Alaska - Can we see Russia from Sarah Palin's house?

Time to head to our last stop on the land tour, the city of Kenai. This is one of the cities most of the shorter land itinerary portions never see. But wait, this post title talks about Sarah Palin's house, that's not in Kenai! As we boarded the motor coach to head to Kenai this morning, our guide Lori announced that she had a surprise stop for us on the way. She asked us if we knew what was in the town of Wasilla and pretty much the entire bus asked if we were going to visit Sarah Palin's house. No, turns out it was something much more pleasurable - the home of the Iditarod Headquarters!

We read the true story of Balto the sled dog who worked hard to bring medicine through the snow into a remote Alaskan town with the school kids I used to work with and I was admittedly giddy to see this statue outside the headquarters.

Inside the building was lots of memorabilia and newspaper articles about the Iditarod race.

And you thought seeing little baby booties was cute. Check out a display of sled dog booties!

They even had them nestled on the tree branches outside.

Back outside, one of the employees offered the group to sit on a multi person modified sled and be run along the road by the sled dogs. I believe it was an optional activity in exchange for a $10 donation. Neither of us opted to do that. I had something else catch my attention nearby.

By the time we'd come back outside from checking out the museum space, one of the employees had brought out sled dog puppies to get some loving and socialization. Go on your sled dog ride everyone else, I'm getting me some puppy love! No worries on not contributing a sled dog ride donation - made a proper donation to their gift shop while we were there.

Lori had another idea for a stop before we got out to Kenai and had the bus driver take us into the center of town in Anchorage. We were given an hour to do whatever we pleased whether that was shopping, lunch, or sightseeing. Dad immediately decided we had to ride the trolley tour around town that he remembered from his time being in Alaska for work. It's an hour long narrated ride with a guide and costs $20 per person. We arrived at the Visitor Center where the trolley boards just in time to hop on one that was about to leave. It was a nice touch that before each tour left, one of the employees would move around the trolley cleaning the outside of the windows. 

You may have tried hot dogs from a street cart but have you tried Alaskan Reindeer Sausage from a street cart?

The trolley was packed and we learned about local history, flora, and fauna. One of the questions they are often asked given the geographic location on the "Ring of Fire" is how many earthquakes does Alaska get. Or when was the last earthquake they had. Our guide always replied "We probably had one this morning." He explained how they have so many tiny ones that you may never feel that you could have multiple ones a day and never realize it.

All in all, it made for a nice break up of the extra time it would take to get over to the Kenai Peninsula. Stay tuned for when we trade our hotel rooms in for some more rustic accommodations.