Laura and Dave’s Visit–Anchorage, Alaska and the Native Heritage Center

Sunday, July 29th – We picked up Laura and Dave at the Anchorage international airport at 7 pm. This airport was quite nice, much bigger than we had anticipated. Their flight had been non-stop from San Francisco, and arrived on time with no problems.
We had decided to see that Laura and Dave had a taste of the local Anchorage color, so we went to the Moose’s Tooth Pizza Parlor and Pub for dinner. It was packed! ……as expected…..but we enjoyed visiting while waiting for a table.
Monday, July 30th- We toured the Alaska Native Heritage Center in the morning.

The Heritage Center had different styles of native houses with various native artifacts.

We enjoyed listening to the different native guides describe life in ‘olden times’ villages.

We did not get to meet this carver, as he was working with a professional photographer when we visited. We did get to view some of his work.

The highlight was getting to see the Heritage Center Dancers…….

This is an entirely different style of dance than we saw with the Tlingit natives in Southeast Alaska.

These dancers use less leg movement and dance more with their arms and hands.

We also met the Heritage Center Sled Dogs and learned a bit about the important role that the sled dog team played in Alaskan life. Laura and Dave enjoyed meeting the puppies.
In the afternoon, we walked around downtown Anchorage, hiked a bit of the Coastal Trail, and strolled around the Ship Creek area……

And watched the fishing……..