For lunch? Well what else but Reindeer Hotdogs (Dave) and a Buffalo burger (me). Both were yummy! After the market we headed to the Alaska Wild Berry store. It was not really that great, but we did get to see the reindeer family (I hope it wasn’t their uncle that Dave ate for lunch). I am sure that Santa will never visit Dave again…..
On to downtown Anchorage, we stopped first at the Alaska Mint which isn’t really a mint but a store that sells commemorative coins and jewelry. The jewelry was very nice - the first ring I looked at was $1000+ I moved quickly away from that counter! But I did find a ring that I really liked and yes, Julie, it is a gold nugget. It is my souvenior from Alaska. Then Dave went to the museum and I did more shopping. I visited the mall, and of course, took a picture of Nordstrom.
Then more gift shops, I think I have now seen every single souvenior of Alaska ever made… The next stop was Ship Creek. It really didn’t look like a creek, it is more of a river that runs right thru downtown Anchorage. On a good fishing day, people line the banks side by side by side by side and fish for Salmon. There were a few fishermen there today, but they didn’t seem to be catching anything.
Later, we went to the Iditarod Dinner Show. There were only 7 of us having dinner which was very cool because Dallas Seevey (I had no idea who he is before tonight, either) ate dinner with us. Dallas is the youngest person to ever participate in the Iditarod . He ran the Iditarod the day after he turned 18 which is the lower age limit for competitors. Since then he has finished 4 Iditarods and is the youngest person to ever finish in the top 10. We had a lot of fun hearing his stories and he answered all of our questions. The Iditarod is 1049 miles long, the top finisher usually does it in about 9 days.
The competitors are not allowed ANY help, they must run the race, care for their dogs maintain their sleds, etc. totally by themselves. They usually run 6 hours and rest 6 hours. The dogs eat dinner (the musher makes them a warm dinner) and then bed down on beds of hay to sleep. The musher checks every dog, takes care of their sore muscles and other injuries. By the time he/she finishes this they are lucky to get 1 to 2 hours of sleep before it is time to race again. The musher starts the race with a team of 16 dogs and must finish with at least 8 dogs still pulling the sled. Mushers plan for this by swapping out dogs at “checkpoints”. They know which dogs they want to keep for the whole race, so they rest those dogs more (they can have one dog on the sled with them while the other dogs run). Slow or injured dogs are left at the checkpoints, cared for by Veterinarians and then shipped back to Anchorage where they will wait for their musher to finish the race. Dallas is hoping to be the youngest person to ever win the Iditarod. He has 4 more years to achieve his goal.
The show after dinner was kind of silly but there were interesting parts where they talked about the dogs and their gear. Many people think that Iditarod dogs are huskies or malmutes. That is because the movies always use these breeds in films about dog sled races. In reality Iditarod dogs are mixed breed dogs who love to pull. It was fun to watch how excited the dogs were - they were hooked up to the sled and they could not contain themselves while they were waiting to run with the sled. One dog (Cessna) pulled a wagon of bricks that weighed 500 lbs - 10 times his weight!
The show ended with a team of 16 dogs pulling a truck about the length of a football field. Amazing!!! The best part of all was afterwards when we got to hold the puppies! We also got to meet the dog who played the lead dog in Snow Dogs. He was so pretty, great blue eyes. Now I am really looking forward to visiting the Seevey’s homestead in Seward where I will get to tour the kennels, ride on a sled pulled by a team of dogs and play with more puppies!
Phew! Busy day! Tomorrow? Wasilla (I’ve heard you can see Russia from there) and Palmer. Maybe some July 4th celebrations along the way!
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