People who’ve visited, lived, or live there, please tell me stories, facts, etc. about the great state of Alaska. Its size boggles my tiny little mind. I reckon I want to visit at some stage in the medium term future but I just want to hear about experiences, quirks of being and living there.
I have lived in Alaska for nearly 15 years now.
I am currently working on the island of Akutan in a work camp building a harbor. There are about 12 of us and we never leave. Some have been here 6 months. There is a small town aboit a.20 min boat ride away. Pop. 88.
I shit in an electric incererating toilet affectionatly called a turd burner. My home is Homer, Alaska. It took three planes to get here, one of which was a 1939 Grummons Goose that was purchased from a museam because it is the only plane that can make the landings. It is suppose to make 2 trips a day bit we go weels without it due to the
weather.
My total flight miles to get here was about 1500 miles. 1500 miles and three planes and a boat. I never once went through any kind of security checkpoint whatsoever.
Just an example pf the size and types of conditions alaska has to offer. I will pop in again.
I visited there in 2000 for work. It was a big joke in the office since they sent me in April when spring was just beginning here in Toronto and I am a very clear non winter person.
Surprise surprise however the temperatures in Anchorage are similar to Toronto. More snow however. The thaw was beautiful and I managed to get a couple of days away from work to drive down along the Cook Inlet.
After our week in Anchorage we hopped a plane for the start of the Alaska pipeline to do more interviews there. Spent 2 days and one night driving between different buildings there and took a ton of pictures.
I loved it there and despite my intense hatred of cold I’d love to go back. For a visit.
I lived next to Alaska from 1976 to 1982. Great place, great people. There’s something about walking into a bar at 6pm, with the sun well above the horizon, and staggering out at 2am with the sun still above the horizon, having “set” and “risen” while you were boozing. You get used to bears in your trash and moose on the streets. You go armed at all times during the summer, with something heavier than a .38, because that won’t reliably drop a skeeter. For some reason beyond my understanding, I met more bi- women in Alaska than I ever have anywhere else in my life, despite the 3-1 men/women ratio that existed at the time.
I live in rainforest, we had 5 inches on august 24th, and we have 2.2 inches already today, its only 2 in the afternoon (if this was down south it would be news, just like 6.8 earthquake). The nice days take your breath away; the bad days can suck the life out of you.
I fly to work most weeks, float planes and helicopters. Travel is pretty restricted where I live due to everyone living on islands with no roads connecting them.
Lots of coastline, islands, wildlife, I saw a few wales from the helicopter the other day.
Lots of nice people and weird people, there is no dress code, I got a ride into town the other day from a guy who has lived in a tent, in a rock pit, for the last 20 years. As he explained it “I came up here to work in the mill, but I’m not the kinda guy to sit by their front door kissin ass”. I don’t think he ever did get a job at the mill.
Also, you can see Russia from your house.
My dad drug me there on a cruise. I say ‘drug’ because it was a cruise. All of the touristy towns we stopped at looked alike.
But the view? So worth it.
Worked on a fishing boat out of Kodiak back in '89 I guess. Beautiful country, lotta great people. I got the sense for just a few folks it was sorta the end of the line, like people who just didn’t fit in in the lower 48 found a home there. (Not that there’s anything wrong w/ that) Kinda like in Hawaii, or Florida too, at least in my limited experience. Some wackos, sure, but generally more just a few harmless, eccentric oddballs. I mean, it can be a tough place to live (w/ huge variations, of course), so it doesn’t hurt to be a little crazy. I thought John McPhees book “Coming Into the Country” gave a decent description.
If you’re a woman looking for a man, I recall it being said that “The odds are good, but the goods are odd”
Driving up the Alcan Highway was also an experience I’ll never forget. Do it if you can if you go. Saw the Northern Lights on my way up, just breathtaking!
The owner of Chilcoot Charlies is a friend of mine and a great alaskan. The linked story is fairly accurate. His bar however is kitchy and more of a replica of what someone would think an alaskan bar would look like. Good for visitors. But its main problem is that is is in Anchorage.
The best thing about Anchorage is that Alaska is only thirty min. in any direction.
Which is why I phrased it like I did in post #4. 
Tired joke, and largely untrue, unless one considers end-of-the-roaders, shitting in a bucket, and pretending to be a sourdough to be the “real” Alaska.
Born (Juneau) and raised (Anchorage) and went to college (Fairbanks) in Alaska, left in 1967 when I was 20 years old for a career in the military and some other things. Returned in 1998 after a 30 year absence and spent the next 11 years there before retiring. During that second period of time, I traveled to most of the remote parts of the state, since I was responsible for the facility maintenance of the Alaska radar sites. When you’re remote, you’re really remote, and it takes a plane or a boat to get there.
I’ve been to Barter Island to see the polar bears, been chased by a moose, been up close and personal with grizzlies, nearly drowned in a river, gone ice fishing and lake ice driving, boating, snow machining, and dog sledding, picked blueberries in the fall with a shotgun slung over my shoulder just in case, waded into a river at midnight for a king salmon opener, gone set-netting for reds at Kasilof, and seen the northern lights in the Arctic. I’ve also had drinks at the Bird Cage before it burned down, shelled peanuts at the Salty Dog, and gone skiing on Alyeska. My step-dad worked at the Red Dog Saloon in Juneau when it was truly a dangerous place to work, and my father was first a blaster at the Alaska-Juneau gold mine, then a construction worker on the Alcan and Canol Highways, then the Valdez cutoff road, then at the White Alice sites. My family is in its fifth generation in Alaska.
And I hate Sarah Palin.
True, it is old and tired. I just hope that the op does not get all the way up here and spend any more than a day or so in Anchorage.
Plus nearly every thing you listed you did not do in Anchorage.
Just so i understand, the idea is that Anchorage isn’t the real Alaska?
Something similar is levelled at Dublin, which I suppose if you want spectacular sights is true but culturally is bogus in extremis.
I visited d8uv (who I am paging!) in Alaska this summer. It was. . .well, awesome. Absolutely freaking awesome. It was beautiful, both in the terrain and in the weather. There was loads to do, and it actually made me want to be outside. The size of Anchorage–where I visited–was just about right; big enough to be a city, not so big that going downtown is a chore. There are views everywhere you look. There’s salmon jerky in the supermarket. And everything seemed walkable, though that could be because I had someone who lived in the area showing me around.
I want to visit there again, this time in winter, to see what all the whining is about. But, man, coming from someone who lives in Illinois, it seems kind of perfect. Illinois winters without Illinois summers (they’ve lost their luster these past ten years).
But, visiting. . .we went to Seward and saw an aquarium and went on an epic boat ride. We went to Aleyska and took the tram up. We went walking in some awesome-ass woods. We went to a neat zoo. All very touristy stuff, but in a gorgeous setting. I sound really lame, so I’ll stop, but it was a great place to visit.
Lived in Alaska all my life, grew up in Kotzebue (a shitty little village north of the Arctic Circle), now live in Anchorage.
If you’re thinking of a trip to Alaska, which you should, because it’s awesome, here’s what you do:
[ul]
[li] Get a hotel in Anchorage. Get a rental car. Ignore everyone who’s whining about Anchorage being not Real Alaska, or not a Real City. It’s the best place to live, so it’s the best place to stay.[/li][li] Yes, I said it’s the best place to live. Fairbanks is full of insane people. Mat-Su is full of crazy rednecks. And there’s literally nothing in the Bush.[/li][li] Ok, you’re here with your rental car? Awesome. Drive that shit to the touristy part of Downtown, and buy the Resurrection Bay Tour with Transportation, Rail & Coach. It will take you roughly one day to do this but it’s the best thing you can possibly do when you’re here. Angel of the Lord will tell you, this will be the best thing you will do all year. Just ignore that price tag and do this.[/li][li] While you’re in Seward, go to the Alaska SeaLife Center. That’s the best ever aquarium-type-thing I’ve ever been to. Including all the ones in Florida and Chicago. Seriously.[/li][li]Still here? Awesome. Did you like the drive? If so, drive to Girdwood, and get on the Alyeska Aerial Tram. Perhaps fill out the rest of the day with going to see Portage Glacier. Yeah, that’s a good day.[/li][li] Oh yeah, you need to eat! Perhaps some Moose’s Tooth Pizza is in order. If you want a fancy restaurant, I like Glacier Brewhouse. If you want the opposite of Fancy, go Tastee-Freez.[/li][li] Anchorage itself is cool. About the only real attraction in it worth anything is the Alaska Zoo, but fuck man, just walk around. Use the bike trails. Meander through downtown, or through one of our thousands of city parks. You cannot make a bad decision here.[/li][li] Feel like going up north of Anchorage? Try driving up to Talkeetna! I love driving the Glenn/Parks Highways way more than the Seward Highway (Seward can be scary at times), you can stop in at a myriad of small little communities on your way (including my beloved Eagle River). You will see Denali (assholes call it Mt McKinley) on your drive up (squee), and your destination is possibly the coolest little hippy town ever. (Talkeetna also has airplanes, where you can fly to/around/ON Denali. But, after Seward, you will want a break from the big spending. Talkeetna is it’s own reward.)[/li][/ul]
I can’t think of any stories, really. BUT, if you have questions, I will answer them all!
It’s just a tired old meme that I overreact to. You hear it from people who don’t live in the city, mostly rednecks who live in the Mat-Su Valley who also like to call it “Los Anchorage”. Most of them also drive to Anchorage every day to work, but don’t pay property taxes there.
There is plenty to see in and around the city, but there is much more outside of it, such as Hatcher Pass, Matanuska and Portage Glaciers, Denali Park, Katmai Monument, Top of the World Highway, the Kenai Peninsula, etc. A person can spend years up there and never see it all, and I feel fortunate to have covered a good portion of it for free.
d8uv: Been to Kotz. It’s pretty grim, but most of those remote villages are not exactly pleasure spots, are they. One of my radar sites was in Kotzebue, although I didn’t make it up there to see it. I visited back in about 1965, when I was working summers for the State as a surveyor. There was still ice blowing in off the sound in June. The town was wet back then.
Anchorage isn’t really the Real Alaska, but… nowhere’s really The Real Alaska. You can very easily slice Alaska into 6 different states (Panhandle, South Central, West, Aleutians, Interior, North), and I doubt anyone would really notice. There’s such a wild difference between the different regions of Alaska that there isn’t one Real Alaska.
South Central Alaska is the most livable, though. And Anchorage, while it’s an amazing city to be in, makes an even better hub.
I agree 100%. Maybe more. Anchorage has its problems, particularly with sprawl and very poor public transit to make up for it. It’s really not a very walkable city, as the neighborhood concept got lost along the way to prosperity. Where I grew up over in 2nd Edition at 11th and L st. there was a small mom & pop grocery that served the 'hood very well right up until the Baptist church got the area rezoned, forced the owner out and turned the space into a parking lot for their ugly-assed church. A few blocks away over where the New City Market is now was a Market Basket Foods and a Rexall drug store. I could walk to my dentist up a few blocks, and to the downtown area.
With the development of midtown, the neighborhood concept went to hell, and you now take your life in your hands to cross those streets on foot. The best planning, IMO, went into the Mountain View area, with wide boulevards and sidewalks, but you know what’s happened to that area with all the multi-family buildings that went up in the 70s.
Anyway, all of Alaska is worthwhile for the adventurous. I’ve driven the haul road to Prudhoe Bay, was stationed on Adak Island, and lived in the interior, south-central and southeast. As I mentioned, I was fortunate to be able to travel to the really remote coastal areas, where it truly seems you are standing on the edge of the world.