Fun Places: Downtown Anchorage & The Anchorage Museum

On Labor Day, the day before we left Eagle River to start home, we all went into Anchorage to go to the museum there. We ended up parking a long (VERY long) way from the museum. That in itself is a separate story, so I won't go into it here. We probably walked at least a mile each way - certainly got our exercise that day!

Here's a nice warm way to cross from one side of the street to the other on a cold snowy dark winter's day!


Just checkin' out some interesting "things" in front of Starbucks...


We walked by this park which, like everywhere else you look, was filled with brightly colored flowers. The long summer days of light produce big flowers, and you see them blooming everywhere - I think they're making up for their long dark winters by having all the flowers they can during the summer!






This is the Kimball Building, the only building in downtown Anchorage to survive the '64 earthquake. They were doing some work on the street along this stretch, so it was hard to get good pictures...

Tori found herself a fun seat to take a bit of a rest :)

And finally - we made it to the museum!

This handsome fella is standing guard just inside the entry of the museum.

This is looking down from the upper level. There is a cafe there (thus, the tables), and rooms opening off the main area with different displays. It's one of those places where you can just keep walking, and everywhere you turn there's another area with something new to see.

This is one of the sculptures on the wall in the art area.


Since Roger had charge of the camera through the main part of the museum, there aren't any pictures -- he was too busy checking out all the exhibits! This is definitely one of those "go back to again sometime" places. They are currently building on a huge addition, so there will be a lot more added, I'm sure. There are some really great displays, and the others took more time looking, but Tori knows Nana is a push-over, so the two of us hurried through parts of it a little (or a lot!) faster than the others... She had already seen the area that was set up special for the kids - it was located directly across from the bathrooms, so it was spotted it right off :) I went back and snagged the camera from Roger so I could get some pictures in there. The kids' section of the museum had all kinds of fun things to do...
...there were a lot of dress-up clothes (which Nana had to put on, too)...

...a bunch of puppets so you could put on a puppet show with your big brother...

...a place to play chess with your dad (the birds standing behind them are made completely with nails!)...

...and a whole wall of frames, where you could draw your very own "masterpiece"!