01_Anchorage

If it looks like a glacier, it is a glacier. Alaska has more than 10,000 of them.

Flying in to Anchorage, we started seeing sights like this about an hour before landing. Much of Alaska looks like this, especially if it's 3000' tall or more.

Anchorage Airport.

Largest city in Alaska, with 250,000 people, so they have a lot of stuff there...

At the famous Marx Brother's Cafe, we were served by Tom, who is making a Ceasar salad by hand, dressing and all, at the table. The restaurant seats maybe 10 people and is in a former landmark house near the shore.

An interesting Magpie was outside the window for about 30 minutes. I asked Tom about them and he confirmed they were Magpies, but I had never seen one with blue on it's back.

The summer sun in Alaska is never far from the horizon. In this photo at the Cafe, it's 9:00PM and still more than an hour from setting.

The "always angled sun" made for easy pickings when it came to shooting stills. We liked the double-use cruet with balsamic in the middle chamber (formed to look like berries) and olive oil on the outside chamber.

Walking back to the hotel, our first dose of reality. FURS in large letters. No Marin PETA members throwing blood on the door, or the patrons.

Russian influence everywhere.

Again, we "are" in the largest city of Alaska, so.....

And they have a mall.... for reals.

Our hotel, the Sheraton. This is about 10PM and we are walking up to the hotel to go to sleep. Not THE nicest in Anchorage, but one of them. We got it for free with our Amex Starwood card points. They have SUPER EXTRA-thick curtains. They NEED super extra-thick curtains. It was very much appreciated. I got up to take a pee at 3am, I pulled the super extra-thick curtains back, and the sun was almost up. It blinded me-- and I went back to bed--confused.