Today was a pretty relaxed day. Did get up to a few things though.

The first thing was to get up for breakfast at 8am, and sat back and read the Alaska Dispatch News – the local newspaper. As expected, a lot of stuff about Trump, Obama, Global Warming etc.

Then I headed off to the Anchorage Museum. Unfortunately the main area that I would like to have seen, the Alaska Gallery is closed for renovations and does not reopen for another 8-9 months. But there was some other pretty good things to see. I did get to see a number of Alaskan themed exhibits, including those below.

 

Historically, native subsistence whale and seal / walrus hunters would not wear lifejackets as they were coloured and the native hunters needed to be camouflage. So they wore white clothing which risked their health and lives due to the temperatures. they operated in. So these white lifejacket were developed relatively recently for the Alaskan native whalers and hunters and started to be given out in 2011. The clothing was a joint development between the US Coast Guard, Department of Natural Resources and Mustang Survival Corporation.

The white bear needs no explanation (hopefully).

The painting was painted by a well known Alaskan (late in his life) in 1929 and is called Mount McKinley. The mountain was named for William McKinley, President of the USA from 1897 to 1901 when he was assassinated. In 2015, The USA President  renamed it as Mount Denali, its historical name which had deep cultural significance for the Native Alaskans. It is the tallest mountain in North America. The painter, Sydney Laurence, grew up as a painter in New York, married a fellow artist at the age of 24 and sailed to Europe, settling in Britain. At the age of 35, he sailed to Alaska. For his first 7 years he apparently wandered, without making much from gold or other endeavours. So he then turned back to painting at the age of 42. He settled in Anchorage, and became a prolific painter of Alaskan scenery. This painting was one of his most famous. There is a calendar of his painting printed and sold in Alaska each year.

So I then went home to have lunch (the final piece of pizza and one Twinkie for dessert) and then headed off to go on my photo tour with Alaskan Photo Tours. We went to three spots. The first was in the Chugach Mountains, where we took some photos at one of the creeks. I loved the ice and how it made such a difference in the way the water flows.

Then we went to the top of the mountain in another place, maybe 10 kilometres away. On the way up we saw a mother moose (cow) and her calf, so we stopped to take a few photos. This was my favourite.

Then from the top of the mountain a I got some very different photos. They didn’t come out that well directly but with a bit of a photoshop or lightroom, they’ll clean up. There was a very strong fog over the mountain ranges to the west – the Tordrillo Mountains.

Note the sail glider above the mountain on the third photo.

The final photographic stop was at one stage of sunset where the lights of the city buildings start to shine through the dusk. Sunset takes around three hours at this time of year, however there is a window of only around an half hour to take the sort of photo below.

So the photo tour was then over. I enjoyed it, especially using the various aperture priority settings and seeing how that made a difference in the photos. This will be good for the remainder of my trip.

After the tour, I was dropped off outside Ginger Restaurant, so I could purchase some takeaway for lunch and dinner tomorrow. That’s because tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, which means the public bus service does not operate, and most restaurants and shops are closed. Whilst I waited, I had the barman make me up a cocktail based around Alaskan flavours. So he made one of Alaskan Gin, and it included cinnamon, lemon, bitters and a few other ingredients. I liked it so much, I stayed for a short dinner and had 5 of the same cocktails. They were very tasty, a shame I didn’t get the list opf ingredients.

After that, I went back to the hotel, put the meals in the fridge, and went to the gym for a half hour. I then turned on the news to see the ongoing diatribes from both sides about the election of President-elect Trump, then updated this blog.

Very best wishes to all, happy Thanksgiving to any Americans, and Happy Birthday to Jai Perkinson.