First impression of Anchorage

Streets here are very wide, even just a “lane” in residential community could be four lanes wide. Commercial properties do not have those protruding architectural signatures that you could recognize them from far away. When I was looking for the supermarket, I walked by the blue brick block building without noticing it until I turned around to read the printed name on the brick wall. Sometimes I confuse myself whether I’m in America. By the cleanness and quality of city construction, it’s an American city. But by life style, I feel like in a foreign country. There’re no bar scenes (though I do find a crowded bar/restaurant when I headed into heart of downtown for dinner) or party crowds walking on the street, there’re no convenient stores or coffee shops at street corners, there are very few cars on the wide street. I walked around my B&B that is just outside the downtown for 20 blocks, didn’t even find a place to buy water at 9pm. Except for a group of parents and kids at a public park, I occasionally see a few kids playing in a backyard here and a car pulled into a house there.