchorage, which is aesthetically, not the prettiest place you've ever been, and I'm being nice here. The tourist strip includes lots of shops with names like "Once in a Blue Moose" and store after store with tacky tourist gifts involving moose pellets and mosquito traps. I can tell you that every menu includes reindeer sausage and that we saw a person walking his reindeer -- like on a leash and the reindeer was snacking on some weeds growing up through a crack in the sidewalk.

We were on this trip during the end of World Cup soccer which is the only sporting event that I am thoroughly fanatical about. I watched at least 30 soccer games during The Cup and I still have a couple on tape stashed away for a boring day. My main team is Germany, but I love the Italians and Brazil, too and yes, I do root for my very own countrymen who had a rough Cup this year. Anyway, I wanted to know who won the finals and we had the radio on as we drove through Anchorage from the Kenai and on our way up to Denali and they say "Sporting highlights, next." So they get to the sporting highlights and they give me: baseball and masters golf and that's it. No World Cup soccer results in Planet Alaska.

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PHOTO: Pam on Planet Alaska. The point of this photo is the bumper sticker. PHOTOGRAPHER: Bobman

Posted: 4.18.99
http://www.pamrentz.com/pampage/xmas/v8/p2.html