June 13 - in Anchorage

Beautiful day in Anchorage.  A bit cooler than yesterday, so nice for riding.

They are building this new playground.  This polar bear structure was an eye catcher.  In the back was a black eagle. The orange you can see is a "tractor".

We headed downtown to check out the Trooper Museum.  No place to park close, so we used a bike garage a couple of blocks away.  Made us a bit nervous leaving it, but it all worked out ok.

We put the small panniers on the back of the bike. Gave us something to put the bike equipment (tools, patch kit, spare tire, pump etc) in as we were walking around.  It was nice having the bike covered when parked.  You just never know when it is going to rain.  When we finished at the Commissary, we were ready to return to the mh.  We waited a bit to hopefully miss rain, but finally, we just took off and rode in it.

Alaska State Trooper Museum

 I liked these bathroom signs.  Didn't like so much that the bathrooms were locked.

 Across from the parking lot where the bathroom structure was, this neat mural:

 

It was a challenge to find the bike paths in some parts of the City.   They seem to have the paths on either side of the street with no thought to the path continuity.  There was only one path across this bridge.  When we got to the other side, the path ended and  we had to go to the other side of the street for another path.  We had the same issue on Elmendorf AFB.  In many places the bike path was on the sidewalk.  Nice for cars, as the lanes were narrow,  but not very comfortable for bike riders on non-suspension bikes.  The ups and downs were not gentle in most cases, and there was the worry about right turning cars as we mostly had to go into the street to cross at the intersections.  Quite a surprise on a City that touts all it's bike paths.

The ULU Factory was a fun place to look at all the souvenirs and watch the ULU's being made and packaged.  It was interesting to see the workers, but I had a hard time taking pictures because of the glare.

 At the entry of the base PX, they had stuffed bears.  This was once a young brown bear.

These signs caught my eye.  

 This town does not cater to tourists as much as the smaller towns.  Reminds me of San Diego in parts.  I don't think it costs $1.25/hr to park at a meter in San Diego though.