Cantwell, AK/Anchorage, AK Part 2 (7/1/2017)

Saturday, July 1, 2017 (continued)
After visiting the Anchorage Museum, we continued sightseeing...

Hafling Building (1965) is typical of Anchorage buildings

Alaska Center for the Performing Arts (1985-1988)

Lunch was at Humpy's Great Alaskan Ale House

Flowers in Town Square Park; Anchorage is known for bright
flowers in the summer; some flowers, such as begonias, seem to grow
much larger in Alaska. perhaps they like the longer daylight hours

Anchorage Light Speed Planet Walk (2005), an Eagle Scout project,
is a scale model of our solar system, the the planets spaced so that when
walking the trail, you are traveling at relatively the speed of light;
it starts at the Sun on 5th Avenue and G Street and continues
to Kincaid Park (a 5.5 hour walk) with Pluto, the dwarf planet
(a Roadside America attraction)

This Oomingmak shop is in a corner of a square block parking lot;
showcasing Alaskan Qiviut products made from the underwool of the
Ovibos moschatus/Musk Ox; "softer than cashmere, warmer than wool"

Fifth Avenue Building (1980) aka The Photo Flash Cube (KSS)

View from Downtown Anchorage Viewpoint

A Boeing 747 Dreamlifter cargo plane

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport

So many small planes!

Lake Hood Seaplane Base for floatplanes
also has a gravel airstrip for all those wheeled small planes

Earthquake Park entrance

Earthquake Park was once a moonscape, the ruins of Turnagain Heights, a neighborhood devastated by the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake of magnitude 9.2. Nature has reclaimed the land, but evidence of landslides can still be seen.

Attempting to show the drop-off of a landslide now covered by woods

Betsey and Kent head to the Alaska Native Medical Center (1997)

Parking sign at the Alaska Native Medical Center

The Alaska Native Medical Center has an impressive Native Heritage Collection, with items selected from those that came into the center's craft shop for sale. It was felt that representative examples should be kept and displayed.
We took the elevator to the 5th floor and worked our way down. Each floor has glass-fronted display case in one wall, with occasional wall or pedestal mounted displays. As you descend the stairs, there are shadow boxes built into the walls with more artifacts.

Dance Stick by Larry Float, Jr of Nunivak Island (KSS)

Loon Spirit Mask by Walter Amos of Nunivak Island (KSS)

Shadow box of Woman sewing a gut parka doll,
by Shelly Chamberlain of Bethel

The glass-fronted display case

Yupik Couple by Peggy Smith of Hooper Bay (KSS)

Athabascan Bags made from moose hearts
by Selina Alexander and Charlotte Douthit
of Fort Yukon (also a coiled grass basket)

Walrus Ivory Shamans by Ron Apangalook of Gambell (KSS)

Lidded basket of baleen and ivory by
Marilyn Hank Otton of Point Barrow (KSS)

Fisherman by Melvin Olanna of Shishmaref

Ice Fisherman by Earl Mayac of King Island

Betsey then took us into Chugach State Park near Flattop Mountain for a little hiking.

View of Flattop

One of those brown dots near the center is a moose!

Aptly named Powerline Trail

Sun reflecting on Cook Inlet (KSS)

Back in Anchorage.

Boreal Ballet (1998, by Keith Appel)

More public art, near the Frontier Building (1982)

There is so much public art in Anchorage, it is difficult to identify some of the pieces. In 1978 the city of Anchorage passed the 1% for Art in Public Places law, requiring that 1% of construction costs of public buildings be allocated for the commissioning of public art.
Thanks for the all-encompassing tour, Betsey!