Captain Cook Hotel Archives

The last stop in Anchorage

The last stop for us in Alaska is Anchorage. We’ll be catching up with our luggage at the Captain Cook Hotel. We have one night there and then on the plane for home. It’s been a pretty busy 11 days. I think the most tiring part for me was switching accommodations every night or two. I was feeling good while we were cruising. Now I admit I’m feeling weary. I’m ready to go home.

Bus to Anchorage

We were finally getting the spring weather. As we were waiting for our bus from The Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge to Anchorage it was warm and t-shirt comfortable in the sun. Midway through the bus ride we stopped at a little truck stop. That’s where I met “Pierre”, my Alaskan Moose-man. He joined us for the remainder of out trip. As the bus pulled into Anchorage the bus driver shifted into tour guide mode, He even took us around the block twice offering tips and advice about the remainder of out stay.

Meet Pierre

Welcome to Captain Cook Hotel

Our room was on the 15th floor so we had a view of downtown Anchorage. Our luggage was already in our room. We’ll be flying out in the afternoon so we planned a quick visit to the Anchorage Zoo. There are lots of things to see in Anchorage https://aroundustyroads.com/2013/07/06/anchorage/ but we didn’t want to get distracted and miss out flight.

Anchorage Zoo

We caught a shuttle at the Anchorage Visitor Center to the zoo. The heat was definitely affecting some of the animals even if we were enjoying the spring warmth. We watched a polar bear that was stretched out in his enclosure. We were scolded by a squirrel. Some of the other exhibits were black bears and grizzlies The black bears were roaming their enclosure but the grizzlies were hunkered down in the shade. We also saw bald eagles, owls, red fox, wolves, caribou, Dall Sheep and deer. Although there were tigers the emphasis was on native wildlife. Too soon it was time for the bus to the airport.

Rating the land part of the adventure.

It’s tempting to give the land portion a 5 star rating because we saw so much. But I dropped it back to 3 stars. The big “ding” that hurt the rating was the train ride. The other reason for the lower rating was the National Park Tour. The 1/2 day tour was ok but the full day would have been better. And finally, changing lodging so often was tiring. I know they wanted us to see a lot but I think it might have been more fun to have a chance to stay a little longer in one place.

Yes, 3 stars for the tour part of the cruise tour.

We relaxed in the sun until our bus arrived. Still cool in the shade, it was T-shirt weather in the sunshine. Amazing the difference from when we started this adventure.

Right on time our bus pulled up and once again we went through the head count process as we boarded the bus, this time we were heading to Anchorage. I wondered if it would be quicker than our trip from Whittier on the train.

Going into Talkeetna was one very popular tour that we didn’t get to do. For one thing it involved another bus ride of about an hour to get there. I needed to move now, not ride another bus! Talkeetna is an interesting little town. The TV show Northern Exposure was based on the town and yes , they do have an Annual Moose Dropping Festival. Another claim to fame…the mayor is a CAT! Yes, a feline. And it holds office hours. I would have been able to get my “kitty fix” if we’d taken the hour+ tour into town.

Mayor Stubbs

Alas, this will have to wait for another trip. I was feeling pretty mellow. This was a longer vacation a than usual and a lot more packing and unpacking and climbing on buses and long train rides and…well, I’m not complaining, but I think I was slowing down.

Our bus driver was pleasant, chatting about the different towns we passed. It was all highway so we made good time. At about the half way mark we got a rest stop at a little ice cream shop.

As the bus pulled in I spotted him. Our eyes met and I knew, just knew, we were destined for each other.

“Pierre” was soon sitting next to me and on his way to Anchorage.

“Pierre”

I haven’t been one to buy souvenirs for myself since I started lugging the camera with me. The pictures are usually my memorabilia. But I couldn’t leave “Pierre” behind.

As we entered Anchorage we hit the first traffic we’d seen in all of Alaska! We were in a “Thoroughly Modern City. ” The driver said that moose might be found wandering the city streets and I had seen that on the Discovery Channel too, but we didn’t see any moose on the loose while we were there.

The driver took us around the block a few times pointing out different places to go for dinner or drinks. Like a mother hen he warned us not to go past certain streets after dark. Well who needs to? It doesn’t get dark until after 11pm!

Eventually he pulled up to the Hotel Captain Cook.