Day 2 Of Our Alaska Trip, March 17th

On the first day in Alaska we saw tons of wild animals at our hotel, The Millennium Alaskan Hotel.  I hope I get to see mountain sheep in Alaska.  

The Iditarod was in March.  It starts at the hotel we stayed at so we got to see the Iditarod map and the mushers.  

When I looked at this chart I saw all of the mushers, when they finished, and what place they got in the race.  

We looked them on the Iditarod website too.  A girl got second in the race.  I think it is really cool.  

I was so surprised when I saw the mountains for the first time in Anchorage.  I knew this was going to be a good trip. 

We found a little coffee shop and bakery.  I had my favorite....a vanilla steamer.  

We walked to Resolution Park to see the statue of Captain James Cook.

In 1778, Captain Cook was trying to find a passageway to the ocean.  He found it was a dead end so he had to go back.  

I love learning about history especially sports history.  

This park looks out over Cook Inlet which is part of the Gulf of Alaska.  In this picture it shows where Mt. McKinley is at.  Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America.  We saw it when we looked very carefully over the trees.  

 I also learned today we are only 63 miles from Siberia, Russia.

We looked for a beluga whale.  They have white skin.  They are still whales. 

Next, we went to a museum downtown called Anchorage Museum.  

You can read all about the museum if you click on this website.

We first checked out the Imaginarium Discovery Center.

I sat in this chair and pulled myself up.  

Dad pulled me up and let go, and I went down. 

 Me and my Dad tried to launch a rocket.  And it worked.

Me and my Mom are blowing up a balloon with hot air.  We made it go up. 

I made huge bubbles. 

This is Dad and I making waves liked a tsunami that went over little houses on the other end. 

I saw silver salmon.  This is the kind of fish that grizzly bears eat.  I bet they rescued the fish from the water.  

 There was a place in the museum that had old plane stuff and facts.  It was called Arctic Flight.

 I sat in the cockpit of a tiny plane.  I turned all of the switches on.

This plane was really cool!  

Dad told me that this was Russian plane that collided with another plane.  

I learned that America shipped planes to Montana to get them ready to send to Fairbanks.  They had blue stars but they painted over them with red paint for the USSR.  The Americans leased them planes. 

 I watched a video about planes.

I read a comic called Danger in the Arctic.  Mom and I thought it was the biggest comic ever.

They had a great area with lots of historical things from Alaska.  

They showed all kinds of supplies, weapons, and clothes that they made.

This is how they delivered the mail.  They put it on a big sled and took it through the snow.

This part of museum also had a lot of different houses people in Alaska lived in.  I thought the Russian Blockhouse was the coolest.  It had a canon in it and a bear right in front of the canon (but you couldn't touch it or go into the blockhouse.) 

 I walked under the boats.  They were really big.

 I found a sled like the ones the mushers used in the Iditarod.

In a few days we will go to Valdez.  We will see part of the pipeline.  The pipeline runs oil from northern Alaska to the port in Valdez.

It is huge!  

After the museum, we went on a drive to see the mountains. 

                            

This is someones view.  I would like that.  They get a ton of snow. 

We ate at Moose's Tooth Pizza.  It was really good.  I didn't have pizza, I had a turkey, bacon, swiss cheese, and ham sandwich.  We had lemon cake and it was special because it was called Lemon Love Cake.  

We had the best, best, best first day in Alaska ever.  

I can't wait for tomorrow.