Anchorage, Palmer, Wasilla

Our stay at Palmer featured real camping, for a change, and several day trips to a variety of attractions.  We enjoyed being able to sit around campfires a couple of evenings and cooking on the "Traeger".  We were all getting hungry for some good old-fashioned smoked meat again.  The highlight of cooking was when a neighboring camper was gracious enough to give us a filet of salmon he had caught that day.  It was probably the best salmon we had ever eaten.

Because the weather was so nasty on our way to Palmer, we retraced part of our drive to go back and view the Matanuska Glacier.  What a beautiful spot to eat our picnic lunch.  The glacier was significant in carving out the entire Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Valley which is a prime farming region in Alaska.  Reports have it that enormous vegetables are grown in this area.  Unfortunately, we were too early to see them for ourselves.

Another day we toured the Reindeer Farm, thanks to the generosity of John and Glynda's daughter, Michelle.  It was a Father's Day gift to her Dad that included all of us.  While at the Reindeer Farm, we were able to get up close and personal with the Reindeer (Caribou in the wild) as we were allowed to go into their pens and feed them from our hands and pet them.  In fact, the Reindeer are so people-oriented they almost became pests begging for food.  Also at the farm we saw Moose, Elk, and Bison and were able to feed them, but only through the fence.  The Reindeer and Elk calves were especially cute.  From there we toured a Musk Ox Farm and were surprised to learn they are strictly cold-weather animals and exist, in the wild, only in the Arctic.  This non-profit farm raises these prehistoric ice-age survivors for the rare under-wool, qiviut, from which fine hand knit garments are made only by native Alaskans.  Qiviut is warmer than even Cashmere and Wool.

Our next adventure took us to Happy Trails Kennel, home of Martin Buser's Iditarod sled-dog team.  Buser, four-time Iditarod winner and fastest-time record holder, was on hand to personally conduct tours and greet all of the visitors.  The two hour tour allowed us to learn many of the intricacies of Iditarod racing through a highlight video of Buser running an entire race.   We were also able to interact with the sled dogs and experienced them being put in harness to pull the sled.  Talk about eager animals, the dogs yelped and tugged at the ropes, anxious to start their pull.  It was quite the sight and sound!  It was especially interesting to learn how the cute puppies are actually in training for future sled-pulling even before they are weaned.  We were very impressed with Martin Buser, not only as a championship racer, but more importantly, the compassion he shows to his animals, his visitors and the sport in general. 

After the Happy Trails Kennel visit, we learned that our HitchHiker friends, Monty and Sue Thomas were at an RV park in Wasilla, so we picked them up and made our second trip to Anchorage, just for supper.  Our first trip to Anchorage included a visit to the zoo which features only animals native to Alaska.  We also went to the Seaplane base and museum at Hood Lake.  In continuing our culinary quest, we ate lunch at that Glacier Brewhouse, another place highly recommended by locals. 

One other memorable event was attending the Sunday morning worship service at the Wasilla Bible Church, Sarah Palin's home church.  Sarah was not in attendance.

Our next stop will be Seward.