The little pond outside our room
at the Copper Whale Inn
The entertainment at Humpy's, a local hotspot
Day 12: Tuesday, August 1, 2006
The Copper Whale Inn and Anchorage Nightlife
After serving as our temporary home for the past 10 days, we were sad to see the RV go. It drove us around, sheltered us and provided us with some serious memories along the way. However, as we let go we felt a new sense of freedom: we were no longer tied to the RV and could roam anywhere our feet could take us.
We originally decided we would catch a cab to our hotel in Anchorage, but opted for the bus — it was sure to provide a better cultural experience (and it did). We caught it downtown and then walked a few block to L Street where the Copper Whale Inn is located.
The Copper Whale Inn is a bed-and-breakfast in the heart of downtown with a view of Cook Inlet. It turned out to be the perfect place to stay for our short time in Anchorage. The host was very friendly and stowed our bags until our room was ready. Check-in wasn't until 3:00 and we had arrived around 11:00. The bed-and-breakfast consists of a couple different buildings. The lobby area provides a great place to relax, drink coffee and view Cook Inlet. Our room was in a separate building down some stairs and past a beautiful little pond. Our room also had a great view of the water.
The host recommended that we eat some lunch at a place called Snow City Cafe about a block east of the Inn. While our room was being readied, I gorged myself on stuffed French toast and Courtney had salmon eggs benedict. The food was great, but called for a nap afterward.
We slept for a couple of hours then got out and walked around downtown Anchorage some. Anchorage doesn't really have a skyline. There are only a couple big buildings with ConocoPhilips coming in as the biggest. You can tell where the money comes from in this town. Instead, downtown consists of a grid bordered by low-rise buildings mostly dedicated to the tourist trade: shops, galleries, etc.
After strolling around for a bit, we came across the Glacier Brewhouse. We had heard of this place before, so decided on it for dinner. We got a table in the bar area and ordered King Crab legs for an appetizer. For dinner, I ate blacked red snapper and Courtney had pesto-crusted halibut. We washed our food down with locally brewed hefeweizen and raspberry beer.
After dinner, we walked over to the Captain Cook Hotel — supposedly the nice place to stay in town. We hung out at the bar for a while, then headed over to a local hotspot known as Humpy's. We drank beer and listened to some live music by area artist Melissa Mitchell. We arrived back at the Copper Whale at about 1:30 AM.