Saturday Market, Len's Cap, Flower Displays, ANMC, etc.

Having visitors means getting to be a tourist at home.




The sun and blue sky were glorious and we spent some time at the Weekend Market downtown. We walked past the Anchorage walrus.


And watched the juggler at the market a while









Then after a pit stop at home we went to the botanical garden where we met, yes I did check, and his name is Len and he's visiting from Massachusetts.















It was Garden Club day at the Botanical Gardens and in addition to the regular flowers, club members had entries into the flower show. It also meant admission into the botanical garden was free. And we each got a blue ballot to vote for the "People's Choice" in two different categories.








The first category was design, where people had put their flowers together in some sort of display. You can see they varied greatly.













Picking just one was hard, but I liked this one and when I saw that this was made from recycled tin cans, that decided it for me.









This one was sort of strange. But I guess if you're into shoes. . .








The second category was 'horticultural' which meant just the flowers (well there were also some vegetables) themselves without fancy displays. This category was even harder, until I found this flower which I thought was a hibiscus. But apparently it was something else, but I didn't write down the name. This one was just perfect.

There's obviously a lot of luck in this. Which of your flowers is just right on the day of the contest? And is it one that will stay fresh for two days in water?







Then we stopped at the Alaska Native Medical Center to see the building and the art work. Here are a couple of glimpses.

































We went home to barbecue some salmon and have dinner on the deck.






Then off to Glen Alps where we walked to Powerline Pass where we could see moose off in the distance and back to the view point where we were just in time to watch the sunset around 11 pm.







Today we take them to the infamous Sheffield Depot to catch their train to Seward - which apparently is back in operation after being blocked by a rockslide on Tuesday - and their cruise to Vancouver.