Our first trip out of Bethel

Over memorial day weekend, Jeff and I took a small break and went to Anchorage.  We had so much to do, I don't think we even scraped the surface!

We arrived in Anchorage on Friday evening and went to the car rental place, where we met (for the first time) our next door neighbors in Bethel!  Our daily schedules were a little different, so I had seen them around a little bit but I'd hadn't yet introduced myself.  It turns out they both work at the hospital as well, and recognized Jeff.  It's definitely a small world!

On saturday morning, we got up early and went down town to check out the area and then to see the Saturday market.  We got some souvenirs at a store on the way, and then arrived at the market, which was huge!

 In the picture below, you can see all the tents, and that's only one line of them.  there were apparently over 300 of them, including crafts, art made in Alaska, food, etc.  So we got some more souvenirs.

A woman was walking around with this huge dog!  He went up to my waist in height and Jeff thought he was a mix between a husky and a wolf.  But he looked friendly enough!

 Around town there were different statues on street corners etc.

 It's an "almost" smile.  Typical Jeff! :)

 This Christmas tree ornament is made of clay that comes from glaciers. From the card that came with it: Alaskan native clay left for us be receding glaciers is another of the many riches given to us by the beautiful mountains of Alaska.  These deposits of Alaska clay are obtained along the oceans and inlets.  Its unique bi-color appearance is the result of iron deposits contained in the clay which only reveal themselves during the firing process.

It is surprisingly not heavy at all, but apparently fairly durable.  The woman selling them actually tapped it on a hard surface several times to show me. 

We also found Babushka dolls, the Russian stacking dolls.  The woman selling them was in her 30's, but she had quite the Russian accent while she was trying to make a sale.  Babushka dolls are sold as souvenirs all over the city, thanks to the Russian influence in settling Alaska, so we saw probably thousands this weekend!

More blogs to come soon, we just have soo many pictures they're going to take several!