- 6/5/2011
4/5 stars
I'm glad I found Dark Horse. (Yelp sure doesn't help. Try searching for it by name above…) A wonderful coffee shop feel with good, locally roasted (IIRC) coffee. They were just far enough from my conference to provide a nice after-lunch escape
Friendly baristas with great memories, good coffee, great feel, outdoor seating for the great weather, quick network, good location… And there's a doggie tie-up on the front patio! Yeah, doggies! No one used it while I was there, alas.
- 6/5/2011
5/5 stars
If you're a traveler wanting to make money on your per-diem and still eat really well, come here for lunch. I had a *half* salmon sandwich with a bowl of chili and couldn't keep my eyes open for the afternoon's conference sessions. IIRC, it was maybe $7 for that… Quick, clean, inexpensive, and delicious. Really delicious.
- 6/5/2011
4/5 stars
What a wonderful random stumbling for a visitor. This is where I had my first reindeer sausage, and it benefited from the fun outdoor fair mental bonus. Fresh fried donuts, reindeer sausage, and other yummies on a brisk spring day. Far more than food here, though, with items ranging from chotchkies to neat-looking childrens' books. And one enterprising soul set up a booth selling just fresh (relatively speaking) fruit in an area where it's not plentiful. Great stop after wandering along the Tommy Knowles Coastal Trail.
And yes, Yelp has the location utterly incorrect.
- 6/5/2011
3/5 stars
The halibut and chips is pretty good if a tad spare with the halibut "chunks." The plank salmon on my second (larger) visit was ok. Just ok. Not a whole lot of flavor, which is odd even a bit off-season, and no skin to keep it from gluing to the wood. Humpy's has a good array of taps, including quite a few Alaska brews. The open-mic band had to contend with Thunderdome-on-ice playoffs of some form, but they still managed to belt out classic rock covers. So Humpy's is a quite good denizen of the big, sports-ish bar category, which I readily admit isn't my favorite category.
It is funny, though. When I went places on my own, I tended to get very good service (including here). When I went places with a group of obviously non-local people, well, service tended more towards the "yeah, they're tourists and we'll never see them again" side.
- 6/5/2011
4/5 stars
Ok flat bread, interesting conversation, and a fantastic beer.
As a solo traveler this time, I didn't have much of a wait for a seat at the bar. I ordered a "sausage pizza" that was really a flat bread. Not a bad one taste-wise (mmmm… reindeer…), but the presentation didn't even hide that the sauces were squeezed out of a bottle. And it's not a pizza. I suppose most of the cruise boat crowd doesn't know that flat breads are a good category on their own, so I can't blame the restaurant much.
Which brings me to the conversation. Whoa. Poor 50s+ guy was trapped on his cruise after helping rebuild the banking system in an invaded, war-torn country while dodging IEDs and mortar rounds. That certainly was an interesting conversation. And it was assisted by an *amazing* cask-aged IPA. I intended on trying more than one of their beers, but they couldn't get better, so why?
So really this is a 3-ish star food review being bumped up by a great experience and a great beer.
Side Street Espresso
412 G St
Anchorage, AK 99501 USA
(907) 258-9055
- 6/5/2011
4/5 stars
A great stop for coffee between my B&B and the conference I was attending. They were pretty quick during my early visits, serving Kaladi coffee (IIRC) without the questionable information. Nice general feel even though I didn't have much chance to sit down and enjoy it. I'm pretty sure they're cash-only, but their far-lower-than-travelling-ATM-fees prices made that a non-issue for me.
They also had a dwindling supply of the Alaska Quarterly Review … I helped shrink it to their last copy, and I definitely recommend reading the AQR. Good mix of writing from all over with enough Alaska writers to keep its own character. Side Street also were hosting the finalist photos from an Alaskan photography competition, which made it an even better stop for this visitor.
I finally returned to futzing with my bricked Dockstars. Still receiving mostly garbage over the UART with occasional snippets of kernel output. So I try the self-test, and see…
...
VPU(0.00) FAIL
3.3V(3.32) OK
ADC(0.00) FAIL
...
Bus Hi-Z 1
MOSI FAIL
CLK FAIL
MISO FAIL
CS FAIL
Drat. Those last few failures seem relevant. MOSI/MISO are TX/RX for the UART. This was a SparkFun version I picked up using SparkFun’s yearly giveaway, not an original Bus Pirate. I might have to pick up a real one, maybe next month. Still want to use the low-power Dockstars for most server-ish tasks at home, particularly with the summer power bills.
Edit: Ok, I forgot to put the jumpers cross the voltage sources, so it makes sense that the above failed. So much for the easy answer. Back to poking at the UART sometime.
- 6/7/2011
5/5 stars
W00T! I stayed between Earth and Mars!
Yeah, I love this type of thing. The planet walk is a scale model of the solar system. The Sun is at 5th and G, and the estimated walking time to each planet is the same as the average time for light to reach that planet. Earth is about eight minutes away (1 AU), a little over 40 minutes to reach Jupiter (around 5.2 AU) down the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, all the way to about 320 minutes to reach Pluto (around 39.5 AU). Yes, this was built when Pluto was considered a planet officially.
The Sun is tiled, half-exposed on a pedestal. I see the potential for neat winter-ish art projects, but I likely underestimate the insane coldness of an Alaskan winter.
I only made it to Jupiter on foot, but there are plenty of bike rentals around for the full interplanetary tour. Jupiter is located down the trail at a beautiful lagoon area with an observation deck illustrated with salmon… I was there too early in the year, but I'm guessing salmon swim into the lagoon. That'd be neat. The salmon of Jupiter. Almost sounds like a Dr. Who episode except delicious. (No fishing around that lagoon, though.)
- 6/19/2011
5/5 stars
I only walked a small part of the trail, from Elderberry Park to Margaret Egan Sullivan Park. My first morning in Anchorage, and it was a little cool out. Spring had only just reached here. Green was pushing out of every tree and bush. The tide was out, and birds were searching for their breakfasts. Wonderful.
Honda Accurate Automotive Service
2163 Piedmont Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30324 USA
(404) 873-6425
- 6/19/2011
1/5 stars
You know, it really sounds like they bust a nut in our wheel well. No remnants have fallen out, but that's the sound of our car after a "tune-up." The most expensive tune-up I've ever had, involving a rental car, mileage dropping by over 10mpg (extra sticky, perhaps?), and the need to see another mechanic. But, as the large sign behind their befuddled receptionist says: "No refunds."
This is the kind of place that makes me wonder why people keep working when they take no pride in their work. The main mechanics' ears now are finely attuned to a noise that garners sympathetic looks from pedestrians two streets over. It took them quite a long time even to admit that those loud metalic scrapes and constant rattling existed.
And then came the excuses. Oh, the excuses. They wandered such a range that I expected to hear of cloud formations, bird droppings, and tea leaves. But never fear, every anonymous Honda expert in Atlanta dropped whatever they were doing to come to this garage and check our car. That I let this assertion pass doesn't mean I'm gullible, it means I already don't believe anything you say. This was over the phone. The mechanic wasn't around when I picked up my car. I'm guessing the mechanic was among the crowd checking a younger lady's emissions.
Of course they couldn't find any problem, and of course the car would be completely fine for ever and ever. Otherwise they'd be on the hook for the rental. Yes, we had to rent a car for a trip because of their tune-up. A separate mechanic heard our car and told us there was no way he'd take that on any long drive.
No refunds? Yes, that's Accurate.
- 6/19/2011
4/5 stars
Midnight Sun was a fresh oasis close to my conference's hotel. Inexpensive, quick, and surprisingly good. The beef and barley soup was rich but not salty. My turkey and cranberry sandwich was a little light on the cranberry but otherwise great. Plus inexpensive. If I had found this place earlier, I likely would have explored less during lunch.
Sheraton Anchorage Hotel & Spa
401 East 6th Avenue
Anchorage, AK 99501 USA
(907) 276-8700
- 6/19/2011
2/5 stars
I stayed elsewhere and can't speak to the rooms, but the conference facilities… Ok, not the facilities. Those were fine. But the management of those facilities definitely made our conference a bit more painful than necessary. Consider a hall of 500-ish hungry people. Now set up dinner that's made one-by-one in front of each person, requiring at least a minute each… How many stations will you need to serve the 500 people? If you're the Sheraton: three. Many people left and ate elsewhere. Similar scenes and undercutting occurred throughout.