Busy weekend

Well, this weekend more than made up for all my lazy weekends that I've been having.

Saturday I didn't get as early of a start as I wanted, so I missed the pancakes and the parade at Fur Rondy, but I got there in plenty of time to get a good spot for the end of the sprint dog races. It was just day 2 of the three day race, so I'm not sure who ended up winning. You could see them still going all out, though- the mushers would just have one leg on the sled and use the other one to kick off and help 'push'/take some weight off. I was surprised at how large some of the teams were- not sure if there is a limit and some folks just go under it or what. Most of the dogs were pretty darn small- maybe only six or so inches taller than Buck at the shoulder and maybe about 10-15 pounds heavier than him. Hey, maybe when he gets done filling out, he could be a sled dog. Heh! I think it'd be cool to get another bigger dog when I buy my own place and have the two of them pull me on a sled or on skis. Judging from how much Buck pulls on the leash now, he'd love it. :D

After the dog races, I wandered over to watch he fur auction for a bit. They had beaver, fox (grey, red and arctic), otter, wolverine, wolf, and coyote that I saw. They might have had bear earlier on. Some of the furs they sold were trapped by some of the Native kids from up north. Not too many options for jobs up there, I wouldn't think. I took a picture of the huge wolf fur that they sold for $300. It was at least 6-7 foot long.

I went over to the carnival, but it was pretty much for younger kids- about half the rides were for little ones and the rest for teenagers- just standard fair rides and not too many of them. Only had two stands for food- funnel cakes and caramel apples were about the only thing I saw that looked tasty, but the lines were just crazy, so I saved myself from those calories.

Headed back to 4th Ave for the Outhouse races and that was worth braving the huge crowds for. Just hilarious. Different organizations build 'outhouses' with plywood and skis and then one person sits in it while the others push them down the snow covered street between pylons. I think they intentionally set the pylons close together to see how many times the racers would crash into them. That part was amusing, too.

Had a reindeer sausage with sauerkraut (talk about worlds colliding) and wandered around a bit more. They had the 'trapper fur hats' on sale- coyote, fox, etc, but since they were around $225 each, I passed. I got my first Fur Rondy pin- they are something of a collectors item, but I figure they'll be a good way of keeping track of how long I end up staying up here. If there's a badge you should get for each winter you make it up here, this should be it. Heh! I'm kind of cheating since I didn't put in a full winter, but whatever. The last half is always colder than the first half anyway. LOL!

They had sled dog rides around a block of the Park Strip. Mainly it was for kids, though adults could ride. I skipped it since it'd be a bit of a let down to go around the block sitting in the sled after getting to drive a team myself for hours. Heh!

Ended Saturday with fireworks. Buck and I walked down to the park just a block north of us and watched them. He thought they were pretty cool and was only put off by the noise for the first couple. Skipped out on the dances and drinking part of the festivities, which I'm told is a big part. Oh, well, maybe for the Iditarod. The bars apparently open at about 10am since the race starts just before that. So, after everyone watches the start of the race, they go start drinking. LOL! Here's hoping they have Bloody Mary's or something.

Sunday, Buck and I started off by joining a group that goes out to a ball diamond nearby and lets their dogs play. He had a great time with a Samoyed (who is a dog show winner) and the guy who organizes things brought his camera and got a few great shots of them playing. We came home and I changed boots and went to watch the running of the reindeer. It was the first year for this and they weren't really sure what was going to happen. It's in the same vein of the running of the bulls, just with snow and reindeer. I think they picked out some smaller ones to make sure no one got too hurt. I think someone got a bit stepped on in the men's heat, but no major injuries. There were also some brave souls who went skijoring (you wear skis and have an animal pull you, usually a dog) behind the reindeer. I think the reindeer were more freaked out than the folks trying to get them to pull. Heh!

I still need to go find the snow sculptures tomorrow and take some pictures. I got shots of everything over here on my Fur Rondy set. And the new pics of Buck are here on the front page of my Flickr account.

That's it for this weekend. Next weekend (and all this week) Fur Rondy continues and then the Iditarod starts on Sunday. I'll just be going to the fake Anchorage start downtown. The real start is all the way up in Willow since there just isn't good enough snow in Wasilla anymore and Willow is a bit too much of a hike for me. Maybe next year.

Oh, and I had my first moose tonight in the form of a tasty stew! My neighbor was nice enough to share some of his batch with me and man, was it tasty! Real lean and the flavor and texture wasn't that far off from beef. It was like a more tender, tangy beef. Good stuff! I've now had a caribou burger, moose stew and reindeer sausage. I think once I've had some bear, I'll have eaten most of the four legged animals that are up here. Heh! You have to have goals.