What are some fun things to see and do? we'll be there at the end of May. We'll have a rental car, so scenic drives/ nature preserves etc.. are definitely an option.

Any recommendations on the best place in town to pig out on King Crab? THANKS!

Definitely drive down the Seward Highway to Girdwood and Portage, taking your time to soak in the sights.

On the other side of town, drive out to the Eagle River Nature Center. Nice short hikes and gorgeous mountain scenery. Visit Sagaya Market and have a bunch shipped home.

As for king crab, it's not much cheaper or better than most other places, because most of it is caught (and flash frozen) hundreds of miles away from Anchorage.

Request visitor guides. www.anchorage.net and have a copy of THE MILEPOST a necessary reference for Alaska travel. Plenty to see and do.

cool thanks for the info. We'll be in anchorage two nights, before driving south to fish the kenai.

any restaurant reccomendations? I figure that's as close to king crab land as we're gonna get.

Even when King Crab was plentiful, Anchorage was not one of the places you could expect to find it in quantity. While restaurant finfish offerings have improved of late (used to be that if you didn't catch your own, getting decent fish in restaurants was a real hit-and-miss deal) the crab situation is still pretty awful. Not that you can't get it, of course, but don't go looking for bargains or huge supplies.

The King Crab fisheries (mostly in the Bering Sea, some around Kodiak, some around the Aleutian chain) occur from October-December typically, so any product that you'd get at a restaurant in May has been frozen for at least six months. Last year, most of the seasons (vary by sub-species and district) lasted something like 80-100 hours in total, so you can see that scarcity is the name of the game in Kings. Much of the harvest always goes to Japan, where the (breathtaking to me) prices still can attract a market; the portion that ends up in US restaurants, let alone Alaska restaurants, is high-priced and, in some years, frankly not as good as one would like.

The stocks were over-fished badly during years when regulations were weak and harvest projections were not as scientific as now, and the species are still recovering in some areas.

Try the salmon. It's yummy.

Don't miss the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Budget 2-3 hours. GREAT on-site arts/crafts/performances.
Restaurants? Here's a list of my favorites, especially for seafood:
a. Glacier Brewhouse (downtown)
b. Southside Bistro (near Huffman Rd. and Seward Hwy.
c. Simon & Seafort's (downtown).

Really cannot go wrong w/any of these.

I don't know if you're there on a Saturday but we will be and we're headed for the Saturday Market!!

I'll second the recommendation for Glacier Bay Brewhouse!

Gardyloo is VERY correct about the king crab. Salmon is a MUCH better seafood to get in Anchorage, especially when Ship Creek is right by downtown!

King Crab is $14.99/lb at my local market. We got some on sale in AK last year for $10.99 to cook on our own. We didn't find much salmon on the menus in small restaurants in late June last summer. We were told that it was a little too early in the year. We did enjoy halibut in a variety of forms and it was much tastier than what I buy at the supermarket.
I loved the Saturday Public Market. Check when it opens for the season.
If you are in town of Kenai, there's a little family place called Ski-Mos that was great. Your best bet for restaurants will be in Anchorage. We had a small insulated lunch bag which we used to bring frozen smoked salmon back. What a treat for our friends when they were forced to look at all our vacation pics.

I'd also push the fish over the crabs.

If you've been eating most of the farm-raised, meal-fed, color-enhanced salmon that's so popular in the Lower 48, you've find the fresh, wild stuff so much better.

The best is the blackened sockeye at the Double Musky. If you can't get that find a fillet roasted on a cedar plank.

Fresh halibut is an incredibly versatile fish and far better than the frozen stuff. You can get it any way from deep-fried, beer-battered chunks to macadamia-nut crusted.

Also, if you see specials on fresh Alaska spot shrimp, don't pass them up.

Rent a bike downtown and bike along the coastal trail.