Alaska - Day 1!

Yes, we're finally here! After a full day of traveling, we arrived in Anchorage at 11:30 pm, Saturday evening. We had another 2 hours before we could finally settle in to our beds at Steve's dad's in Palmer. Needless to say, we got a bit of a late start this morning!

After breakfast we explored the land around Grandpa Richard's house. We had heard that a moose had taken up residence so we were on the lookout! No moose but lots of evidence! Wasilla Creek runs behind Richard and Teresa's house. I have gotten so used to the lack of mosquitos in our area that the mass numbers of them here had me scratching!

Ironically, we didn't need to come to Alaska to see a moose - on our drive to Seattle yesterday, we encountered a dead one outside of Chelan. That was almost as exciting and seeing the real living thing!

Our afternoon was spent trekking around the Talkeetna area. WOW! Sun Mountain has always been one of my favorite places but I think I've found its rival! Talkeetna Lodge is gorgeous! If I could attach links I would attach the link to their web site. It's worth checking out! The kids and I explored the trails around the lodge and then we all headed off to the town of Talkeetna for lunch.

Talkeetna is a small town with lots of tourists! Many hikers use the town as a jumping off point for their mountain climbing expeditions into Mt. McKinnley. Other than looking at all the artisans' wares in town, I think the best part of our afternoon was spent exploring the banks of the river in Talkeetna. Steve and the kids walked out onto a log that had fallen over the river. I was a little worried about falling in and being wet for the rest of the day so I stayed back and became the photographer!

Backing up a little to our flight in - Robyn and my parents had talked about the flight and how beautiful it was coming over the mountains and into Anchorage. They were right! Though it was late, we were chasing the sun so it was actually very light out. We had about a 20 minute period where the clouds cleared and we could the the snow topped mountains and the blue glaciers. We tried to wake the kids for their first glimpses of Alaska but they couldn't seem to keep their eyes open long enough!

Tomorrow we head off to Seward and to Homer for a couple of days. I'm not sure what's in store for us but no matter what it is, we'll be ready for the adventure.

As a side note, I'm having trouble labeling the pictures and putting them into the correct order so bear with me! The 2nd and 3rd pictures were taken at the town of Talkeetna. The middle picture is one I took on a trail at Talkeetna lodge. We heard a strange noise in the woods! The last two pictures are of the stream outside Richard and Teresa's home - see the moose print! The last picture (which is really the first one you see!) I'm inserting is - yes - moose poo. We found it on the trail to the stream this morning.