Playing Tour Guide

Our great friends Nick and Miranda came up for a visit this past weekend and we had a GREAT time! I'm going to break the visit up into a couple of posts because we did a ton of stuff.  

Nick and Miranda arrived late Wednesday night and right after they landed, we saw a horrible moose-car accident near the airport.  Although Miranda got her chance to see the moose, it wasn't in the best of circumstances, mostly because the moose were dead.  We spent the next couple of days seeking out the elusive moose, which of course only show up when you aren't looking for them.  Typical moose.  More about that later.  

We got up early Thursday and headed out to explore the town.  Andy had to work, but I got to play tour guide all day, which I loved.  

First stop: crappy tourist trap shops on 4th avenue.  Miranda was thrilled to see yet another dead moose there:

In the summertime, downtown is riddled with ridiculous things you can stick your head in.  Nick demonstrates:

I couldn't get Miranda to play the top half of the guy on the moose? elk? horsemoose? what IS that thing??

 At the start of the Iditarod/Fur Rondy races:

I even took them into one of the many many fur shops in town.  This one had quite the display of fur jockstraps.  They market them as "the perfect gift for the man who has everything."  Assuming, of course, that said man does not already possess a fur jock strap.

Here's Nick showing off one of the options:

Were you scared he'd actually be wearing it?  You forget that Grandma reads this blog.  Nick in a fur jock strap would not be Grandma appropriate. 

We even stopped into the tourist information center, which is an adorable sod-covered log cabin.  The man inside told me nothing I didn't already know, which makes me feel like an experienced local, or a mega-tourist.  Note the AMAZING weather.  Ahh....spring at last.

After we exhausted much of downtown, we headed out for a little walk through earthquake park.  This place has excellent views of the city:

And of Sleeping Lady:

The cute couple:

After earthquake park and an exciting trip to Fred Meyer to pick up some sunglasses for Miranda, we went to Potter's Marsh.  We saw an eagle!

And our little swallow friends were there, too.  Also the clouds showed up because Miranda bought sunglasses.

Ducks! These are teal drakes according to the signs we read.

After driving around town looking (unsuccessfully) for moose, we met up with Andy at Simon and Seaforts (one of our favorite restaurants in town), for happy hour.  Andy was very happy, as you can see:

While we were getting ready to pay the bill, we saw two elderly tourist couples desperately looking for tables in the packed bar area.  I flagged them down so they could take our table (right next to the window!), since we were just about to leave.  They were so thrilled that one old man gave me a giant hug and his wife kissed me! It was really cute.  

What a great first day! Next stop - Talkeetna!