Alaska Heritage Flight Museum and Bike Ride

We visited the Alaska Heritage Flight Museum. It was a bit of a disappointment. They could use some more money because their building is old and the planes could use some restoration. After visiting some other museums of flight it was sad to see.


There was a bird's nest in the tail of this display.

I think this might have been the old control tower before the big earthquake but there were no informational displays telling what it was. Some of the descriptions weren't much more than a piece of paper with a typed story. We took a bike ride afterwards with some bikes we rented from the hotel. We stopped to watch the airplanes leaving from the Anchorage airport. The cargo planes really thunder overhead when they go by.
Hill training!
How do you like my bike? These were the only ones left. The guy renting bikes said he had 30 bikes out already that day, his biggest day so far this year for bike rentals.

Homer and Anchorage Museum

This is a giant mushroom. We saw these all over as around the Homer airport.


Below are some of the shops on the Homer spit.




Below is the new portion of the Anchorage Museum but it's not open yet.
The Museum is mostly glass that will look really cool when it is lit from inside during the winter.

The front walk is heated sidewalk to melt the snow.
They are still installing the ductwork inside.
The windows are specially built with a heating element in between the panes of glass to prevent condensation during the winter when it is really cold and the air inside is humidified.
We went up to the roof and got a great view of the city. This is Mark. We found some hardhats and vests in one of the construction worker's trucks and snuck inside. Just kidding! I had special permission since I was part of the design team.

This is a scary musk ox inside the existing museum.
This is a display of gifts given during a Yup'ik Seal Party. We had a seal party before the wedding and the Bride and her family thew out these same gifts to the women attending the party. It was fun but really interesting to read about it in the museum afterwards.
The museum had a great collection of art. Mark especially liked this painting of the clouds.

I like the way the city reflects off of the new building. I think Anchorage will really like it when it's complete.

Anchorage

We are in Anchorage and we have a terrible internet connection! I may not be able to post pics.

Saturday, wedding

This is gull island, 10,000 sea gulls and other birds spend the night on those rocks Below is the Salty Dog bar - everybody tells you to go there but when I ducked inside it was full of smoke, so I enjoyed it from the outside.

Above is the boat we took to Halibut Cove Island for the wedding. It gets about 1mpg! Much less than the Danny J - the boat we took out on Friday.

These are cabins on the island where the restraunt staff live.
This is the dock up to the restaurant.
The Saltry restraunt
Everything is built on these big piers, including the board walk which goes around most of the island.

Pretty purple wildflowers. The bride used these for the wedding flowers.

A pond on the island.
Looking across the isthmus toward where the wedding will be.

Looking back across the isthmus from the other side.
The bridesmaids..
The groomsmen
Francis

Saying vows

The getaway boat
Homade pies instead of cake. The chocolate was my favorite.
Happily ever after. :)



Below is a panorama video of the location where the wedding took place. I got up there before anybody else was there, well almost...

friday afternoon, evening