Alaska - the interior - part 3

We left Teack Lake on a cloudy very cool morning. I think it was an omen - the weather only got worse! We crossed the Kenai Peninsula stopping often for road work. Shortly after turning north, we stopped at The The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Girdwood. It was cold and very windy. We saw moose, black bear, eagles, owls, elk, bison, caribou, porcupine, lynx,  and baby musk ox. 

That was enough - it was just too cold to stay outside! As the day progressed, I'm surprised the rain wasn't icy! Talkeetna was getting its first snow!

We are staying in another VRBO.com rental. This time we have a mother-in-law apartment, a basement apartment with a separate entrance. We have a full eat in kitchen, a living room, a large bedroom, and a full bath. 

The only problem is Internet access - which seems to be a common problem here! Access is occasional!

Ray finally figured out the TV. It sure is weird to have ballgames on during breakfast! 

The first quilt shop we checked out was the Quilted Raven, a very nice small shop with mostly batiks. I didn't buy anything maybe because I had just mailed a box of fabric home!

The Quilted Tree was an okay shop - I was a bit disappointed after reading the reviews.

We had trouble finding Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe. It has moved twice within the last year or so! It was in University Mall alongside UAA (University of Alaska - Anchorage)! 

They had lots of fabric - for quilting and clothing. It was really a neat shop.

We went to the Dimond Mall which was very different from our malls - it had stores, kiosks, food court, and an ice skating rink, a bowling ally, and many services like doctor offices, banks, etc. It was many stories high. 

The Alaskan Heritage Center was very interesting. Learning about the different Alaskan cultures was fascinating.

We enjoyed the dancers and finding out what all of the symbols stand for. The guy on the right has a warrior on the back of his robe. He served our country in Afghanistan!

During the good-bye song, the dancers all came and shook our hands. It was interesting because a native Alaskan in the back of the room stood and also did hand motions during the song. Their culture is still very much intact. Closing time came too soon - I wanted to learn more!

We went to the Market and Festival which is held every Saturday and Sunday in the summer. It was smaller than usual due to the rain. The weather was so yucky that we didn't really look at many of the booths. But we did eat deep fried halibut and corn fritters!

They were so good! Yup, even in the rain!