514

Today I stayed at Anchorage.

I previously planned to go to Seward tomorrow but it seems like there are no tickets left, so I am going to Seward the day after tomorrow. I slept pretty much all morning, and went to downtown in the afternoon. I dropped my bag off at the hotel, and carried my backpack. I first planned to go to downtown, but the road wasn't suitable for walking and it was like 3 miles to downtown, so I ended up taking a bus. The bus is very convenient, though.

The views is spectacular, in fact, I am sure I won't be amazed by normal sceneries. The scenery in Alaska in just on another level altogether. I could see mountains covered with ice in Delaney Park, and see all the way to the other side of Knik Arm.

It was hot today, and I ended up with only 1 layer of clothing and taking 3 on my hands, thinking it was hot. As a result, I got tired soon from walking, and my feet was sore. I went around and got into a visitor center, where I chatted with 3 people for a while, then went to visit the museum. But I was sore, so after a quick visit I went back and checked in at the airbnb.

The airbnb is much much better than the hotel, with only half price.

There are almost no homeless people in Alaska. There are few black people, but a lot of taxi drivers and bus drivers I encountered are black. People here are friendly, and some will stop and say hi and I walked by.

I went to the Earthquake Park and Point Woronzof Beach. It was long walk. I went there from the Lake Spenard, and it was so beautiful. I also saw helicopters.

It was hard to walk since there are almost nobody walking and cars dominate the road, however, the view was spectacular.

I like the beach in Anchorage, which is more than 30 degrees north in latitude to beaches in california. I ended up getting back on Lyft since I was too tired to walk.

Photos

Midnight Sunset outside Ted Stevens Airport

Downtown Anchorage

North Coastal Trail

Delaney Park

Anchorage Museum

Lake Spenard

Lake Hood Seaplane Base

Earthquake Park

Point Woronzo

515

Today is 515.

I slept all morning because for strange reasons I wasn't sleeping early last night, and I realized how poorly planned my travel is. I didn't even finish booking for the tickets. I spend two hours at noon booking everything and trying to wrap things up, but turns out that I am spending so much money on this trip. I booked an airbnb in Seward for a quite expensive price, and it didn't even include storing luggage after cheking out and shuttle, so I had to do everything myself.

I initially planned to take a bus to midtown, but for some reasons the bus didn't come, and in Google Maps it also didn't show that the bus is coming, so I ended up taking a lyft.

I took a lyft to midtown and hiked around. The driver was chatty, and we talked for a while. He told me his son is also a sophomore studying economics at Boston with full scholarships, which I thought is much better than me, although he wanted his son to study engineering. He also told me he grew up in orange county, and how he thought Europe is better than US because of homeless problem. Overall he is very friendly guy. He mentioned that Puffin Inn is really bad, and there are shootings and shady people. I told him about my school and life too. The ride was too short for a long chat, and we parted at Cuddy Park.

Cuddy Park is mostly empty and there is a big lawn, but on the other side there are worn-down tents. That is the first time I saw homelessness in Alaska.

Midtown is very dirty, and poorly constructed, the roads almost wild and not suitable for pedestrians to walk. I walked very hard and constantly looked at my phone. Then I walked to Chester Creek and walked along the trails. There are also many other people walking and cycling on the trail. Goose Lake is very beautiful, it is blue and I could see the snowy mountains above the lake. There are some dogs from other people which got me scared, though. But everything turned out all right.

Then I went to University of Alaska, Anchorage. I thought the campus is very beautiful. In many places in China, the trees and grasses and lawns looks as though they are artificial--human made for recreation and greeness. However, this campus looks as though it is constructed out of a natural reserve. The campus is big and there are parking lots everywhere. In contrast, Berkeley looks dense and crowded. But I know this is not the kind of university my parents would gladly let me go to, although I think it is really nice. I went into several school buildings, which are open to the public, and got some water. There are almost no people in the campus, and every building is connected to a parking lot. It is really hard to get around without a car. There is a figure skating rink in the university and I think it is nice. Anyways Anchorage is much nicer than Berkeley but of course my parents won't let me go there for school or anything like that so there is no question after all. Maybe I can come and be a teacher here after graduation, and with a car I can go to glaciers and National Parks every weekend. Ah
imagine that.

Then my legs got really sore and I had to go. I went to Lake Otis. There is some park called Jacobson Park without a road on the map, and I went in through a wild trail. The trail was so bad that half of it is wet, then I saw someone with a tent. I hadn't thought it strange and I was like "Sorry", and then I saw that there are no roads ahead I was like "I am turning back". Then I heard him say something like "Can you spare me a dollar?", and I got kind of scared, but since I am not sure I just kept going away at a faster pace.

I walked around and it seems that the roads there are consists of popular university names like Duke, Stanford, Princeton, but there are no Harvard or Berkeley, which is strange. People were watering their lawns and a elderly woman said hi to me, which I replied the same back. But by the time I almost couldn't continue walking. I sat on the ground nearby and called lyft.

Then I decide to call it a day since I am leaving early morning tomorrow, and it is really hard for me to get up early, so I must prepare well. On the lyft back the driver chatted with me, and he asked my information and I told him I was getting A or A- or B+ this semester, and he was like "everything is A+, you should work harder". And I thought again just how lazy I am, and how I would try to work harder next semester, which is merely a thought in my head for pretty much all my life. He also told me how he was feeding those homeless in Anchorage and there are 300 in total, some of them die of frost in winter. He said he could take me around town and I told him I wanted to go to Kincaid Park, but since it is ordered in Lyft we just finished the trip and parted. Both lyft drivers aren't black this time.

I ate at subways three times in two days (I only had 5 meals in total), but I think it is pretty nice.

After two days of hard hiking I think I saw the equivalent of half a day of car driving, however, I think that walking is another unique experience anyways.

Photos

Airbnb Malibu Road

Midtown: Homeless in Alaska

Park and Trail

Goose Lake

University of Alaska Anchorage