Alaska Museum of Natural History & Anchorage Museum

This afternoon we went to the Alaska Museum of Natural History. We paid $5 each for admittance to the museum. The first display was one of rocks and minerals.

From Alaska Museum of Natural History

There were displays of animals and birds that are native to Alaska.

From Alaska Museum of Natural History

We saw fossils and dinosaur skeletons.

From Alaska Museum of Natural History

We even got to see what we would look like in Eskimo clothing.

From Alaska Museum of Natural History

From Alaska Museum of Natural History

Our next stop was at the Anchorage Museum.

From Anchorage Museum

We found a parking lot across the street from the museum and paid $3 for 2 hours parking. We paid $21 each (senior tickets) which included the special exhibit Mammoths & Mastodons ($12 each).

We rode the elevator up to the 4th floor to see the photographic collection called “All That Glitters: Images from the Alaska Gold Rush” with photos from the museums archives depicting the the struggles and lives of the miners.

On the 3rd floor was the exhibit from the Field Museum in Chicago, Mammoths & Mastodons. We saw life-size displays of a mastodon,

From Anchorage Museum

an Ice Age Bear,

From Anchorage Museum

and a replica of month-old “Lyuba”, the most complete mammoth specimen ever found.

From Anchorage Museum

The 2nd floor was the Arctic Studies on loan from the Smithsonian and the Alaska History Gallery. This is an immense display of clothing, baskets, art, tools and weapons from the 11 Alaska native cultures. There was so much to see it was impossible to get photos of everything, plus the lighting was low so as to not damage the artifacts. Photos could be taken as long as no flash was used. We took photos of the displays that we felt wouldn’t be too dark.

From Anchorage Museum

From Anchorage Museum

In the Alaska History Gallery we saw displays of the early pioneers, more displays on the Alaska Gold Rush, the influence of the railroad, the military and war in Alaska, the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, Alaska Statehood, and the Alaska pipeline.

From Anchorage Museum

We saw so much I can’t put it all in here. Just visit our photo album of the Anchorage Museum to see a portion of what we saw.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped at a Papa John’s and had a pizza for dinner.

Capt. Cook, Earthquake Park, Alaska Aviation Museum

This morning we went to the Iditarod Dining Facility for breakfast. We had scrambled eggs with bacon & cheese, sausage, bacon, potatoes and toast all for $8.00 for the both of us.

After lunch we went to the Alaska Statehood Monument at Buttress Park. The monument was erected in 1990 to commemorate the President Eisenhower signing the bill making Alaska a state and to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the 1915 establishment of Tent City, the first official settlement in the area.

From Anchorage

Our next stop was to see the statue of Captain James Cook at Resolution Park on Cook Inlet. The park is named for his flagship, Resolution, on his voyage to Alaska in 1778.

From Anchorage

We next drove to Earthquake Park near the airport. In 1964 this area was full of homes. When the 9.2-magnitude earthquake struck on Good Friday 75 homes dropped into Cook Inlet. The land has been left as it was after the quake and we could see the upheaval the quake caused.

From Anchorage

Then we drove over to the Alaska Aviation Museum on Lake Hood. The admission to the museum is $8 for seniors, but since Mike is retired military he got in for free. The museum has displays on the early aviation pioneers in Alaska and Bush Pilots. There are about 20 airplanes on display there.

From Alaska Aviation Museum

From Alaska Aviation Museum

When we were on the Anchorage City Trolley tour on July 4, we went by the Alaska Statehood Monument, Resolution Park, Earthquake Park and Lake Hood Airport. We added those places to our list of sites to visit while we’re here in Anchorage.

Anchorage City Trolley Tour

This afternoon we drove down to the Anchorage Visitor Center which is housed in a log cabin and surrounded with beautiful flowers.

From Anchorage

From Anchorage

This Dahlia was very impressive and we weren’t the only ones taking photos of it.

From Anchorage

We then decided to go on the Anchorage Trolley. We paid $15 each and the tour took us around the downtown area, by the Alaska Railroad Station where we saw an antique train engine that was used in the building of the Panama Canal. The totems on either side hide vents that are supposed to reduce ground slippage in an earthquake. 

From Anchorage City Trolley

We passed by the Alaska Statehood monument,

From Anchorage City Trolley

drove through some residential areas,

From Anchorage City Trolley

by the Earthquake Park and to Lake Hood Airport where we saw hundreds of float planes

From Anchorage City Trolley

before going back to the Anchorage Visitor Center.

Our driver, Caleb, told us about the history of Anchorage and pointed out the historic sites and some of the "must see" places to go while visiting the city.

From Anchorage City Trolley

We had been on the trolleys in Boston and Key West and passengers are able to get on and off the trolleys, but we had to stay on the Anchorage Trolley and the whole tour took about an hour. We thought $15 was too much for such a short tour, but we did learn of some places to go to on our own later.

The 4th of July Fireworks tonight are at the ball park after a double-header game and the fireworks start at midnight. Even at midnight it is still not completely dark, it’s more like twilight. We’ll be having a quiet evening at home tonight.