Alaskan Tourists

As summer wanes here in the far north and we slowly slip into the darkness of Alaskan winters it is easy to still spot tourists visiting Alaska.

Recently when our friends were visiting we spent one of our day’s downtown at the Saturday Market, 4th Avenue with all of the shops, and our favorite eating place, Phyllis’s Salmon Bake where Apollo and Lisa served us a great meal and everyone had a great time. It was a perfect Alaskan summer day with the sun high overhead, no clouds, and a slight breeze. A truly magnificent day here but it was also funny to observe the tourists all over town.

I have a theory that when people have traveled a long distance to see a new land, they often find themselves a little disoriented. Alaska is outside of most people's realm of familiarity, and travelers wind up overwhelmed with new experiences and information. This inundation of sensory overload and confusion leads to odd decision making.

It is the only explanation I have for people wearing parkas, down vests, Icelandic sweaters and knit caps with ear flaps on a 68 degree, sunny summer day in Anchorage.

The tourists stand out even more when contrasted with Alaskans who generally wear tank tops, shorts and flip flops on the same 68 degree, sunny summer day. It is another observation of the vast differences of people from around the world.

My first spring in Alaska when the temperature was consistently into the high 40’s one of the neighbor’s kids came over to get my youngest daughter to come outside and play with her and the other kids in the neighborhood. They asked her to change into her bathing suit and come out and all of the kids were playing in the lawn sprinkler next door.

They were having a great time but my thoughts kept fading back to my mom’s words in the back of my brain from childhood, “Get out of there before you catch pneumonia!” I guess it is normal here and a few other places on earth for the kids to enjoy ‘summer’. If we waited until the temperature hits 90 degrees like other places “outside” Alaska then the children would never get to play in the sprinkler.

Ice

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