Palmer, AK Day 3

Friday, July 28, 2017

It rained most of the night again.  We joke now and say the overcast sky is "Alaska Sunshine".  I scheduled a haircut for myself this morning.  It is my first haircut since April 25 just before we left to start our journey to Alaska. 

As we were headed to my haircut we saw this glorious site! My haircut was an ok job.

After my haircut, we went to IHOP for breakfast. Tic has been hungry for a Belgium waffle so we satisfied that craving this morning. 

After breakfast we headed to Palmer's weekly Friday Fling. It is a Farmer's Market with crafts and free entertainment.  

I'm looking down the only row in the Farmer's Market, other than 4 food trucks in the street. This Farmer's Market was mostly crafts and only 2 booths with vegetables.

Just across the street from the Farmer's Market was the local flower and vegetable garden. This area of Alaska is known as Mat-Su Valley. Mat-Su Valley is know for their extra large vegetables due to their long daylight hours. Their growing season is only 100-118 days.

Above and below are some of the vegetables growing in the local garden.

Then I walked into the flower area of the garden.  

 These are all considered Alaska wildflowers.

 Alaska is the peony capital of the world.  They grow and ship more peonies than any where else in the world.

 More gorgeous flowers.  These pictures are just a small example of the flower garden.

We headed home to wait and see if the weather might clear. We had lunch and by 2pm it was still very overcast but was not raining. We decided to go to the Iditarod Trail Headquarters in Wasilla which is only about 7 miles up the road.

 This statue is Joe Redington, Sr, considered the Father of the Iditarod.

This is the Headquarters building. Inside we watched a 30 minute video about sledding dogs. It was very informative.

 Isn't this a gorgeous sculpture of dog sledding?!?!

 This team of sled dogs was hitched up to pull a cart on wheels for a ride for anyone willing to pay.

The husky dog in the foreground looks a lot like our Samson dog we left with neighbors.

This precious little puppy, named Rogue, was a lovable and frisky little one. Her training is already starting with greeting many strangers including young children.

This art work was on the side of the highway wall.  Tic says this may be the only moose some people will see here in Alaska.  The only moose in the wild we have seen in Alaska was in Denali and we only got to see his butt.