It's a cloud! It's a storm! It's a mountain?

     Yesterday we decided to conquer downtown Anchorage.  The population of Anchorage is 295,570 but it feels much smaller than that.  The downtown area seems a bit larger than the downtown Fargo area.  It is surprisingly easy to forget that you are in a valley surrounded by mountains.  Being from Minnesota, when we see darkness on the horizon we assume it is a storm and our brain doesn't register anything as strange.  Eventually you remember though and you are surprised all over again.

     We started with the visitor centers to stock up on free maps and other info and explored the free exhibits they had there.  We headed to the Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewing Company for lunch.  It was fantastic: beautiful view of the Cook Inlet, tasty beer (Dan’s review), and good food (exceptional burgers).  After lunch we went down to the railroad station to attain more free information about our future adventures and had a picture time:

     More walking and shopping followed.  We took a shuttle down to the Ulu Factory and Ship Creek where there were quite a few people fishing.  It was not warm; these fishermen were for real.  We learned at the Ulu Factory that they are not able to copyright the word ulu, it is just a word in one of the native languages.  It means 'woman's knife' so it would be like copyrighting the word knife.  It just can't be done.  Because of this, if you buy an Ulu knife (you can even get them at Target here) you need to make sure it says made in Alaska otherwise you will get one made in China.  Not cool.  

     Hmmm... what next.  Oh yea, we were dying of exhaustion and had to go to Target to get a couple things we didn't want to pack and some groceries.  Having not adjusted to the time change (3 hours) we were in bed at 9:30 and I'm pretty sure we were sleeping at 9:32.  This meant that we woke up at 6 this morning.  No problem for me- bowl of cereal, more area research time and a nap.  It was all for the best anyway because we didn't have access to a car until after lunch today.  We then decided to go to the Wild Berry Park/Theater/Candy Store place for two reasons: reindeer petting and chocolate waterfall.  

     The trip was a complete success.  Plus we got fudge, wildberry kats, milk chocolate porcupines, dark chocolate local berry jelly things, and truffles.  Big win for the team.  Next we were off to the zoo! 

     The Alaska Zoo is very different from the Minnesota and we both anticipated that this would be the case.  Many of the animals, especially the birds, are there because they were found orphaned and otherwise would have died or because they were injured and would have died.  It was quite fun, and a completely different feel than the zoos I've previously visited.  I did the super touristy thing and took pictures of pretty much everything.  Here are some favorites:

     This last pic is just to give you a feel for what the zoo is like, it is literally walking through the forest.  Annoying amount of bugs, but an otherwise great atmosphere.  Side note: that camel was born at the Minnesota zoo!  

     We finished the evening by going to Earthquake Park to see how much of the land fell into the ocean in 1964.  We took a treacherous mini hike down a very steep and slippery hill and FINALLY got to stand along the coast.  It isn't very hospitable, but provided a decent view. 

     Super long post, sorry about that.  Tomorrow Dan and I are heading out of town to Homer and then Seward the next day.  I'm sure we will have lots to report.