Kick Back in Anchorage

After our long day on the train on Thursday, we took the opportunity to sleep in on Friday and got a lazy start.  We had a lunch date scheduled with cousin Diane so we went to meet her at 11:30.  She surprised us as she also invited her sister, Patricia, to join us.  We couldn't cover the 45 years since we last were together but we made a good start.  It was such great fun!

After lunch, we went downtown to see The Earthquake Experience, a movie about the Good Friday 1964 earthquake that hit Alaska.  The seats in this special production shook to emulate what the residents felt.  We also discussed the earthquake at lunch with Diane and Patricia.  They both vividly remember this earthquake even though they were 5 and 9.  It was only 5 to 9 minutes long, but the impact of the quake and the tsunami was incredibly huge; 139 deaths and some cities totally devastated.

Later we went to see the Eathquake Park in western Anchorage, where many homes were lost.

We finished the afternoon with some souvenier shopping, and returned to the campground to actually grill our own dinner (for a change).  Before coming in to write this up, we chatted with some neighbors who are from Lincoln Nebraska.  A chill in the air chased us inside.
This reminds me of temperatures.  Notice, in the last photo above, that I am wearing a thermal jacket.  Normal temperatures up here depend (A Lot) on the sunshine.  If it's cloudy we can expect 50s and low 60s, when the sun comes out 70s feel great.  Fairbanks is different with higher Hi's in the summer, and lower Low's in the winter.  Anchorage is similar to Minneapolis in the winter, but cooler in the summer.  As for lows, we've seen a lot of low 50's with some rare 40's.  Up on the North Slope they've had frost already and some Hi's in the 40's.  The days are also getting somewhat shorter - there is almost some darkness in the middle of the night.