Seeing family and nature in Anchorage

One of the wonderful things about this trip was getting to visit cousin Doris in Anchorage.  She is a naturalist at the Eagle River Nature Center. 

Great to see Doris again

Doris took Don, Shar, Jo and I on a hike in the nature preserve, and we stumbled upon two adolescent moose.  We were within 50 feet of the moose, which if they were mature would have run awayh or charged us.  Thank goodness they were immature and did not know what to do.  Doris told us that the young moose will stay with the mother for the first 12 months and then somewhere between 12 and 18 months the mother will drive them away.  Doris felt these were recently "kicked out of the nest".

Moose 1

Moose 2

The next day we went out to the Portage Glacier on the Chicken oops I mean the Ptarmigan (which taste like chicken).  The glacier is behind us.

Jo and I wanted to be safe, so we kept the preserver close

View of the total glacier

Up close and personal

The "old salt" captain

The cultural center in Anchorage was informative and enjoyable.  Jo and I discovered "Jaws", at least these were from a whale who ate plankton and not other mammals

Whale jaw bones

Cultural center dancers

Cultural center floria