Olympic Peninsula

Day 2: After a not so pleasant night due to Peter's constant coughing, it was tough to get up early again for a tour on the Olympic Peninsula - west of Seattle. The tour company, Evergreen Escapes Cascadia, not only provided a very comfortable bus, but also brought breakfast, lunch and drinks, as well as gear for a snowshoeing tour. Our guide, Marty, was an expert in nature and outdoors, flora and fauna, and we got a lot of background information about the strong timber industry in this region. By ferry, clouds hanging deep down, we crossed over from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. Seattle has the largest and busiest ferry system in the U.S.A. - and on to Sequim (pic above). This tribal village is the center of the Jamestown S'Klallam Indian Reservation, with totem poles, houses in the traditional style and a great store with native artwork of all kinds. Here, as well as in Seattle, shrubs e.g. azaleas, but also daffodils and other flowers have already started to bloom.

Bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Hood Canal and on the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula's main attraction are the majestic Olympic Mountains. The Olympic National Park shows an enormous diversity in terrain and weather, though it's a compact area: lakes, waterfalls, rivers, mountains, beaches and rain forest, offering a wealth of outdoor activities! The picture shows a modell of the area in the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.


Passing through Port Angeles - a lumber town and harbor, where, also, the ferry to Canada departs – we drove into the Olympic NP, up to Hurricane Ridge, the highest point to be reached by car, over 6000 ft high. Even now, snow was still piling up high and skiing and snowboarding in this relatively empty "wilderness" must be fun! The park ranger station and visitor center on Hurricane Ridge (see building on the picture) also works as a "day camp" for all outdoor activities, has a café and picknick tables and after a snoeshoe-tour with Marty along the ridge we had earned our lunch: chicken and salads. Weather was very mixed, we have had it all: rain, wind, sunshine, a rainbow and lots of fast moving clouds. With a little more luck we would have seen all the way to Canada, to Victoria Island, but as it was, we could just guess where it is.

We drove along the Elwha River, which restoration project caused lots of headlines. It included the largest dam removal in history and the restoration of the Elwha River watershed and its native fish. 2011 Elwha and Glines Canyon dams were removed and for the first time in over 100 years salmon and trout were able again to naturally migrate past the former dam sites. Especially the native tribes had fought persistently and had succeeded.


The Madison Waterfalls (see pic) are just one of many, and at Lake Crescent (pic) is the largest lake in the Northern part of the park, with a beautiful old Park Lodge from the 1930ies, closed in winter. We hiked a little part of the rainforest trail closeby and explored a wild "wonderland" on its own.

At sunset we drove back to the ferry and arrived in Seattle at around 7 pm, just right for dinner at Steelhead Diner in the Pike Place Market neighborhood. Vivid atmosphere and very good food: I had Oregon sole filled with wild mushrooms and topped with kale in a lemon-wine sauce with mashed potatoes. Back at the hotel around 9 pm after a quick detour to a drugstore for cough sirup. Weirdly, Peter had to show his passport at the cashier to get the sirup.

The "Emerald City": Seattle

Day 1: We arrived at Seattle after a short 3 1/4-hour flight from Anchorage and were picked up by Natalie from Seattle Tourism at Sea-Tac Airport by limo-service. Our first stop was at Pike Place Market, a great market area, mostly covered, in different buildings, at Seattle's waterfront. The market is Seattle's epicenter of fresh produce, specialty foods and more than 200 independent businesses. It was established in 1907 to connect citizens and farmers and still is a year-round farmers market, with owner-operated bakeries, fish markets, a brewery, butcher shops, produce stands and specialty food stores. There are a lot of restaurants - like Lowell's, where we had a great breakfast on Sunday.



During a two-hour market tour with "Savor Seattle Food Tours" we not only got enough to eat - cheeses, donuts, yoghurt, clam chowder, crab cakes, smoked salmon etc. - but, also, learned a lot about the market itself, about the different vendors, its history etc. It started to rain during our walk in the market area, but temps were in the lower 50ies.


After check-in into the hip Kimpton Group's Palladion Hotel in downtown at 5 pm – a new boutique hotel in a building from 1910 – our little Go West post fam tour group of only five - two Chinese tour operators, Charly from Great Britain and us - met again for a drive to dinner at Salty's at Alki Beach with a fantastic view towards Seattle's night skyline (see pic). Of course, we had seafood: king salmon, differently served, and as appetizers for the table we got a "seafood tower", including oysters, shrimps, sushi and dungeness crab.

What a difference to Anchorage: loud, construction everywhere, heavy traffic. The Greater Seattle Area has a population of roughly 3.8 mio. people, Seattle itself about 700.000, and it is one of the nation's fastest-growing cities and tech markets. It's a yuppie place and construction is going on everywhere. Amazon is just building its new downtown campus, consisting of several new buildings, Expedia and Northstar are moving to downtown and it's getting crazy and expensive. Traffic is horrible and prices are sky-rocketing, not only in real estate, but, also, in restaurants. The culinary scene is very creative and absolutely stunning, but, restaurants are very expensive, too. I would say, prices are equal to New York in the meantime. Social contrasts are growing, too: lots of homeless people on the streets.

Exploring the Last Frontier

Thursday was "Adventure Day" - participants of the tourism congress were invited to choose one of several day excursions and we had picked the "Taste of Anchorage (culinary) Tour", which was a good choice. From New Sagayas Town Market (see pic) - a predominantly Asian market with its own bakery and a spectacular seafood department with water tanks to keep crabs, oysters, mussels and such fresh - we continued to Modern Dwellers Chocolate Shop (pics), where they were offering hot chocolate samples. They produce their own truffles and chocolates, among them one with ground smoked salmon, big deal, but actually, you didn't really taste the salmon.


Highlight of the tour was the South Restaurant for a demonstration of breaking up, cutting and preparing different kind of salmon in their modern show kitchen. The two fish they prepared were King (Chinook) Salmon (left pic) and Silver (Koho) Salmon (right pic), the first one larger, higher in fat, with softer, pinkish meat and (in our opinion) more intensive in taste; the other smaller, leaner, firmer and more reddish in color.

The three chefs de cuisine of the restaurant showed us how to cut up the salmon, how to bone and fillet it, and this was highly interesting! Their knife skills and precision in removing the bones with tweezers was just incredible! On the pic the whole process is shown, including one (last pic) showing both salmons, king and silver, besides each other.
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After working on them, they prepared the fish in two different ways: seared and grilled. Doing so, we were able to compare the two kinds of salmon and the different cooking methods. They served it with three great salads: a Kale Caesar, a Roasted Beet Salad with orange, fennel and goat cheese, and a Tabouleh - all of them delicious! Salmon and salads were paired with a dry light Washington Rosé Wine and followed by dessert. This restaurant is still reasonably priced and they did a great job in promoting themselves.



On by bus to Midnight Sun Brewing Co., one of 26 breweries in Alaska (!), which is an amazing number, considering the approx. 700.000 people living in a huge area. "Midnight" is very creative and offers a broad variety of different brews, like the "Fallen Angel" (Belgium Ale) or the Alpenglow (a wheat beer). We tasted a couple of them after a tour with the "beer ambassador" , a striking lady with blue hair. Especially loved the Triple Dark IPA and the Bock! We had no idea, how many breweries there are in Alaska and how good the beers are they produce. BTW: A rule in Alaska is: no light beers, we wanna get the real deal: 5 % of alcohol and up... It's dark and cold a lot anyway, so let's get happy! They are even offering brewery tours - "Swig Tours" - and we met with the guy who is operating them; he was a good source of information.

The Anchorage Distillery, our next stop, is in operation for only one year but they already know how to produce their wodkas, with German equipment, as we got to know. Wished, we would have been able to buy a bottle, but with four more weeks of traveling and a flight tomorrow, we didn't. In the distillery we met with the adventurous young owners, experimenting with different spices and berries in their wodkas and, also, creating new cocktails in their little tasting room. Besides the wodkas they produce some gin and whiskey, too.

Last stop was the Lakefront Hotel, where they served us hot soup and appetizers with Irish Coffee outside on their patio with fire pits and a great view towards the lake with little planes landing and starting on the still frozen lake. Lucky us, have stayed here for three days at the beginning of our trip, a week ago. At about 45 deg. F. outside, we didn't need our winter coats anymore!


Strangely, most of the innovative places we were visiting were situated in Midtown Anchorage, in mostly unremarkable strip malls. Nevertheless, we got to know that Anchorage really has a fantastic culinary scene and great breweries! We've had a good time in Alaska and now just wish to be back once in summer!

All Aboard!

After two days in the conference center with appointments all day, the Farewell Dinner of the Go West Summit took place on a train. At 5 pm we were picked up and all loaded on a special train of Alaska Railroad at the local Railroad Station.
Usually the train runs between Seward (South), Anchorage and Fairbanks as the northen-most station. We were on the train for about three hours and besides appetizers and drinks being served, there was live music and animal "characters" (bears, beavers, moose...) for photo opportunities. Unfortunately it got dark a little after 6 pm and we didn't see much anymore. In addition, it got a bit loud and hysterical on the train after a couple of drinks... Nevertheless, what a great effort all the local tourism and train people put into this event and how great they handled this big amount of people!

Play hard, work hard

Monday we moved from the Hilton to the congress hotel, the Captain Cook (see pic), only a couple of blocks away. City of Anchorage isn't really big. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the room before 3 pm, regular check-in time, and therefore explored the city a little more - unsuccessfully looking for a drug store. Caused by the constant melting and freezing, a little snow and some rain, the walkways were icy and slippery, but, again, Alaska didn't live up to its reputation to be cold. Finally, we got a nice corner room on the 11th floor with quite a view towards the harbor and the mountains; at least it was worth waiting for a room on the upper floors!

Out again at 5 pm to catch the shuttle to the Alaska Native Heritage Center (pics ANHC), where the Go West Summit Welcome Dinner took place. Food was served buffet-style inside the museum and outside - more authentic native food like salmon or soups at tables outside with little firepits adjacent. Wished we would have had more time (and daylight) to visit this highly instructive cultural center, partly museum, partly outdoors village with native dwellings and demonstrations like dances.

We talked to some of the Alaska Native people who were present in the center for the event and learned a lot about the different Northern tribes and its destinction from the tribes in the "Lower 48" (refering to the 48 States further South, having gained statehood earlier than Alaska). Five distinct geographic regions of Alaska – Aleuts, Northern Eskimos (Inupiat), Southern Eskimos (Yuit), Athabascans (interior Alaska) and Southeast Coastal Indians (Tlingit and Haida) shaped the vast land up North. These groups are based on cultural and linguistic similarities of peoples, and more than 20 languages are spoken among Alaska Native people. Got to know a lot about their lifestyles in the past and nowadays, that they don’t have „reservations““ but "communities" and "corporations", that gambling and lottery aren’t allowed in Alaska, that polar bears, whales and seales were main source of nutrition for the natives etc. etc.

Tuesday the tourism conference started at 8 am with appointments all day until 5 pm. "Buyers" - the 16 journalists from all over the world are part of them - were sitting at tables receiving "suppliers", offering their products, either destinations hotels, tours, attractions etc. Alaska attracted a record crowd of about 600 people in its modern new conference center (see pic) this year for Go West.

Back to the hotel at 5:30 pm, dress-down to jeans and comfortable shoes, on to the Colorado Reception in the hotel, with a buffet and drinks, but, unfortunately, without the usual "goodies" from Colorado. First day of congress is over ... tired.

Rain in Alaska

The last two days we had rain in abundance, combined with temps of about 40+ deg. F. After an excellent breakfast in South Restaurant in Anchorage on Saturday - a fancy new place with cooking demonstrations and a great bar - we drove south on Seward Highway along an inlet called "Turnagain Arm" towards Glacier Valley. It was a wonderful scenic drive, mountains on the left side, water and little icebergs on the right. Fortunatey, it was still partly sunny in the morning with fascinating clouds and light reflections. On the way, our bus driver also showed us the the damage of the big earthquake on Good Friday, March 27, 1964 - the most powerful recorded earthquake in North American history. It was devastating and had caused a seismic shift which is still partially visible today.

At the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center we got a tour and watched brown bears, raindeer (cariboos), bald eagles, lynx, mountain bison, musk oxes and other animals which were rescued for some reason and brought into the center. AWCC takes injured and orphaned animals and those that cannot be released into the wild are given a permanent home at the center. It had started to snow hard in the meantime.

On to the little mining town of Girdwood (40 mi south of Anchorage), to the Hotel Alyeska, a 4-star-ski resort on sea level with its own air tram up to the mountain. In 1954 Girdwood had become the land base for a major ski area and thanks to a French Baron by name Francois de Gunzburg, who installed a Poma chairlift, built ski trails and a day lodge. Today, it's a very popular destination for skiers, snow boarders and for other fancy wintersports like heli-skiing and cat-skiing.

In the meantime it had begun to snow hard and since rooms weren't ready yet around noon, we started to hike through the northernmost rain forest, even now, in the winter, appearing very lush and mystical. Unfortunately, trails were so icy that we didn't hike the whole trail but returned to the hotel instead.

On the valley floor, around the hotel, there was almost no snow at all and you had to go really high up to be able to have good snow conditions, but, up there the visibility was apparently horrible and the wind blowing hard as some of the group who skiid reported. That was also the reason, that the planned dinner at Seven Glaciers Mt. Alyeska restaurant - a famous scenic restaurant on top of the mountain - was cancelled: the tram didn't run because of the wind. In the evening the weather had switched to rain out of buckets.

Nevertheless, we had a very good meal at one of the other hotel restaurants with the group and a couple of hotel reps: a smoked scallop bisque, rockfish or beef as an entree, dessert and good wine. The same chef as in the restaurant on top of the mountain had prepared it and though, we missed the view, food was fabulous.

After breakfast in the hotel the group left for a planned snowmobile tour. We were all bundled up and equipped with gear at the outfitter's shop and drove up a little in the company's bus, until our guide got a call that even in higher elevations there is no snow, but rain and ice, and, therefore, the tour was cancelled.


In the pouring rain the bus made a detour to one of the glaciers and drove South, towards Whittier - just stopped in front of the long tunnel (the longest one in the U.S.) to this city, which has no other connection than this road - with the exception of boat and plane. Back then to Anchorage for the Anchorage Museum, lunch first, then time on our own for (another) museum's visit.

At 3:30 pm we had a tour at the King Street Brewery in Midtown Anchorage with the owner, which was very interesting. Great beers, too, especially liked their IPAs! Good thing in Alaska is, that there are quite a few breweries and that they are proud of their brews, which are listed on every restauurant menu. It's much easier to find a brewery in Anchorage than a drug or grocery store! Back in town we check-in at the Hilton Downtown at 5:30 pm, out again at 6 pm for the "Buyers' Reception", an event connected to the tourism conference, again in the Anchorage Museum. Stayed there for a short while before heading on to the Hard Rock Café for our last group dinner. No fish for a change - we have had salmon, halibut and rockfish in the last days - but pork, amazingly good meal. Back at the hotel around 9:30 pm, tired.