Talkeetna

Our next trip was to the town of Talkeetna, AK.  This is a small tourist town near Denali National Park.  We were hoping to see a view of Denali (or Mt. McKinley as those outside Alaska call it), but it was grey and cloudy all day.  Denali is the highest peak in North America.  James, the kids, an I have seen it a couple of times on very clear days.  We wish we could have shared it with our family!

 

William outside of West Rib Pub & Grill.  This restaurant was on an episode of Man vs. Food (he didn't do a food challenge here though)

We looked at all the shops in town and then went down to the river.

Gold Panning

Our next outing while James' family was visiting was to an old gold mine to go gold panning.  We were given a short tour of the old mining house and got to look at some of the equipment that was used to mine for gold.  It was a lot of fun and the kids all got at least a few flakes of gold!

Our tour guide demonstrating how a rope bridge works.

Helping William give it a try.

Picking out our tub of dirt to pan for gold.

Eli is ready to pan!

Getting some help from a pro.

On our way home we saw some mountain goats!  I'm so glad we were able to pull over and look at these guys.  We have never seen them so close to the road before.  (They are still a good ways away, but I am really glad I rented that extra long zoom lens!)

If you look closely, there is a baby goat!

Hotel Swimming

Annie and Papa got a hotel room so the kids could go swimming.  Eli absolutely loved it!  Of course this is a total 180 from the last time he had the opportunity to go swimming.  James had a hard time holding on to him!  He was trying to get away and swim by himself the entire time (and of course he has no idea how to swim)!

 

Reindeer Farm

So , the day after our drive home from Seward, AK we drove to Palmer, AK.  I love the drive out to Palmer!  Especially when we take the Old Glen Highway.  We visited the Reindeer Farm.  It was so much fun to pet the reindeer and learn all kinds of interesting facts about them!

 

They also had other animals.

View from the farm!

The other animals liked being fed long grasses.

We got little cups of feed to give the reindeer.

This was our view driving home!