Day 12: The last day..Anchorage

The last day of our vacation, we slept in, and then decided to go to the Alaska Zoo instead of the Alaskan Native Heritage Center. My mother chose, and I'm glad she did, only because I hadn't seen Dall Sheep on any parts of our vacation, and I'd really wanted to. It was also cheaper than the Native Heritage Center, costing only $10 for the both of us, due to the Toursaver, which we used on almost everything on our vacation.

The Zoo was like any other Zoo really..except I got to see the Dall Sheep.





There were also Polar Bears:





A baby Arctic Fox, An old Amur Tiger, a Snow Leopard, and Coyotes:





Brown Bear:





Maggie the Elephant, who is moving to probably San Andreas, California.





Things that weren't caged..

A bee on a flower:





And Squirrels (Why do they always seem to be eating?):





I wish we could've seen the Wolverine, but it was, or they were hiding.

When we were done there, we decided to head over to the airport slightly early so we could drop off the rental and find our gate.

The plane was about an hour delayed, which wasn't a big deal since it didn't effect our flight schedule. I took a few pictures on the plane, but I didn't have the window seat, so I didn't want to be rude.

The view from above made me wish I didn't have to leave..it was really an amazing place to visit, and I know I must return one day. I didn't see enough.





We made it to Seattle, and it was already starting to get dark. I'll really miss the long days of Alaska. I guess I can be happy to know that they don't last forever..going back some time in the winter does seem like a possibility though.

Day 11: Seward

Since we had planned on Deep Sea Fishing today, the day was sporadically planned. We still headed to Seward.





First we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center, where I enjoyed watching the birds, octopus, sea lions, and seals.






And this isn't a seagull, in case you thought it may be. It's a Red-Legged Kittiwake. There's an interesting story here because the very first Kittiwake Chick born captive, was born here.





I just loved the puffin (2nd and 3rd pictures), he was so cute, and kept looking like he wanted to jump on my shoulder or something. The lady telling us about him had to hold him back a little with a clipboard. She put it in front of him so he wouldn't come visit. She said he was very personable.





I also touched a star fish, and something else which was weird and sticky and pulled away after I pulled away.





When that was done, we went over to the Ididaride Dog Sled Tour, which we had planned on doing the day before. We were an hour and a half early, so we had lunch and caught up with journal writing.

When the tour finally started, we were told about the Iditarod and the dogs for a bit, then taken to the summer dog sled ride. We had the middle section, of 3 sections. Each "buggy" carried 6 people, plus the dog musher on the back. They pulled us for a mile through trees. It was really quite humorous to watch them because they weren't dog sled dogs, they were still in training. They weren't puppies, but they weren't big. They were all very excited to be running. The only two who were older (2 years and 3 years) were the lead dogs, which are the most important dogs, since they are the ones the others follow. If they run, everyone runs, if they stop, everyone stops, and also quite importantly, if they go right, they all go right, etc.





We had been split into two groups to go on these rides, so when we got to a mile point, and we'd stopped, the other group met up with us. We got off the "summer dog sleds" for a little while, and were allowed to pet the dogs. They were all slobbering, so I decided against it, and took pictures instead.





They were getting ready to go again and started jumping and barking excitedely, so the guy said we should get back on. We all got back on, and he released the break. While riding back, he released the break all of the way for a short amount of time so that we could see some speed through the forest. It was quite fun..but I imagine they go much faster when racing, and they'd have a lot less weight to pull too.

After going back the mile to the kennels, we were brought through a wall to another part of the dog sled tour..none of this was inside a building, it was more like being brought through a castle gate. On the other side were the puppies and young dogs, as well as a seating area to the right. We were told to follow the guy past the puppies (which saddened everyone), and we sat down to watch a small film. It was a very cheesy video about the Itidarod.

Then we were introduced to "Tread", who was a dog sled champion, but now retired. He didn't look thrilled to be there, and everyone laughing at him made him look even more sad. Oh well..after spending a bit of time there talking with that guy about Tread, and the winning sled on the stage, we went over to see the puppies. They were only 8 days old and hadn't even opened their eyes yet. They were very cute..I took a picture of my mother with one, though she didn't like the picture. Luckily I had taken another one which didn't show her face, so I can share it, heh.





After the little puppies, we saw the more grown pups, and were able to go into the fenced in area with them.





When the tour was over, we were very close to Exit Glacier, a glacier that you can hike up to for free, and it isn't a long hike, so we went there. We walked up to the overlook because the bottom was unreachable due to flooding. I guess people were able to touch the glacier before, but it's receded and it's not safe to go that close to it anymore.

It was a nice view of it anyway, and we weren't too far from it. It was extremely windy when we reached the top though, and cold, so I had to put on my jacket. At least we didn't get stuck in any rain though.





The rain started on the way back to Anchorage. That's where the photo adventure ends though..then we did normal things that aren't worth taking pictures of, like eating and doing last minute tourist shopping. This was to be our last night in Alaska..very sad.

Day 10: Cooper Landing and Homer

This is around the time you get sad, because you know your vacation is coming to an end, but you don't want it to. We had decided on the Ididaride Dog Sled Tour, and a 2-Hour Scenic Float Trip today. We'd seen enough dog sled demonstrations, but this one offered you a ride on one, so we thought that'd be fun.

We started to head to Sterling, which I thought was 5 miles away.. we drove for awhile though, and didn't see anything, except we did pass a car that was stopped in the middle of the road practically, looking at a bear. After driving for awhile, I thought maybe I'd been going the wrong way, because I hadn't hit Sterling. We drove back to a store and I asked a guy there, who said it was 25 miles away. The tour started soon, so I called and said I was lost. Then I find out that the Sterling tours ended 2 weeks ago, now they only have the dog sled tours in Seward still going on. I cancelled the reservation, and we decided we'd drive back down the road to see the bear again.

We parked about half a mile away from the bear (where it was safe to park), and walked alongside the road until we got to the opening. The bear was still there, so we took some pictures quickly, and then left carefully. It was still far from the road, but we didn't want to take any chances.





When we were done viewing the bear, we still had over an hour until our next tour, so we went back to the Sunrise Inn for a bit.

We left a little early again, thinking they'd probably have a gift shop to browse around while waiting (as everyone seemed to have). We get there and the sign on the door says "on shuttle, will be back soon". Since we were early, we didn't care. We walked over to a place which had gold panning equipment outside, and then a little store next to it.

We went in and talked to the owner of the store for awhile. He told us how the area was getting over-populated with bear, and how he was in his store the other day when he heard his freezer out back smashing into the wall. He went out to look and didn't see anything, it was dark, so he came back in, and then he realized there was a bear on the side of the store, knocking it a little.

He also said there were more animals that used to live there, but the bears ate most of them. There are a lot of fish around the Kenai Peninsula, so the bear eat those a lot. He said he fishes near them sometimes, but he has never had any problems. He carries a gun with him, and he would defend himself if he had to. Once he almost had an issue, but the bear backed down..

It's always more interesting to me to hear these stories from the locals themselves, rather than hear facts about the area from tour guides, most who are only seasonal workers. It was time for our tour, so we left the store and went back to the place to check in. When we talked with that guy though, he said he wasn't doing anymore rafting tours that year and it must be another place, but there were a lot nearby.

I went back to the car and looked at the paperwork and found the milepost to look for. We found it, and were right on time luckily. I was glad to have stopped at the wrong place though, only to have spoken with the store owner, and to buy a few things from him.

The 2 hour float would take us down a part of the Upper Kenai River, known for it's fishing. The tour was by Alaskan Wildland Adventures, for $49 a piece, and the tour guide said it was her last run of the season. She was happy because it was just the two of us, and that made it easier on her to paddle around. Also, she didn't have to do some other job, which seemed more difficult and not as fun haha.

The float was very peaceful, and became dull near the end. I guess being young, I like more excitement. The highlight of the trip, was seeing a bald eagle up pretty close. It flew by us and landed in a tree, and I was able to take pictures of it that came out pretty well for being in a raft.





After the eagle, we started seeing a lot of fisherman.





Apparently there would be more a few weeks later, when the Silver Salmon came out. Right now there were a lot of Sockeye's, aka "Zombie Fish" because they go up stream and starve themselves to death. While they're dying, they can start to decay and still be alive. They also can lose there senses that keep them from swimming at the right depth, so sometimes you see them swimming along the surface.





When our float ended, they shuttled us back, and we passed the bear site we'd seen earlier. This time we noticed cubs with the grizzly bear. They weren't visible when we had gone earlier.

When I got back to the car, I checked my phone and a message for Aurora Charters said the Deep Sea Fishing tour was cancelled tomorrow due to gale force winds. We were both disappointed because we'd never done that before. Since we didn't have to wake up early, we decided to drive to Homer. Some people said it was worth it, others said it wasn't worth it, so we decided we'd see for ourselves.

It was a nice drive to Homer, but long.





By the time we arrived, almost everything had closed. We went to the very end of the spit, and took pictures.





We stopped at the Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center, which was closed, but they had a trail to hike, so we decided to check it out. We didn't walk that far, but we made it to the ocean and took some pictures before heading back out.





We stopped one last time at a viewing area up high, that we had passed right before coming into the Homer area. It's a nice viewing area of the whole spit.





The sun was starting to go down while we left..of course that takes forever in Alaska, which is very nice. We continued all the way back to Soldotna, and then my mother wanted to stop at Dairy Queen, so we did. Then she wanted to stop to take a picture of the sunset, so I pulled off the road and we did.





Not more to say about that, except that we drove back to the Sunrise Inn and
worked out what we'd do the next day, since we wouldn't be deep-sea fishing.