Day Eight of the journal I kept on an Alaskan cruise I took in 2003.
Other Days: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
5:24 AM ADT
Well, this is it. Time to get off the ship... I woke up early, showered, and started to pack things. Next is the notebook... Last night it was rather hard sleeping, because as I was attempting to fall asleep, around 23:00, it was still very much light out. Ah well, that's how it is here. Well, time for breakfast, then time to disembark.
8:18 PM ADT
The words of the day are 'Corn Fritter'. Damn, if you've never had one of these, which I hadn't, you need one. Imagine a corn bread hush puppy, with corn in it, with a side of honey butter melting all over them. I tell you, they are heaven. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Let's start with the begging on the day, shall we?
First there was simply making it off the ship, which entailed a bit of waiting and then eventually boarding the train. It seems that the printing company for the train boarding passes had screwed up and triple-printed some seats, but in the end, because the 7:00 AM train trip was way undersold, I got four seats and a table to my self, making the ride all that much more comfortable. The five hours of this train ride provided me with some incredible time to just sit and think all while watching some of the most beautiful scenery that I have ever seen. Ever. There's something amazing about traveling along a thin bed of gravel and iron in a glass topped beast that feels so much more special and so much more remote than the standard asphalt, rubber, and engine route. I'll have to let the pictures explain it, but to be somewhat brief; we saw everything from ridiculously deep gorges to mountains to glaciers, marshy areas, muddy tidal flats, industrial parks, airports, sea plane ports, waterfalls, mountain (doll) sheep, moose, vast forests, and beauty beyond all words. There were points where I didn't even bother to photograph because I knew that it wouldn't be possible to capture what I saw, but if you are ever traveling between Seward and Anchorage, I highly recommend this trip.
After disembarking from my train I had to head over to the Captain Cook Inn to claim my luggage. This wasn't a big deal as it only involved hopping a bus from the train station to the inn, but it put me a little farther from my hotel than I wanted to be. I ended up walking a bit too far and asking for help at the local Holiday Inn once I realized that I was lost, but the friendly person at the front desk pointed me in the right direction and within fifteen more minutes I was checked in and in my room.
At first I was a little shocked at the hotel, as it appears that it was built in the late 1960s and has only recently received a facelift to the outside. Once I got in my room, though, all was good. The room is big, with two queen beds, nice and clean, with an interesting view of a portion of Elmendorf Air Force Base, a bridge, and a smallish creek. After setting up my notebook and copying the photos over to it I decided to head out, get food, and explore a bit.
The first place I came across was an outdoor market that takes place practically right next to the hotel on every Saturday during the summer. Poking around there I decided to get lunch from this place that had three pieces fresh fried halibut and six of these corn fritters for US$9. Not bad I thought so US$9 and five minutes later I had my food. First off, I had far more than three pieces of fish, but some were big and some were small, so I figured that it made three normal sized pieces. The fish was extra good, far better than the standard whitefish that is so prevalent in the Detroit area. After the sampling of the fish came my first taste of a corn fritter. Upon having these, the first thing I thought of was that NPR show where they detail wonderful food finds from all over the world. These corn fritters are essentially balls of what I think is corn bread mix, with whole pieces of corn all throughout it, fried up like hush puppies, then served with a smallish scoop of honey butter plopped right on top. At first it sounds odd, but the line convinced me to try it, and the line was right. I'm wishing I could get more of these right now. They were fabulous. Truly amazing.
After wandering around the market area for a while, I decided to head over to Subterranea, which is actually located on the third floor of a building about five blocks from my hotel. I'm not sure how to describe this store, but the best place to put it is to take the clothing and accessory parts of Noir Leather and The Cat's Meow, sans sex toys, add a nice selection of boots and shoes, and make the staff friendly like you would find at East Alley Records or the old Rock-A-Billy's or even Absolute Music. I ended up spending the whole afternoon there, hanging out, watching a wonderfully twisted film called 'Rubin & Ed'. I, indirectly, ended up talking with what I think is most everyone who works there, but mostly with Victoria. After the movie came a video of a band, who's name I currently can't quite remember, that one of the customers brought in. The video was a bit shot at CBGB's in NYC and some fan stuff in and around one of the artist's apartment. By the time that video was over, it was about time to wrap things up, as the store closes at 6:00 PM ADT. Victoria is starting a new job tomorrow, so she had to go get some Carhart's as she'll be doing gardening work for a native corporation in downtown Anchorage. Unfortunately, the surplus place was closed, so we just ended up walking around downtown for a while, talking and looking for a place to have tea. As everything in Anchorage seems to close at 4:00 PM ADT or 5:00 PM ADT during this time of the year, that idea kinda fell short. I'm wishing it hadn't, as I could really have gone for a nice glass of jasmine tea, but that's all right. I was needing to check my email, so we ended up stopping back by the store where I found some email from Joe about tonight Infakt show. Oops, sorry, I'm still in Alaska... That makes three shows that I've missed, just by taking this trip. Anyway, I'm getting off topic here, Victoria had to head to her parents house for a bit, so I ended up heading off to get some food, but we made plans to contact each other at sometime around 9:00 PM ADT, as she's going to a friend's 21st birthday party and invited me along. I'm pretty excited about this, especially because I thought I was just going to end up wandering Anchorage tonight or maybe sitting in my hotel room reading. This will hopefully be an improvement.
Also, I was starting to get hungry again, so, per Victoria's directions, I headed over to the mall to see what was there. Stopping in Software Etc I found that they had a used copy of Metropolis (animated) on DVD for $12.99, so I picked that up. One thing I'm noticing is that it seems that everything here in Anchorage is priced without sales tax. Or, maybe there is a law that says the listed price has to include tax? I'm not sure, but it's very curious. After acquiring the Metropolis DVD I headed upstairs to the food court area to see what they had. As I was told earlier, there was a Thai place there, so I thought I'd give it a go. I ended up getting Pad Thai with Tofu, which, despite being mall food, was passable. I've had worse and I've had better, and it was definitely a nice change of pace from the heavier dairy laden food on the ship. Not that the food on the cruise ship was bad or anything, but I wouldn't have minded some lighter hot food, like soba noodles or something like that.
After the visit to the Thai place and the mall, I headed back here to the hotel, where I now sit writing this. I'd felt rather icky from sitting on the train all day, so I decided to take a shower. While showering, I almost fell over a few times. I'm thinking that I subconsciously developed something that allowed me to counteract the movement of the ship whenever I was standing on one leg washing myself, and, well, without this motion there, my subconscious reactions were toppling me left and right. A good five minutes of this and everything was good, though.
Oh, Victoria just called. It seems that she's running a little bit late, but she'll be by the hotel here to pick me up around 9:30 PM ADT. It seems that we're going to a local place called Darwin's Theory. She told me about it before, and while I don't remember much, I know it was one of the places that sounded more interesting.
Anyway, after the shower I brewed up a pot of coffee, drank a cup, and here I am writing. I've actually gone through almost the entire Firewerk disc 'Amplified Fragments' while writing this, but I've tended to spend quite a bit of time writing lately. One other interesting thing to note, ever since I got in this room earlier today I've had the window open and the fan on attempting to cool the room. Yes, Anchorage is a very comfortable 50°F or 60°F the whole time I've been here. Not bad, seeing as this is some of my favorite weather. I like it so long as I can wear pants, maybe a light jacket, or potentially shorts and a t-shirt if I'm going to be doing anything active.
Oops... The Firewerk is over, so I'll cue up some MC Frontalot, some MC Hawking, and some of The Faint's stuff, then finish getting ready.
9:49 PM ADT
Hmm. Me being me, it's 9:49 PM ADT and I'm still here and getting nervous.