We arrived in Anchorage last night around 6:30 local time or 10:30 EST. We were pretty exhausted but did some walking around mainly so we could find somewhere to eat. The first thing that struck us both about Anchorage is how much it reminded us of an east coast beach town. There is just a certain feel to the place. It could be the numerous T-shirts shops, the amount of tourists or the fact that it is actually on the water, I'm not sure exactly. Mickey already loves it. He loves beach towns, especially off season but he HATES the feel of sand. So for him, finding a beach town with out the beach is a dream come true. We woke up fairly early this morning, got breakfast and the made our way to the Tony Knowles Coastal trail. We ran into fellow beard team USA member Marty,( http://www.beardteamusa.org/btusa/martygehringer.html) who was not up for a bike ride but did walk with us to the start of the trail.
We rented bikes and made it about 2.5 miles out before turning around to come back. Although it was no great trek, I was happy that my knee seemed to hold up pretty well. Hooray for physical therapy and the elliptical.
After our bike ride we wandered in and out of a couple of stores. You might not know this about Mickey, but he absolutely loves to look at stuff in crappy souvenir shops. If its got novelty t-shirts in the window, animals made of tiny shells or any other bits of junk from China, he wants to go in. So be prepared friends and family for some very tasteful presents from Alaska. Mickey is also a huge fan of penny smashing machines and finally purchased his very own Penny Passport. Sometimes I feel like I am vacationing with a small child.
Anyway, the first round of pictures from our morning out and about are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/JHooverArtwork/Alaska?feat=directlink
Enjoy!