Our First Taste of the Last Frontier

Sam, Garreth, and I spent a long house-hunting weekend in Anchorage and even though we looked at about a million houses, we still managed to squeeze in some fun, too.  

Sam loved the polar bears in the airport.

 Our hotel was very close to this lake (which I can't remember the name of) that is the biggest seaplane hub in North America. We had a few hours to kill before meeting our realtor, so we went to watch them take off and land.

 And then we decided, what the heck, let's go up in one! It was some of the most amazing 30 minutes I've ever spent.

 We drove by the temple, which is less than a mile from our new house.

 And we spent some time at the boys' new school.

 We spent some time at a very cool park on the water, where we saw a huge wild porcupine and Sam tried to chase it.  This picture was taken at 10pm - it still felt like afternoon. I think I'm going to love all the daylight.

 We saw a huge chocolate fountain that was used in the original "Willy Wonka" movie and Sam was in heaven.

 We found this little tourist picture spot, where I tried to laugh and pretend that getting eaten by a bear in the wild is actually NOT a true fear of mine.

 More of our float plane ride, pictures out of order. (I've really got to figure out this new blogger layout stuff)

 We drove on the Anchorage-Seward highway, which is one of the most scenic drives I've ever been on, down to the Alaska Wildlife Preserve Park.

 We saw black bears, and Kodiak bears. This two year old "cub" was our favorite.  He was playing with a log in the water and he was absolutely adorable. 

 We happened to be standing there when the trainer came over to show some tricks...

 ...and Sam learned some training techniques of his own.  He raised his hand in the air and the bear stood on his hind legs and raised his arms. It was very cool, and Sam is now convinced that he is a certified bear trainer. 

 Feeding a moose calf.

 We saw a lot of very cool animals, but the buffalo will always be Sam's favorite.

 We walked around downtown and ran into an old friend. 

 This moose and her calves were also shopping for houses in the same neighborhoods we were.

 One of my favorite things about Anchorage is the trail system that runs all throughout the city and along the inlet and through parks.  It's going to be a very fun place to take the kids!