ALASKA ADVENTURE 2024: One Last Adventure - July 11

After arriving by train in Anchorage, we boarded a brief but unpleasant bus transfer. Debbie and I had to take the only remaining seats in the very back where a piercing alarm kept going off. Even though it was the shortest ride of the trip, it was one of the most uncomfortable! However, we soon arrived at our lodging for the night, the Hotel Captain Cook.

The Captain Cook is one of those huge, fancy, old-timey hotels in the heart of downtown that provide a lot of services like gift shops, restaurants, and bars. It contained a lot of politically-incorrect artwork featuring Captain Cook and his travels. There was a strong 70's vibe in the decor and the hotel's evocative aroma reminded me of the Cathedral Buffet of my childhood in Cuyahoga Falls. 

We were pleased to find that once again we had been given a larger room than we expected. Because we weren't hungry after our late lunch on the train, we decided to head out on foot and explore the city of Anchorage. We walked to a waterfront city park only a few blocks away.

Captain Cook is a big deal in this town. He visited Anchorage's inlet on his final voyage.

When the tide is out, a large mud flat is left along the banks of the inlet.

We took a walking trail along the shore that we judged from the map would be about a mile. It turned out to be much more than that by the time we made our way back to the hotel. Debbie began to get very nervous as our walk became longer and longer, especially with the multitude of homeless tents we came across.

By the time we made it back to the Captain Cook, we were hungry. We scouted out nearby locations to eat and found an ice cream place called Wild Scoops. It was at an outdoor venue where a concert was playing and games like cornhole taking place. Was a nice end to the day and our trip as our last adventure!

The next morning, Friday, we got up, ate breakfast in the hotel's coffee shop, and boarded the bus for the trip to the Anchorage airport. The flight home to Ohio was A LOT less eventful than the first part of our journey had been. Despite a couple of long flights, including one overnight from Seattle to Detroit, we made it safely back to Cleveland on Saturday morning and then returned home by Noon. After that, it was time for a well-deserved nap!