22 May 2006: Day 10 – From Interior Alaska Down South To Anchorage.

We had a choice of 2 buses to take from McKinley down south to Anchorage today – the bus which departed at 9.30am, which included a native heritage tour, and the bus which departed at 1.30pm.

After 2 mornings of having to wake up at obscene hours, we decided tt we would sleep in for this morning. So we woke up between 9am and 10am, in time to check out at 11am, and we decided to take the 1.30pm bus instead.

To while away the time between 11am and 1.30pm, we decided to have a nice long relaxed lunch at the hotel’s Alaskan 20 320 Grill restaurant, which purported to carry “real home-made Alaskan food”.

We ordered…

A 1/3 pound beef burger…



A teriyaki chicken burger…



And a seafood salad croissant.



Okay, the croissant(s) was(were) mine.



After a yummilicious lunch – yes the food was nice and the fries were exceptionally tasty and crispy, we took a couple more photos of Mt. McKinley by day, sans cloud cover and strong sunshine.









Me with Mt. McKinley behind me.



And me again.

After tt, it was finally on to the bus which would take us to Anchorage.

A number of people were also leaving for Anchorage at this time, so we had to board the last of the 3 buses tt were traveling south. The bus ride itself was however, very comfortable. I had 2 whole seats to myself, and I could take photos of the passing scenery as we rode on by, just like the day before.



Here is the US and the Alaskan flags.



Here is a house with a cloud behind it… Most interesting, I must say.



And here is more mountain… I think it’s either the Chugach or the Kenai range.

Finally, it’s on to the city of Anchorage.

Welcome to Anchorage!



We walked down the streets and looked through various souvenir shops and the like, ate homemade Kodiak brownie ice-cream (which is SO good it is indescribable), saw this:



A tribute to the mushers and the brave huskies tt participate in the 2 annual dog-sled races in Alaska every year…

And a totem pole in town. Wahaha.



We found this Chinese restaurant tt was owned by 2 Taiwanese who had moved to Anchorage in 1972. My parents ordered Alaskan king crab legs and halibut – all cooked “Chinese style” - and crispy duck and fried rice. Later, we went back to the hotel for cheese cake and mud pie for dessert.

Finally, sunset over Anchorage – from our hotel window.



At 11.55pm.