Tuesday 10th June Anchorage

It was raining heavily again this morning. We packed our day packs and our rain gear and walked down to Ship Creek to see the Salmon coming in. There were plenty of local fishermen, but no salmon. We walked to the Eisenhower Alaska Statehood Memorial Monument which overlooks Ship Creek and the Alaska Railway Yards. It was also close to where the tent city of Knik Anchorage was set up in 1914. This monument celebrates the 1959 signing of Alaska into Statehood as the 49th State. Eisenhower was President when Alaska was granted Statehood. The monument features a bronze half bald eagle and the American Flag wrapped around a bust of Eisenhower. It stands effectively as a reminder that it was relatively recent that Alaska came out of the wilderness and into Statehood.

From here we walked to the Ulu Factory where they make and demonstate the Ulu knife. This knife is the most renowned in Alaska used for hunting, fishing, skinning and filleting by the Unuit (Eskimo) people. We had lunch at the Brown Bag Sandwich Bar (lunch was actually served in a Brown Bag).

After lunch we visited the Alaskan Mint and then went to the Information Centre and watched three movies on Alaska. We visited the local tourist souvenir shops on our way back to our hotel. We had dinner at the Slippery Salmon again because the food was so good last night.