Stitchin' Therapy

I headed to the grocery store this morning and grabbed a jacket out of habit, I guess.  Ugh! The humidity hit me in the face....you are not in Alaska now.  There is very little humidity there,  and the spring days warmed very quickly to comfortable temperatures. 

We stayed in the historic Anchorage Hotel on E Street the first 3 nights.  It was right downtown and within walking distance to the market and train station.  So that was great planning, Deana.  The first night was strange...lots of noise, clomping steps and voices in the hall.  Trey said he heard children running in the hallway too.  The next morning Deana checked and found out there were no children staying there.  Supposedly this hotel has a few haunts.  Could be because the next 2 nights were very quiet, and yet there were more guests.

 It originally was a rooming house for gold miners, and part of it  was destroyed by the earthquake in 1964.  I loved the "air conditioner" in our room, too!  Right next door was Grizzley's gift shop, very aptly named.   They wheeled him out every day and took him in at night. Or actually when they closed.  There is not a lot of night  right now in Alaska, only about 3 hours or so.  By 5 or 5:30 am it was quite bright outside.  And it is still daylight at 10 pm. 

The Anchorage weekend market opened about 10 am.  I was ready to go about 2 hours before that.  The market is open air and they begin setting up about 7 am.  It was fun to watch the trucks pull in and set up all the tents and such in such a short time.   In the photo the market is on the left...and you can see the mountains surrounding the city.  There were all types of crafts and artisans there.  I met a flute maker and he even played one for us.  And a native carver, who is passing on the family business to his young son.  They do carvings in soapstone and antlers.  Just amazing.  I bought a spirit face carved out of cottonwood, which is abundant there. We also found buttons cut from antlers.  Just had to have a couple for an art project for this trip.

So while we browsed and shopped, Trey ate his way through the market.  Reindeer sausages, lemonades, corn fritters (which I had to have because they were delicious) and I'm not sure what else.  I  loved all the street signs set up to mark the intersections.    And that was just the morning.....afternoon was the quilt shop, The Quilted Raven.  I'll save that for tomorrow's post.