Before the trip began, one of the things I wanted to do as a “bucket list” item was to go fishing in Alaska. I had scoped out a place near downtown called The Bait Shack that would rent the rod, reel, waders, net, lures, etc. and were right on the creek. They even provided the fishing license and would send you on your way.

I woke up, got our usual breakfast from our coffee spot, took the bus 🚌 downtown, and walked toward the area. One big thing I’ve noticed is the vibrancy of color in all of the flowers here. The fireweed may still be my favorite, but the park had all sorts of colors, and across downtown there were the combination purple/yellow flower bushes hanging from the street lights. I also passed the Eisenhower monument, and some black roses.

Past the monument was the same railroad depot we had taken yesterday, but behind it was another building, the Alaska Railroad Corporation—the headquarters was right behind the depot! That’s twice we saw the same name and company in two separate buildings. I’m just glad we made our train yesterday.

Right before you get to the shack, there’s a bridge where you can see the fish right from the water, and right next to it is a restaurant called “The Bridge” which actually is a bridge!

You may have noticed A) the tide is really low and B) there are NO FISH! 🐟 We learned yesterday that the tides can change 30-40 feet, and this was the low tide part. I still went on to the shack and spoke to the team. To their credit, they were honest with me that tide wouldn’t be later (too late for me) and that I was about a month too early for the good fishing! DRAT! But I guess that means I’ll have to come back… 😉

With “plan A” gone, I needed a new “plan B”. Megan had planned on going to the botanical gardens, but it was an overcast day which meant her pictures wouldn’t have the right lighting (at least as much as I understood what she said), so her “plan A” was gone so we met up in downtown and set our destination to a restaurant we had heard from all the Uber drivers that was a must-eat: Simon & Seafort’s. It was a decent walk away, and the food was okay—but it reminded me of more of a “business lunch” venue (for those in Tallahassee—think The Governor’s Club) and it just wasn’t our scene. Once we finished, we then went to see the Captain Cook monument, then did some more shopping downtown, including a yarn boutique and a few places with real Alaskan craft.

Heading back toward the bus stop, we decided to add one more cultural stop on our tour at the Anchorage Museum. It had an eclectic collection of art, culture, education, and history that I crave in museums. My favorite exhibition was the Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage exhibit that had artifacts from all the major/minor Inuit tribes in Alaska and Siberia. You could see clothing, tools, etc. from each tribe and note the differences based upon environment, geography, etc. (No pictures)

After the museum, we took the bus back to the Airbnb and came up with two solid ideas for that evening. Idea #1 is to go to Arctic Sushi (which we had passed in downtown Anchorage) and walk around downtown some more. Idea #2 was to order Arctic Sushi delivery and eat it while watching TV. After two weeks of moving around—we opted for staying in. And for those keeping score, I actually LIKED the sushi 🍱 today—I might not wait another 10 years to have it again!

Tomorrow’s our last day, so we also spent the evening (because there is no night anymore) packing up, and I even shipped some of my stuff back home so I wouldn’t have to deal with it through airports.