July 1

This morning we drove to Girdwood to visit the Jade Rock Shop.  We had a nice chat with the lady, looked over some of the equipment that they use to cut down large pieces of Jade and Pat picked up a couple pieces of Jade to add to her rock collection.

On the way back, we stopped at the Anchorage Zoo.

It was an interesting Zoo.  They had all the local big mammals: Brown, Black and Polar Bears, Moose and Caribou, Wolves, Cyotes and Fox, Musk Ox and Yaks, and they even had two Camels. They also had an assortment of Eagles, Owls and Hawks.

In the afternoon, we spent quite a bit of time at the Alaska Botanical Garden.

It was well done.  They did an excellent job of marking the plants.  Even though a plant may appear in several places throughout the various gardens, they were all marked.  Another interesting thing about the place was that the route for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race ran right next to the garden.  They had a gate so we could walk on the actual race route.

We went to the Slippery Salomon to eat tonight.  It is associated with the Ramada and it was the first place we had something to eat when we arrived on June 1. We had dinner on the deck and they had live music.

After dinner, we walked down town where all the action was and hung out for awhile in the general area of the visitor center  before walking back to our hotel.