Wednesday, June 16, 2010

It has been raining for 2 days now in Anchorage, Alaska. Yesterday we went to the mall to check out the movies in town; but we had seen all of the ones we were interested in. Their mall is four floors: the very bottom is an ice rink that can be used all year. The other 3 floors are stores and movies. I walked into a Famous Footwear and overheard a mother arguing with her 3 young daughters about not wearing socks in Florida. Apparently, these young girls feel they have to wear socks all of the time in Florida, too. Boy, will they be surprised at the temps when they get there!!! It's been in the upper 40s and lower 50s for the last 2 days with rain, rain, and more rain!!! I've heard they need the precipitation; but it would be nice to have it when we're not here.
Today we drove towards Seward, Alaska. Daddy is getting this cold/allergy that I've had for several days and is taking sudafed which is making him groggy. The road drives along the coastline and up against the mountains. It is gorgeous even though it is raining. The mountains rise up sharply and really high. The shoreline is made of glacier silt and water that creates a sort of quicksand that you can't get out of. There wasn't anybody fishing out there. You were supposed to be able to see the all-white beluga whales from that point; but we didn't see anything except seagulls. There were also supposed to be Dall Sheep up on the cliffs and moose seen crossing the road. I guess they don't like rain either!
Then we drove to Portage, Alaska where you can still see evidence of the 1964 earthquake that hit Anchorage. This town is now several miles from where it was in 1964. The land fell down 10 feet and in now covered when a high tide comes in. But the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center is still there. They take in all wild orphaned animals and raise them, and give them a quality life til they die. A young moose cannot survive in the wild without its mother to teach them what they can eat and which animals are predators. So this center keeps them and protects them. Their environments are exactly like where they would live in the wild, except there are no predators to hurt them. They had porcupines, wood bison, elk, moose, grizzly bears, bald eagles. The 2 grizzlies were wrestling and I was able to take some really good pictures of them. Because they are in a huge caged pasture, I could stand within 5 feet of them. They were really neat while they were play fighting and rolling on the ground. They didn't seem to care that we were watching them. Now I can see the difference between a very large bull elk and a bull moose. From a distance they could almost look alike. But an elk always has a white rear end!
On the news channel at night there have been incidents reported about bears being on the paths of the parks while people are there. They are coming to the creeks and streams to catch the salmon and eat whatever they find. A couple of people got hurt in the last 2 days. They are saying to not go alone and to question the rangers for bear activities. They don't close the parks at night because it isn't dark at all. You can walk into them at any time, no matter how late. And you can always see really well. You can read a book outside at 2 AM without a light overhead!