Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Alaska Day 17 (April 29th)

Friday we again drove up to Anchorage to meet John in his hotel after he had a chance to sleep a little since he flew in from Chicago Thursday night/Friday morning.  The boys were excited to see all kinds of military vehicles going by and took photos to show their friends at home.



 After we picked up John we drove up to Flattop Mountain, another place I had gone to the first time I came to Alaska.  As soon as we got out of the truck, we realized how cold and windy it was up here!  Whoa, was it cold!  We went up the path to the viewing area to see Anchorage below.  The guys figured with the wind chill it was -4 degrees.


 You had to lean into the wind!

The deck was half covered in snow, high enough to go over the railing.

The kids played around in the snow below the viewing deck.  I looked for a cache there, but the snow was still so deep, I couldn't find anything!  When we got too cold, we went down the slope and then up the other side of the parking lot to another trail, called Blueberry trail.  The kids liked the way up with the deep snow.








We used the GPS to check the elevation.














Ryan was trying to shelter from the wind here, but not much to hide behind.











This is actually how deep the snow was, the other photo was a fake, (John's idea) the kids were just standing on their knees.
 This was the path.

After warming up with lunch at Wendy's we headed to the Anchorage zoo.  The weather changed to being cloudy and drizzly cold rain.  Wish it would have still been sunny out, it would have made for better photos of the animals, but I still enjoyed it anyway.

Otter





                                            Seals
Snowy Owl
Fox
This bear was funny.  A sign on the enclosure said he was new to the park and still getting used to his surroundings.  He was just sitting in this spot, slumped down on his spine, just like our dog Sugar sits sometimes. 
Wolves
The Eagles were beautiful.

The musk ox, not so beautiful, except maybe to her mamma.





Kamryn was getting a closer look










Here they all are checking out the musk ox.
Tigers
Bears, I wonder if that is drool under his mouth?





This squirrel was not a member of the zoo, just a visitor scavenging for a meal.  The ranger told us the Ravens will fly in and offer the other birds trades for food, like gum wrappers.







Alpacas
a porcupine in a cache, I'm not going to try to get that one!
We watched the ranger feed the goshawk.  He said they get lots of donations of food for the animals from people who are cleaning out their freezers getting ready for a new hunting season. 
Look at the size of that paw!

the other polar bear was playing peek-a-boo.

After warming up in the truck again we headed over to the Anchorage airport on the backside, near the runway so the boys could watch the planes land.  On Saturday they were having an Aviation Expo at the Fed Ex hanger.  Me, I found a nearby cache. 



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