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Alaskan Cruise--2014: << Part 1 << Part 2 << Part 3 << Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 >> Part 7 >>
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As we came into Anchorage at 7am or so, the sun was beginning to emerge from the haze. The tides here are about 20', so we had an elaborate ramp set up with a platform so people could get off without too much strain. This is an industrial port and most cruise ships do not come this far north.  They provided a free shuttle into town, which is about 2 miles away. 

 


We have a long day here--from 8am to 10pm.


This complex mural greeted us as we got off the shuttle in the city.


A few blocks south of our shuttle point, we walked along an 11-block park that used to be a one-runway bush plane airport.


Memorial Day had just been celebrated at this site within the park. I took Dean's photo by the statue. Dean saw an old  Viet Nam vet who was visiting by himself and offered to take a photo of him with his camera.


A hand and a trumpet with a flag folded into its triangular shape...


and 2 hands releasing an eagle form a 2-part memorial behind the statue of the soldier.


We walked by a TNC office with its Prius car in the lot and a wildflower garden that looked like it needed some TLC.

 
Getting ready for summer gardening...


A dog sled adorns someone's yard.


Even in the middle of the city, prairie houses abound--this one is for sale.

  
We headed toward the water to find the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. We were not going to walk the whole way, but we did anyway. It was well used on this Sunday.


A sculpture of a girl bending over to smell the flowers means that the gardeners must plant flowers under her nose for every season. 


The trail runs along a berm that makes a lagoon in one part of town. One of the information signs here includes a recipe for drying salmon into a form known as "lace pants" with instructions that the water used in the process is good for garden fertilizer. 


We saw quite a few black-billed magpies here and in the city. 

 
Baby ducks create wakes in the wetlands below the lagoon.

 
We watched the eagles and were surprised to see a sandhill crane (with her egg). The cranes nest in Alaska, but are year-round residents here in Florida. We wondered about the brown coloring most of the ones we've seen are gray, but I found out on The Audubon website that the less mature ones are brown and so are ones with rusty water supplies. 


In 1964, there was a devastating earthquake in this section of Alaska. Here is the entrance to Earthquake Park (at the end of the Tony Knowles Trail), which depicts some of the damage. 


After the long walk along the trail, we found a bus stop and asked how to get to the Alaska Botanical Garden.


We paid the entry fee and found the overflowing compost bins.

 
Of course I love to find out what I've been looking at, so the labels are instructive. 

 
They have a huge collection of peonies here and of the few that were open, they were filled with bees like this one.


This yellow flower was not labeled and is probably a weed, but what a show.

 


We liked the woven fence along the trail.


I'd been seeing a lot of this shrub on our hikes. While it looked like an elderberry, the flower head was more vertical (in a raceme) rather than the flatter arrangement. I found that it IS an elderberry, but instead of Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis, which occurs in most of North America, but not the northwestern states, it is S. racemosa or red elderberry, which occurs in most of north America, but not the southeastern states. 


Also good to know what this shrub was.

While it was a nice garden, it was too early in the season and some of their gardens and displays had not even been planted yet. There was what looked to be a nice woodland trail, but we'd already walked more than 8 miles, so we didn't want to hike any more. 

We walked back to the bus stop and headed back to the Amsterdam--tired, but happy. Tomorrow was a shorter day in Homer, not too far away.

On to Homer ... >>

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