The Alaska Zoo

 Lions, tigers and bears, oh my.  Really we saw tigers and bears, moose and lots more.  Most of the animals were orphaned or injured and could not be reentered into the wild.

 Atlast, a photo of a Dall sheep.  They live so high in the hills that all we see are white dots moving on the mountain side.

 

 Tigers.

 We went to the zoo hoping to see the polar bears and we did.  They swam for us in the morning and then were out of the water in the afternoon. 

Their feet are huge. 

Anchorage

 We headed downtown for Reindeer sausage for lunch.  Garnet is contemplating the choice.  For those who don't know Garnet, she doesn't eat much meat, especially not reindeer.

 She chose a chicken dog.  Nice they had an alternative for her.  The rest of us enjoyed our reindeer sausage.  If it makes you feel better, reindeer are a domesticated breed of the caribou family.  They are raised for meat so it is like eating beef or pork in the sense that no one killed bambi for their lunch.

 Totem poles tell a story.  Gary is by eagle and clam.  The other one the eagle is plucking up the moon and stars.

Fishing in Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage.  We were on a bridge   The water is clear and we could see the salmon swimming up river.  The fisher people would ask where the fish were and cast their line in that direction.  We saw 1 fish caught but it must not have been the right type as it was released.  We did see 2 other successful fishermen each with 1 fish.

Anchorage mile 4508

 These photos show some of the flavor of Anchorage.  We went to Costco to stock up.  First items inside the door had to do with fishing.  Earlier from Soldotna/Kenai I had a photo of people dip net fishing.  Here is what they use.  It comes in 2 pieces, a long handle and the net.  Just beyond this were ice chests and hip waders.

 We went to the weekend market in Anchorage..  Mostly it is tourist souvenirs, but we needed some of that.  The booth to our right was in the same place as when we were here last year (thankfully).  I got the kids a stacking doll set and wanted to get more so they would each have one.   

 We walked through a beautiful park with many flowerbeds, each one color coordinated. 

 Turnagain Arm, part of Cook Inlet.  We could see the Alaska Mountains, but on a clear day they would be much more prominent.

 A result of the 1964 earthquake.  This is near the town of Girdwood.  The land sunk 8-12 feet so now the tree roots are in salt water.  They moved the town up the road about 2 miles.

 Caribou.  We had planned to tour a drive thru Wildlife Conservation Park but it didn't work out with our rigs so this is what we saw from the giftshop parking lot.

Sitka black-tailed deer fawn.

More of Seward

 Lily Pad Lake.  We hoped to see moose but they didn't show up.  Beautiful though even without them.

 Taxi, a bit of the local culture!  It does get your attention.

Went to the aquarium with an aviary.  I am in love with the puffins.  Here are the horned ones. They don't really have horns, just feathers.

 Sea lion

 Harbor seals

 Crested puffin.

Kittiwakes.  I took many many photos but will leave it at this.

Seward

Mt. Marathon.  The idea is that you climb it and come down as fast as possible.  Most people come down on their bottom and the photos show lots of skinned shins.  They have a race every 4th of July with hundreds of entrants.

 Mountain view from the trailer at Renfros Lakeside Retreat  looking over top of the neighbors.

 Seward has many murals painted on the businesses.  We drove around looking for them and photographing many of them.

 Garnet gave me a ribbing about the Huskies

 Mural by Barbara Lavelle, one of Garnets favorite artists.  Called Senior Ball painted on the side of the Senior Center.  We could relate.

Resurrection Bay at Seward.  Mountains all around.  Beautiful

Exit Glacier

Exit Glacier is one of only a few glaciers you can drive to.  Here we are 2 miles from the visitors center.

You can walk a short distance to this vantage point.  They will no longer let you walk right up to the glacier but we were pretty close.

Behind us it the "toe" of the glacier at the left.

Panoramic shot.

Hope you can increase the size of this photo to see how far it has retreated over the past 200 years.

This is Noname glacier from the same vantage point.  A wonderful experience.  This is one of the highlights on our trip.  We are in awesome, beautiful country.  Only God can create something as spectacular.   

Homer, Day 25

 This morning was a great time for a walk on the beach.  We enjoyed the beach, the bluffs and mountains.

 We decided to walk to "the point" ahead.  We walked 3 miles to the point and guess what?  There was another point.  Didn't ever see around the corner.

 A look back the other way to where we came from.

We saw 2 bald eagles eating on the beach.

This afternoon we took a guided tour at the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.  Very interesting and lots of wildflowers.  Decided the kids would like  these photos best.  Gary's finger is next to an ogre ear lichen. 

Turns out Garys camera has a panorama setting.  Too bad I didn't know that earlier, I would have had him take more photos of all the beautiful scenery.  This photo shows the Homer Spit and the town of Homer.  As always, there are mountains in the background.  We drove on Skyline Drive.  Truly named.  There is never a shortage of photo ops.