So… TeenyPeeny, Cankles, Pretzel and AndRob flew out of Sydney on the 14th May, 2016 and, after a few hours stopover in Honolulu, finally landed in Anchorage, Alaska on Sunday, 15th May at 5:00am in the morning. Despite arriving at 5:00am there was a courtesy phone for our hotel, the Lakefront Anchorage Hotel, and we were picked up by a hotel minibus and at the hotel by 6:00am. What’s more… our rooms were ready and we were able to check-in straight-away.
Our first impressions were that the hotel was perfection, a dark timbered lobby and hallways with various stuffed animals including bears, elk, musk ox, etc. The hotel itself is situated on the waterfront of Lake Spenard with magnificent lake views from the bar, dining area and outdoor courtyard. A breathtaking way to start our trip.
Pachos and Don were arriving a little later from Washington D.C. so the four of us had previously planned to shake off any jetlag by walking down to Gwennie’s Old Alaska Restaurant for a good ol’ American breakfast. It didn’t disappoint with plenty of pancakes, drip filter coffee, bacon, eggs, maple syrup, biscuits, sausage gravy and grits. By the time we returned to the hotel Pachos and Don had arrived and Team Alaska was formed.
Lake Spenard
Anchorage is located on the coastline but also has a number of lakes nearby. The Lakefront Anchorage Hotel is located on the shore of Lake Spenard, which has been joined with Lake Hood to create the world’s largest floatplane base. The hotel patio area fronts the lake and a float plane operator docks there every evening offering sightseeing flights after giving a talk and inspection of his floatplane. Our group, minus TeenyPeeny, booked a flight the following day and the pilot generously offered us a five minute city loop flight right then and there as a taster.
Taking off and landing in the float plane was smooth as silk and both flights were an excellent way to get a first feel for the beauty of Anchorage and the vastness of Alaska. TeenyPeeny, who is not fond of light aircraft, elected to stay at the hotel and have his first experience with U.S. style bar service and tipping etiquette.
We took a walk around part of the lake shore near the hotel, inspecting numerous private floatplanes tied up at the many little moorings. Alaskans go on a waiting list for years to get a floatplane mooring on Lake Spenard and have to prove that they own a floatplane to prevent speculators from corrupting the market. It seems that floatplane ownership is nearly as prevalent as car ownership in this part of Alaska.
Sightseeing Anchorage
Over the years Pachos has visited a great many of the Hard Rock Cafes around the world so it was inevitable that Team Alaska would end up in Hard Rock Anchorage (it has unfortunately closed since our trip). It was a great place to cheers the start of our odyssey and start to explore Anchorage.
Downtown Anchorage is an attractive mix of city, country and frontier all rolled into one. It has modern buildings as well as the stereotypical Alaskan weatherboard clad timber buildings. The town centre atmosphere was relaxed, inviting and tourist friendly. Don being a keen cyclist organised a group bike hire, which proved to be an excellent way of seeing a variety of Anchorage locations at our own pace and our own discretion. The bike tour had a rough start when Pretzel accidentally cut-off Pachos when crossing onto a path causing Pachos to take a tumble. But trooper that she is Pachos re-mounted her bike and continued without further incident.
It turned out to be quite a tour taking in a part of the Anchorage coastline with magnificent views to Mount Denali. Another little surprise in the higher part of town was a frisbee golf course that boasted some of the most picturesque views you could possibly imagine. We watched a couple trying desperately to launch their discs in the strong winds but not having much success. The natural beauty of the frisbee golf course more than made up for it though.