Day 2

I think Tux- as in Tuxedo, really likes me. This makes me fully confident that I will overcome my fear of dogs by the end of my two months of living with him. He's hard not to love, really. He's an elderly black labrador who was introduced to me as "a bit rambunctious", but he is cute and lazy and shuts his eyes in bliss when you scratch the back of his ears.

Summer heat and snow

I looked for a grocery store to stock up on food things, I want to learn how to make tasty things. I found City Market New Sagaya's, which sells mostly organic foods. It's all-organic and a little bit on the spendy side, but I got oats, cereals, granola, fresh pastas, tuna, and liquid yoghurt (with hopes that it will taste like laban). The market is on 900 West 13th Avenue, it is pretty small and everything is easy to find. It also has a seating area and what seems to be an all-organic food court, which I am making a note of to sample later. It might be nice to buy and eat organic while I'm here health-wise, and it will also feel good to support food production that is produced using renewable resources and conserving soil and water. I wonder if eventually the whole world will converge to these methods of food production (granted that the cheap labor used in non-organic food production would be a giant hindrance).

Girdwood (almost at the top)

Girdwood was my next destination- 40 miles away, a spectacular drive right by the Alaska range. The route itself is bustling with people bird-watching, surfing, and hiking. In winters, people ski at Girdwood. During the summer, people there bike, picnic, and ski. Yes, ski. I took the tram (or what I would call a "telefreek") up to the highest skiing slope. People were geared up in skis and gloves, tanks tops and shorts. I thought having the sun up all day in Alaska was grin-worthy, but standing right in front of me were people in sunglasses and beach shorts, skiing on a snow covered (but quite warm) mountain top.

On tram

Seven Glaciers

After tea at the Seven Glaciers on the mountain top (the suspended spherical restaurant has 360° curved glass instead of walls) I headed back to town. In the evening, I had dinner at Simon and Seaforts at 420 L Street. They had a special Alaska berry and spinach salad with blue cheese that reminded me of Professor Marcia Inhorn's strawberry salad. It was very delicious, definitely going to try to replicate.

Day 1

Landed in Anchorage at 11.30pm last night. The sun was still up in the sky, giving it a fiery orange haze. I was greeted my Bob Mitchell '54 at the airport, and had a wonderful drive through Anchorage as the sun set at 12am. I learned a few things about the area; it is only dark from 12am to 3am, Grizzly bears and Black bears must be dealt with differently, you have to stop the car and let moose cross at certain times, and the mountain tops are snowy all year round.

Today, my day started green and bright at 7.30am. I strolled through an open native crafts market, took a breezy walk by the Pacific Ocean, visited a private plane parking lot by Lake Bernard, had a Salmon quesadilla, stopped by a bike rental, and made sure I knew my way up and down West 3rd Avenue. My host, Mead Treadwell '78, the current Lt. Governor of Alaska, has a beautiful home right on the Pacific, with a running trail parallel, and a grassy backyard onlooking the coast. In a sunny luster, the only sign of "night"-time was the streets emptying at around 10pm.

Anchorage is known to be scenic, but there is a serenity about a lot of the lakes, coasts, and mountain range view, that engages more than sight. Calm, but at the same time full of life- like the feeling of drifting off to sleep amid midsummer daylight.