So I just realised I’ve called this whole blog post series Canada when I am now actually in Alaska (USA) and will be for most of this week. I guess I didn’t really think that through. Anyway it won’t be a huge blog post today, because the three hour flight to Anchorage took a pretty big chunk out of the day.
A lot of the youtube videos we watched before coming over here featured Tim Hortons as a breakfast option. Tim Hortons was started up by a Canadian hockey player (Tim Horton) and a business partner in 1964 and was owner operated until Tim died in a car accident in 1974. Another business partner, Ron Joyce took the reins after Tim’s demise and they have since merged with Wendys and Burger King and are now largely owned by a Brazilian investment firm. There was a Tim Hortons outlet next door to the hotel, and considering my acquired dislike for hotel buffets we thought we’d give it a go. I had a Canadian Breakfast sandwich (ooops… no photo) and we shared some Timsbits, which are the holes from the donuts. With an extra shot the coffee was fine, but super hot as it always seems to be in Canada.
We decided to take the Skytrain to the airport to avoid a large cab fare for a taxi to sit in the morning traffic. The Skytrain started life as a remnant of World Expo 86 and is an unmanned public transit system. This caused concern in the late 1980s, so the transit authority of the time put cardboard cutouts of drivers in the front of the trains until the people got used to the idea. A train runs to the airport every 6 minutes and takes about 30 minutes. While we waited for our departure we had a nice lunch at one of the airport cafes. Deb had a cheese platter while I had a Cob Salad that was pretty good.
It is a much easier immigration control experience going from Canada to the US. They actually do all the passport control work at Vancouver Airport and don’t bother with fingerprints and yelling at you, like they do in LA. There are no additional checks upon arrival at Anchorage Airport which incidentally is probably the best looking building in all of Anchorage. It even has its own moose.
Anchorage is truly a frontier town with no real buildings of beauty. Everything is very utilitarian, however we did discover a three level shopping mall with all the brands.
We had dinner at a local restaurant which had amazing food. This was one of those rare occasions where we both ordered the same thing end-to-end. Grilled local oysters, clam chowder (best ever) and some baked Halibut with king crab.
We are staying in the Hilton Hotel here for a night before transferring to the cruise ship tomorrow. In line with the frontier town feel the Hilton is not the most opulent Hilton Hotel I’ve ever stayed in, but for a decent sleep it should do the job.
Until tomorrow!
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 