Anchorage trip

Last weekend I went to Anchorage. A friend was getting a big promotion at work and I went down to celebrate with him and his family (because this is a public blog, I won't post any pictures of the promotion ceremony, as the pictures would show his name, and where he worked. That seems like too much personal information to put on a public blog post). It was great to be there to share in a such important event with some wonderful people. It was also great to be in civilization again! Long time readers will be shocked to read that I spent 4 days in Anchorage and didn't step foot in Target. I was just too busy having fun with great friends. On one of the days we headed to the Wildlife Conservation Center. This is hands down my favourite place to visit in Anchorage. If you ever find yourself in Anchorage, make sure you visit this place. You won't regret it!

Because it is winter, we thought that the bears would be hibernating. The bear cub and the black bears were sleeping in their dens, but much to our surprise, the brown bears were out and about. A worker told us that the bears will sleep through most of the winter, but that they will wake up for a couple days here and there. We got lucky and caught them on a day they were awake and out playing. One bear had some fun playing with a chunk of ice.

We even spotted a couple of wild eagles in the trees above the wolf enclosure! It doesn't matter how many times I see an eagle, I still get excited. It never gets old.

World Ice Art Championships

The World Ice Art Championships are held here over a four week period every March. The last ice sculpture event we attended had us out in -13*F (-25*C) weather so I wanted to wait until it was warmish before venturing out to see the sculptures. It took a couple of weeks, but thankfully the weather finally complied. It was a beautiful, sunny 17*F (-8*C) today. The sculptures were amazing. The ice was so clear you could see through it. I am in awe of the talent of the ice carvers. I can barely cut meat, let alone carve something out of blocks of ice.

 A tribute to David Bowie

 

Finally, a peacock that won't chase me! 

 If you look closely at this one, you can see the snake's tongue reaching out for the bird.

 Some of the sculptures were dark and terrifying, like this Grim Reaper one. 

My favourite was The Mad Hatter's Tea Party. The detail was so precise, from the teacups to the Cheshire Cat to the mushroom. 

It's not every day you get to put your head inside a hippo's mouth. 

2017 Iditarod

The Iditarod normally starts in Anchorage every year, but this year there wasn't enough snow along part of the route from Anchorage to Nome so they moved the official start to Fairbanks. What's that? More sled dogging? Yes please! When we ventured out it was hovering right around -30*F (-34*C). We had discussed going to the actual starting line, but that involved parking and taking a shuttle bus and standing outside for hours in the cold. Ummm...pass. Instead we parked at a church right along the river and about 3 miles down from the starting line. We sat in our car for 2.5 hours, leaving it running to keep us warm. The church was open and provided hot chocolate, cookies, and bathroom facilities, as well as a place to warm up if you didn't want to sit in your car.  At the start time, the temperature had risen to -16*F (-27*C). We headed from the parking lot to the river to watch the teams come by. This was much better than the Yukon Quest because the teams came by minutes apart, rather than hours or days apart. We watched about 1/3 of the teams go by before we decided to call it a day on account of not being able to feel our toes anymore.

*Warning: picture overload*

The straw is for the dogs to bed down on. 

Pink booties! 

There was a group of young kids, probably a daycare or preschool, cheering the teams on. Their teachers set up these signs. Every time a team went by the kids chanted "Go dogs go!"