Our 49th State, My 50th

The final frontier for me was our biggest state.  When I started the blog seven years ago, I had been to 21 states (and four of those had been added less than a year before I started the blog).  I had been sitting on 49 states for more than two years after visiting South Carolina.  I have wanted to go to Alaska for a long time.  I had my eye on the Alaska Baseball League.  It’s a league for college players to play in during the summer.  The event that I was interested in was the Midnight Sun Game played in Fairbanks the day of the summer solstice.  The problem was that I’m usually not out of school by the time of the summer solstice.  But this year, not having any snow days worked out well for me.  I was done on June 19.  I ended up not going to Fairbanks for the Midnight Sun Game for a few reasons.  I wanted to combine this trip with Oakland and getting to Fairbanks on June 21 would have meant going to Oakland on June 20.  But I didn’t feel like going away on the first day of summer vacation.  The NBA Draft was June 20 and I wanted to watch.  And going to Fairbanks would have been significantly more expensive than going to Anchorage.  Also it turned out that Anchorage had a summer solstice doubleheader on June 22 (which was the day after the actual summer solstice).

I got to Anchorage around 7:00 on June 22.  The doubleheader started at 8:00.  So after checking into my hotel, I walked to Mulcahy Stadium.  I got there shortly after the first game started.  I watched an inning and then went to buy food and a beer.  I got a hot dog, which was very good, but unfortunately they only had yellow mustard.  I went to get a beer and the good news and bad news was that the guy asked for my ID.  I didn’t have it.  I called my hotel and fortunately the guy at the front desk still had it.  So I walked back to my hotel to get my ID and then went back to the game (of course, if you leave your ID in the car when you go to a Yankee game, they’re not letting you leave the stadium to get it and then come back in).  Besides getting to all 50 states, I wanted to drink a beer from each one.  I’m pretty sure I have seen beer from Alaska when I’ve been out west, but as far as I know, I still hadn’t had one before going to Alaska.  So I made it official with a Midnight Sun Wolf Pack IPA.  It was pretty solid.  I watched the Anchorage Glacier Pilots defeat the Matsu Miners in the first game.  The Glacier Pilots have home uniforms that are kind of a cross between the Dodgers and the Hank Aaron Era Atlanta Braves.  The second game started at 10:35.  The sun didn’t set until 11:41.  I was really tired so I waited until after the sun set and then I left.  Even though the sun had set, it was still very bright.  They did turn the lights on though (apparently they never turn them on at the Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks).  The sun was below the horizon for about four and a half hours at night, but it never seemed to get totally dark.

50 states and a beer from each one.

This was first pitch of the second game at 10:35.

I took this picture at 11:43, two minutes after sunset.

Anchorage has two teams in the Alaska Baseball League (by the way, the Fairbanks team is no longer part of the league, they seem to be an independent team, my guess is that it was because of high travel costs because Fairbanks is pretty far away from the other teams in the league).  Besides the Glacier Pilots, Anchorage also has the Bucs.  They both play in Mulcahy Stadium and I saw the Bucs as the home team against the Glacier Pilots on my second day in Alaska.  The two teams operate different concession stands in the stadium and have different food/beer selections.  The hot dog for the Bucs was 50 cents more, but it was much bigger (although not quite as good).  My guess is that they have different concessions and food for inventory purposes (each team buys and sells its own food and keeps the profit for themselves).  At the Bucs game I had an Alaskan Amber Ale.  I had some good beer in Alaska and that was probably my favorite one.  As for Mulcahy Stadium, it reminded me a little of Doubleday Field in Cooperstown.  It’s not really fair to compare it to any of the minor league stadiums that I’ve been to.

On Sunday, I went to mass at Holy Family Cathedral.  I did not realize that Pope John Paul II had been there in 1981.  I recalled that John Paul II had met with Ronald Reagan in Alaska, but I googled it and that happened in Fairbanks in 1984.  It seems that both of his visits to Alaska were quick stops while traveling between the Vatican and the Far East.  Besides visiting the Cathedral, there was a mass in Delaney Park in Anchorage.  I found a memorial commemorating the event.  That was the largest gathering of people in the history of Alaska.  The cathedral was smaller than any Long Island Catholic church that I can think of.  Also, Anchorage is a moderately sized city with around 300,000 people.  Alaska does not have other big cities.  In land area, Alaska is more than 12 times the size of New York, but if you could move Hicksville from Long Island to Alaska, it would be the second biggest city in the state.

One of my favorite people in history.

I saw some amazing scenery in Alaska, but unfortunately it wasn’t as nice as it could have been.  Denali is the tallest mountain on land in the world (yes, Mt. Everest has a higher altitude, but if we’re going base to summit, Denali is the tallest) and there are some spots where it is supposedly visible from Anchorage on a clear day.  I tried to see it from a couple of places, but I had no luck.  I found out later on that it was because of smoke from forest fires that had been going on since early June.  One of the coolest parts of my trip was taking a bus down to Portage Lake to do a little cruise of the lake to see a glacier.  The drive is mostly along the water of the Turnagain Arm.  Across the water is the Kenai Peninsula with lots of mountains.  Unfortunately the smoke prevented much better views.  On the lake, you see lots of waterfalls created by snow melting in the mountains.  You get up pretty close to the glacier so that was cool.  The lake is in the Chugach National Forest, which is the second biggest national forest in the country (the biggest is the Tongass National Forest, also in Alaska).  I just hope Notre Dame doesn’t decide to play a Shamrock Series game there because it was quite windy and Brian Kelly would have a game plan calling for 50+ passes.  After the glacier cruise, the bus took us to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  I saw bears, moose, reindeer, bison, and other animals.  So that was pretty cool too.

It was low 60s-mid 70s in Anchorage, but it was much colder and windier on Portage Lake.

Portage Glacier

Alaska has a solid state flag.

I was much farther away from the bear than this picture would make it seem.  Also, there was an electric fence between us.

I got my best views of the mountains from the plane.

I got to some good food spots.  The first one I went to was another Man vs. Food spot, Humpy’s Alaskan Ale House.  That’s where Adam had his challenge.  I was just there for breakfast.  I had scrambled eggs with reindeer sausage.  Another stop was the Moose’s Tooth Bar.  I will usually refuse to eat pizza outside of the Pizza Belt (approximately New Jersey to Rhode Island), but somebody named this place the third best pizzeria in the country in 2015 (behind Juliana’s in Brooklyn and a place in Florida) so I gave it a try.  I got myself a small macaroni and cheese pizza with reindeer sausage.  I have a place by me that makes a very good macaroni and cheese pizza and this was right up there with it.  I liked the addition of meat.  Really it could have been just about any kind of meat that would have added something nice.  Reindeer meat was readily available in Alaska.  It was fine, but it’s not like I’m going to wish I could have it again.  They served beer from the Broken Tooth Brewery.  I had a Pipeline Stout, which was pretty good.

I would have been interested to try other pizzas, but this one was very good.

On my last day in Alaska, I had two things I wanted to do.  First was go to the Anchorage Museum, which was pretty good.  The first exhibit I saw was on food in Alaska.  They had a thing comparing the cost of food in different places in Alaska to Seattle.  Doritos cost about $7.50 per bag in Anchorage and Fairbanks.  In one of the places shown, a six-pack of Coke was around $12.  It makes sense because of shipping costs.  I remember in Australia the food was pretty expensive, but when I was going places to eat in Alaska, the prices really didn’t seem crazy (maybe a little high, but not crazy).  And the other thing I wanted to do on my last day was go to the 49th State Brewery.  I might never travel farther north than I did on this trip (I mean, maybe I’ll go to Fairbanks someday, but probably not, Norway would be another possibility to see the birthplace of Knute Rockne).  So if I never travel farther north, the farthest north that I will ever have gone will be the 49th State Brewery.  I had a king salmon burger (I figured I should have salmon in Alaska, I wanted to have crab at some point, but this was pretty much a grilled salmon sandwich, which seemed healthier than any of the crab options I was seeing).  And I had a Baked Blonde as my final Alaskan beer.  There were one or two other options that I might have liked more, but I wanted to go with a different style from the other beers I had during my trip and I ended up liking this one more than I was expecting.

I didn't even realize there was a 49-star flag.  Alaska and Hawaii both became states in 1959, but the new flag takes effect on July 4.  Alaska became a state in January and Hawaii became a state in August.  So the 49-star flag lasted for a year.

This crab was in the Anchorage Museum.

If I saw Alaskan beer out west, I avoided it so that I could drink some for the first time when I finally went to Alaska.  I will not be purposely avoiding it anymore.

I’ll finish up with some maps showing different things about my experiences in the 50 states.  Do not read anything into the colors (I strongly dislike both major political parties these days).  I used more blue as the primary color in most of these maps because the Dodgers wear blue and I strongly dislike many teams that wear red (USC, the Cardinals, Stanford, the Heat, the Diamondbacks, Louisville).

States where I've lived (sort of, I've only lived in New York other than college), states where I haven't

States where I've spent a night, states where I haven't

States where I've seen a sporting event, states where I haven't

States where I've been to mass, states where I haven't (to the best of my knowledge)

I would have thought I had been to mass in more states, but I'm fairly confident that map is accurate.  I've pretty much made a point of going to every state except for Rhode Island (we stopped there when my brothers were visiting colleges in the mid-90s and I've driven or taken the train through it several times since then), Kentucky (I drove through it on the way to and from the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game in 2006), Kansas (I drove from Mickey Mantle's house in Oklahoma north through Kansas on my way to Kansas City in 2014), and South Dakota (after going to Nebraska for the first time, I drove north through South Dakota on my way to Fargo in 2015).  In each state, I spent several hours driving (actually I think I paid attention one time and it only took 39 minutes to drive through Rhode Island) and stopped and did something (although in Kentucky, I think it was only eating at Arby's) so they count.  Minor league baseball games in Kentucky and Kansas are possibilities in the future (Wichita is getting a triple-A team next year).  I can't really think of a reason why I'd go to South Dakota again unless I ever went to Mount Rushmore.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to get to a minor league game later this summer in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.  Oklahoma is another possibility for minor league baseball in the future, especially because the Dodgers have both their double-A and triple-A teams there.  And I will be going to a sporting event in North Carolina this year.  I'll be at the Notre Dame-Duke football game in November.  Wyoming is pretty high on the list of states I'm least likely to get back to (but I would have said that after I went there in 2012 and then I ended up driving through it with Tom in 2017).  But the 50 states are officially done.  It's been three years since I left the country.  A trip to Europe could be my big trip next summer.  We'll see.