30 in 30: Day 12

I forgot to share something from yesterday when I was searching for a "Welcome to Alaska" sign. As I was walking all over the airport, I went past a little tourism office, so I stopped in. I asked the gentleman if he knew if there was a "Welcome to Alaska" sign in the airport, and his response, after looking at me in an extremely judgy manner, was, "The ENTIRE airport is an expression of that message." Calm down, sir.

Daily Stats

Starting Mileage: 9,101 (as of 6:00 pm yesterday)

Ending Mileage: 9,404

Miles Traveled: 303 (last evening and today)

States Visited: AK

Picking up where I left off in my last post, we explored Anchorage for a few hours last night! We found a cool "Planet Walk" around the city, although we only actually walked from the sun to Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and then we drove to the other planets because there were spaced apart at the distances that it takes for light to reach the planet from the sun (i.e., light takes 8 minutes to reach Earth; the Earth placard was an eight-minute walk for the model of the sun). It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that we could not find Neptune! It was getting late, and google maps took us to a deserted and wooded area, and while we made a valiant attempt to locate the sign, we were not willing to risk getting lost and had no interest in being attacked by a bear, so we decided to give up on that one.

After the Planet Walk, we were driving back to the hotel, and the most exciting, amazing, incredible thing happened! Remember the other day when I wrote about how badly I'd wanted to see a moose? WE SAW A MOOSE!

I noticed some dark brown fur behind fencing in the trees and yelled to C, "There's a bear!" but then a head popped up and I realized it was a moose! We pulled over and parked, walked across the road and to the fence, and ended up spending about 15 minutes watching the moose eat and walk about. Such a gorgeous, precious creature! It was so great and watching that moose at such a close distance is without a doubt an all-time travel highlight!

This morning, we checked out of our hotel, had unbelievably good food at a local breakfast place, and then drove to Denali National Park. On our way, we stopped at the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla. We saw some full-grown race dogs, and also some puppies! It was interesting to learn about the science and research related to these canine athletes and I was thrilled to see Togo being recognized for his contributions (if you have not watched Togo on Disney+, you have no idea what a wonderful movie you are missing!).

When we arrived, our room (it's actually a cabin) wasn't ready, so we drove around a bit and picked up some groceries before getting settled. The cabin is wonderful and it's incredibly quiet and peaceful here. And guess what? As we were driving into the park, WE SAW THREE MOOSE! That's four moose in 24 hours! I'm in heaven! I love Alaska!

Happy Tails to you!