I don’t think I’ve ever talked about what a typical Saturday out and about looks like for me.  But a few weekends of sticking close to the house made me realize again how fun it it is to get out in Anchorage and do our “errands”.

We started downtown, as my Mom wanted to pick up this year’s row-by-row kit from Quilted Raven, which is a very Alaska-themed quilt shop downtown.  I think it is more for the tourists than locals, but they do have lovely fabric and kits and notions and so on. She was able to pick one up, and plenty more Alaska-y fabric besides.  Since Quilted Raven is right across the street from Wooly Mammoth, an Alaska themed yarn shop (owned by the same lady), I went over and checked it out for anything new while my Mom fabric shopped.  There was nothing I couldn’t live without for this visit, but I always like to poke my head in and see what’s new.

Then to midtown!  Mom needed new sneakers, so we went to REI.  They were very helpful!  I was a little doubtful when we went in, as they had a young man working the shoe area, but he was super-helpful and very pleasant.  He noticed that she was wearing hand-knit socks!  Then he told us how his mom knits socks for him, but he’s afraid to wear them out, so he only wears them when he is going to see her 🙂  After a successful shoe shopping stop, we visited our fabulous local used book store – Title Wave.  They aren’t as big as Powell’s but they are a pretty good used book store!  They have been a fixture in Anchorage since the early 90’s, and have a LOT of great books.  I didn’t find anything I needed here either on this visit, but it’s always worth a look.

By then it was lunchtime, so we went to Indigo Tea Lounge to check out their new food menu.  They have been around for a while as well.  First they were a small tea break place attached to a modern-style furniture store.  Over the years the furniture store closed, but the tea lounge stayed open and moved from downtown to midtown.  They always did little platters of tiny sandwiches and baked goods as a “high tea”, but recently they cracked and started just doing food along with their extensive tea menu.  We are actually fortunate to have two great tea shops in Anchorage – this place and Summit Spice and Tea.  I like shopping for tea at Summit better, but Indigo is a nicer place to sit and drink tea – and now to eat as well!  DH skipped out and went next door for pizza.  Though later he checked out the new menu and was sorry – they have a pretty tasty looking roast beef sandwich he will try next time we are there. Mom and I both had curried egg salad sandwiches on croissants – they were good!  The egg salad was a little wet, so the sandwiches were really messy to eat, but they were very tasty!  Would definitely have these again.

In the same shopping area we have a Great Harvest bakery, so we took home some bread which we have been enjoying since.  Finally on the way home, we stopped at a Kaladi Brothers Coffee for mochas and some ground coffee.  If I haven’t already raved about Kaladi Brothers, they are one of Anchorage’s local coffee chains, and they have the best coffee ever!  Their Trieste, French Roast and Red Goat blends are really smooth and mellow, with a great coffee taste.  I usually take my coffee black, so Starbucks is like battery acid to me.  Address your arguments in the comments below.

So that’s a roughly typical Saturday out for us.  Sometimes the day out starts at one of our favorite breakfast places, sometimes there’s different shopping, or a trip to a park or local sightseeing place to take a hike. But that’s pretty much it.  What’s your perfect Saturday outing?