August 30th – Saturday - 2008:
Anchorage Alaska City Tour
Next morning, we ate continental breakfast included in the hotel rate and called a cab. I met a Middle Eastern Driver from Cairo whose name was Ezz, gave me his number and drove us to the “Alaska Native Heritage Museum”, about a 35 minute drive from downtown Anchorage, taxi cost is $37.
The Museum highlights over 100 native Alaska tribes, from Inuit to Tlingit. Each diverse in beliefs and ways of life with one common element, Alaska, the wildlife and fauna abounds within this majestic state. The entrance fee was $65 per adults and $35 per child, with agent rate, we paid $9.95 per adult ( not bad for an agent discount).
We watched the Alaskan performers on stage explaining about the main theme of their native dances, they pretty much tell the story of fishing, canoeing, building huts, even a dance describing the water plane taking off and having inclement weather. To me the most fascinating I’ve learned about their culture is how they go to hunt walruses and use the skin to make their canoes.
There several native craft makers who were doing illustration of how their native crafts are done and by what tribe, so even their native costumes vary by the region. We watched an Inuit native play a flute and native music which I found very suiting to everyone’s ears, if you like flute, this is must hear portion of the tour.
The compound was about10 acres of raw land, they built village houses that distinguished each of the different tribes. The villages of each tribe was quite a walk, I was in charge of pushing Mom’s wheel chair around and the path is not paved, it was a struggle to go around the park and since we had only 2 hours left to get back to our hotel for our shuttle pick up to Whittier, we did not go around the entire park, besides, most of what you see in one village pretty much resembles the next with little variation of the native homes and beliefs. We left the museum, from the park there is a shuttle from the Anchorage Visitor Center which is in the center of Anchorage for free.
If you want to take the same short excursion with minimal cost, take the cab from your hotel to the Visitor Center then you can take the shuttle to the museum for free, remember we paid $37 for our taxi. We had enough time to see the beautiful Civic Center and the main center of tourist attraction in Anchorage.
We hailed a cab back to our hotel, we were ½ an hour late in getting our suitcases to check out, the hotel that I thought was such a good rate, charged us another $89, I tried to talk to the owner, she was very unpleasant and rude, I just gave up and paid the extra night charge. Lesson to be learned form this, I should have asked to check out the baggage to their bell service, then take the excursion, this would have probably been the best way to avoid further charges we incurred. But I’m telling everyone NOT to stay at this Hotel, America’s Best Value Inn turned out to be ‘WORST VALUE INN”. Here’s what the hotel looked like:
We called the shuttle company and we had another hour to wait, next to the hotel was a McDonald so we went and grab a quick lunch before the bus arrived. Alaska Transportation had 2 rates; $40 for a non-stop trip & $51 for their Wildlife Tour, I would recommend the 2nd option which we took.
Anchorage Alaska City Tour
Next morning, we ate continental breakfast included in the hotel rate and called a cab. I met a Middle Eastern Driver from Cairo whose name was Ezz, gave me his number and drove us to the “Alaska Native Heritage Museum”, about a 35 minute drive from downtown Anchorage, taxi cost is $37.
The Museum highlights over 100 native Alaska tribes, from Inuit to Tlingit. Each diverse in beliefs and ways of life with one common element, Alaska, the wildlife and fauna abounds within this majestic state. The entrance fee was $65 per adults and $35 per child, with agent rate, we paid $9.95 per adult ( not bad for an agent discount).
We watched the Alaskan performers on stage explaining about the main theme of their native dances, they pretty much tell the story of fishing, canoeing, building huts, even a dance describing the water plane taking off and having inclement weather. To me the most fascinating I’ve learned about their culture is how they go to hunt walruses and use the skin to make their canoes.
There several native craft makers who were doing illustration of how their native crafts are done and by what tribe, so even their native costumes vary by the region. We watched an Inuit native play a flute and native music which I found very suiting to everyone’s ears, if you like flute, this is must hear portion of the tour.
The compound was about10 acres of raw land, they built village houses that distinguished each of the different tribes. The villages of each tribe was quite a walk, I was in charge of pushing Mom’s wheel chair around and the path is not paved, it was a struggle to go around the park and since we had only 2 hours left to get back to our hotel for our shuttle pick up to Whittier, we did not go around the entire park, besides, most of what you see in one village pretty much resembles the next with little variation of the native homes and beliefs. We left the museum, from the park there is a shuttle from the Anchorage Visitor Center which is in the center of Anchorage for free.
If you want to take the same short excursion with minimal cost, take the cab from your hotel to the Visitor Center then you can take the shuttle to the museum for free, remember we paid $37 for our taxi. We had enough time to see the beautiful Civic Center and the main center of tourist attraction in Anchorage.
We hailed a cab back to our hotel, we were ½ an hour late in getting our suitcases to check out, the hotel that I thought was such a good rate, charged us another $89, I tried to talk to the owner, she was very unpleasant and rude, I just gave up and paid the extra night charge. Lesson to be learned form this, I should have asked to check out the baggage to their bell service, then take the excursion, this would have probably been the best way to avoid further charges we incurred. But I’m telling everyone NOT to stay at this Hotel, America’s Best Value Inn turned out to be ‘WORST VALUE INN”. Here’s what the hotel looked like:
We called the shuttle company and we had another hour to wait, next to the hotel was a McDonald so we went and grab a quick lunch before the bus arrived. Alaska Transportation had 2 rates; $40 for a non-stop trip & $51 for their Wildlife Tour, I would recommend the 2nd option which we took.
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