NPS, ULU factory and the Alaska State Fair

We made two visits to the National Park Service office in downtown Anchorage. They show a variety of videos in their theater room around the clock. Asher and Journey loved every one! After completing their Junior Ranger books, they received 4 new badges and a patch! (They don't normally give out all of those, but I think they were just so excited to see kids with so many badges, they dug to find some older badges.)

Holding bear skulls.

They show a variety of videos in their theater room. We loved every one!

 

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Alaska has their own kind of knives called Ulu. It's a special rounded blade with a handle that you can roll side to side and dates back thousands of years. We paid a visit to the Ulu Factory in Anchorage to see how they make them. 

These have fancy handles made out of antlers. Some were intricately carved.

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We spent our last day before driving south at the Alaska State Fair. The promise of bad-for-you-food, amusement rides and ridiculously large vegetables did not disappoint. Ranger Keith and Laura met us there and took us for a ride on the ferris wheel!

White turkeys?!

There was a section where you could watch chicks hatch and then see day old chicks and touch the older ones. The kids loved it!

Piglets!

This mobile hand washing station was just too cute. The water pours out of the cows' milk carton and watering can.

And here you go folks, the award winning pumpkin! At 1469lbs it set a new state record!

The lumberjack contest/show was quite entertaining. Three guys completed ten different challenges with axes and chainsaws. It was funny and fun to watch.

They climbed these poles in mere seconds!

Of course the kids were most excited about all the rides. They had a blast!