By the time we returned to Anchorage, it was mid September and hotel prices had gone down a bit. We enjoyed staying in downtown Anchorage because we could walked to everywhere (most of the attractions anyways). A couple of places that worth mentioning are: the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center which currently undergoing an expansion; the Alaska Native Heritage Center which free shuttle will pick you up at several locations in downtown; and you get a big discount if you buy these two admission tickets together. You can also pick up a map at the visitor center for a walking tour of all notable places in downtown.
Anchorage has many good restaurants and gift shops. Did we mention that we love the fish up here? Ever since we arrived at Fairbanks, we have been indulging in eating fish. We never had salmon and halibut so fresh. King Crab was a bit expensive. We preferred those we had in Patagonia a few years back. And if you have a chance, try moose steak. We were invited to a barbeque by an Alaskan who just came back from a hunting trip. The moose steak was so much better than the deer meat we tried in one fancy restaurant in Las Vegas. And the salmon he caught a few weeks ago still tasted so much fresher than the wild stuff we bought at Trader Joe’s (a Whole Food like market in California).
While we were in Anchorage, we made day trips to Portage Glacier and Girdwood. At one point we encountered a very low tide along the Turnagain Arm between Beluga Point and Bird Point. The mud flats looked very surreal. Locals said this was the best place to witness bore tides (a kind of tidal waves). The tides at Turnagain Arm rise and fall over a greater range than elsewhere in the US because of its geographical location. When the tide is coming in, the water level can rise as fast as a foot every 81/2 minutes. We saw some of this video footage on YouTube and Flickr. It’s unbelievable.