June 24, 2012 - Golden Nugget RV Park, Anchorage, AK

We woke up to pouring rain this morning and Resurrection Bay by the campground was really closed in by clouds. We felt like we had seen about all we needed to of Seward, so we got an early start to Anchorage. We got into Anchorage about noon and after getting set up, we went to the business district to look around. Every weekend (at least in the summer months) they have a “Saturday Market” near downtown (lasts Sundays too) which is kind of like a flea market. When we were here before it was more like a Farmer’s Market, but either it has changed or it is just too early in the season for them to have vegetables and fruit. We walked around there for a while, then walked on to look into a few stores.

Downtown Market

As fascinating as anything downtown are the flowers that are so abundant. The visitor’s center had such a beautiful garden all around their rustic sod roofed building. It’s early in their growing season, so some of the gardens and planters weren’t as full as they will be a little later on, but they were gorgeous. Most of the gardens in Anchorage contain vegetables as well as flowers. I think cabbage is what I’ve most often seen planted among the flowers. The garden at the visitor’s center had several flowering cabbages.

Visitor Center

Flower Bed at Visitor Center

Another Flower Bed at Visitor Center

Cabbage in flower bed

Hanging flower baskets that line the street

Today’s weather was quite a change from yesterdays. It was sunny and in the 70s yesterday, but it has been overcast and kind of chilly all day, around 60 degrees. We had a chuckle at the TV weather forecast a couple of evenings ago. The meteorologist said that Seward was going to have a “sizzling” 75 degrees. I guess they probably did get to about that yesterday, but compared to what we’ve seen from St. Louis, it was hardly sizzling.