Alaska - Doggone it, that's some good pizza!

After getting a taste of the wildlife we might see in the full Denali National Park, we decided to satisfy our taste buds in search of a late lunch. We ended up back at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge to eat at their on site pizza restaurant, known as Lynx Creek.

You enter on the main level and order from the counter. There were several tables in use on this main level so after ordering, we headed down a couple steps into an adjacent dining room where no one was sitting.

Hey Dad pause right there so I can get a pic of the pizza:

Hey Dad, how about actually smiling and opening your eyes while you're paused for the pic:

Well, 1 out of 2 isn't bad. :) That's a medium pepperoni pizza by the way. Now if only Pizza Hut could follow the same measurement system.

With our bellies full, we returned to the room to relax until my optional evening excursion. Dad didn't want to sign up for this excursion so he hung out in the room the rest of the evening. I felt perfectly safe going on an excursion without him because I wouldn't be truly alone and this was a Princess sponsored excursion. This was our next extra cost item that was not included in the cruise tour fare but if you've read my other trip reports, you know I couldn't pass up the chance to...drum roll please...play with puppies! Princess calls this excursion the Husky Homestead Tour and currently retails for $59.95 per person. 

Tour groups met back at the main building of the lodge and we boarded a bus with the tour name logo. 

Once at the homestead, we joined several other similar looking buses that were color coded so they could stagger the groups at the various areas. Our first stop and the one everyone looks forward to the most, the pen of puppies! They give everyone a chance to hold these new future sled dogs to help acclimate them to people and learn to socialize. There's always a few employees of the homestead on hand to watch over this portion so no chance to sneak off with one under my coat. The plus though is there was someone to photograph the moment for me with my own camera. Look Dad, I actually appear in vacation photos once in a while! The staff was also there to take a professional picture of you with the puppy and will happily sell it to you. For buying the picture, you get it in a semi sturdy cardstock frame. There was some promotional offer where if you bought Jeff's book, they threw in your picture or it was a discounted price together. Both items were autographed so I bought both. There was other little memorabilia you could purchase as well. Don't worry, there's even a gift shop here!

The tradition with the sled dogs is to name each pack around a theme but they wait until the dogs are older and show more of their personality before naming them. 

Next we moved over to the open air area where the adult dogs are kept with their own small doghouses and water/food bowls. The staff had a couple of the adult dogs on leashes and were wandering through the crowd to let us pet them and interact as well.

Iditarod champion and owner of the Husky Homestead, Jeff King, gave a presentation on how the dogs are treated, trained, and how they got their names. 

The dogs have a long chain attached to their doghouses.

It was funny to hear how the various pack names changed based on what his family was interested in at the time. Jeff told us how one of his packs was born in the 90s and when he gave his daughter the honor of naming them, his new dogs became Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe. 

No experience meeting sled dogs would be complete without seeing them pull a guy on a four wheeler right?

One of the employees had developed a special rapport with one of the adult dogs and discovered that the dog loves hanging upside down to get belly rubs and massages.

Next up was a demonstration of the dogs running in the giant wheel:

Our group next moved inside for a presentation by Jeff about his gear and sled.

 My what big horns you have:

One of his staff came running in to pose dressed in the full protective gear the sled dog racers wear:

Despite suffering a tragic loss of his dog Nash (from the Crosby Stills and Nash pack of course) about 7 months later when a reckless snowmobile driver ran into Jeff and another racer's team as they were running the Iditarod, King continues to raise sled dogs and race with them in Alaska's most famous dog sledding race. While you can find tons of sled dog related excursions offered during your time in Alaska, some way more expensive than others, as an animal lover this one will stay in my heart and memory forever.