Anchorage - Fur Rondy Events

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Fur Rondy!!

Ah, balmy Anchorage! Temperatures peeked today at 22 degrees Fahrenheit and we're (almost) getting used to layering up. There is a nice white-ish carpet of compacted snow everywhere we go. We had a fabulous dinner at the Rose's place - I love BBQ ribs & coleslaw ;-)

Saturday, we did more than most people do in one week here. Took a trip down to downtown to investigate Fur Rondy & all it's festivities. We arrived when the foot race was going on. People were dressed in various costumes while they made their way along 4th Ave. The parade started around 11am, so we stopped in for some Chai Tea & Hot Chocolate at one of the Tea Shops.

Suddenly someone was yelling that the parade had started, so we wrapped ourselves up, and headed out into the cold. Hoorah for the Fur Rondy Royal court. Three cheers for the Boy & Girl Scouts! Listen to those Harley's rev up in the cold!! It all ended with three radio station cars & candy sprawled over the streets. Let's go grab lunch & then head over to the dog pull event... oh wait, the Dog Sled racers are approaching the finish line? We'll check it out! Before heading back to the house, we hit the Wild Berry store for chocolate and popped over to the Ice Bowling behind Peanut Gallery bar. Saturday evening we watched fireworks from Arctic Point... hmmm, "extravaganza" looks so small from 19 miles away!

Sunday mid-morning, we took in lunch at Guido's Pizzeria & popped next door for the Mutt Show. Very cute display of dog tricks & tail wagging competition, followed b racing. (There's lots of competition & racing in this town!!) Irene & Kathy went back to the house to fix dinner, while Nicole & I drove downtown again for the Running of the Reindeer Race. This was CRAZY! But lots of fun. There were 3 races down 3rd - "Royalty/VIP", men/women, and couples. Girl Scouts were out pimping their cookies before the race, and tons of people with various costumes roamed the streets getting ready for their 15 minutes of crazy-ness!

This evening, we had dinner with a pilot and his family. Just so happens we met him when we were up in 2008 on the Nikiski Bear Viewing trip! It was great hanging out. Good food & good company ;-)

Tomorrow we head up to Fairbanks. The weather promises to hit double digits - up from negative 12 when we arrived on Friday night! More later...

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