Playing tour guide, a great excuse to see The Great Land

One of my favorite activities during the summertime in Alaska is playing tour guide. My least-favorite activities is cleaning up the house before they arrive -- but that's another story.

This week, my niece and her fiancée are coming to spend a few days in Anchorage. It is not her first trip -- so we're putting some special touches in the itinerary to make it special.

It's great that the things we enjoy every day are nothing short of spectacular for visitors: moose in the backyard, the glorious Chugach Mountains in the background or all those float planes at Lake Hood.

And one of the benefits of having visitors is it prompts you to get out and see more of the Great Land. Here are some of my favorite activities -- right here in the neighborhood:

Anchorage highlights

Like most of our visitors, my guests are arriving in the dead of night. So I'm going to let them sleep in, then jolt them awake with some extra-strong espresso down at Kaladi Brothers. Then, it's off to the Alaska Native Heritage Center. I've warned them to budget about two hours for the visit -- although I know they will want to stay longer. Everybody always does!

On our way back downtown, we'll stop for a walkthrough of the Alaska Botanical Gardens near the Muldoon/Tudor curve. My niece is a bunny-hugger from Oregon and loves all things green.

Truth is, I'm looking forward to an up-close visit at the Anchorage Museum. The new Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, the Planetarium and the wartime history displays -- they've done a great job on the renovation. We'll probably have a late lunch at "Muse," the stand-out restaurant on site run by Jack Amon (of Marx Bros. fame).

Because I'm an airplane nut, we might take another morning to sit out on the deck at the Millennium Hotel to watch the planes land. Then, we'll go over to the Aviation Heritage Museum

to check out all the old Alaska planes they have on display. We'll fill in the blanks with a ride on the coastal trail, a hike to Flat Top and a trip to Moose's Tooth for pizza and beer!

 

Seward Highway

There's so much to do on this route: it's the gateway to the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound. But we're pinpointing a couple of activities, including a train trip from Portage up to Spencer Glacier. My friends at the Alaska Railroad have bragged about this trip for a long time -- so I'm anxious to hike around. You also can take a float trip or a canoe trip once you're up there. We'll probably hike around on our own -- it's a great way to get off the road system and work up an appetite. Afterwards, we'll stop in Girdwood for a ride up the tram (depending on the weather). Afterwards -- more pizza and beer at Chair 5.