There is nothing better than sleeping in the day after traveling. We were both pretty justifiably exhausted and we were ready for a long comfortable sleep somewhere that wasn't a plane seat. Now, to be fair, we only slept until just about 8:45am, but in Floridian-time we slept until 12:45pm, so yeah, we slept late! We got up, refreshed and ready for the day, and headed right up to the Club Lounge for breakfast. We got a heaping plateful of scrambled eggs, with a bagel for Jess, and English muffin for me, and glasses of cranberry juice. It felt so luxurious, being up in a specialty lounge for Gold and Diamond members staying in VIP rooms. We felt so chic, so now! On the way out we took a bagel covered in shmear and two apple pastries to keep with us as munchies for snack-attacks, then got dressed up for our day out. We put on each two layers of long sleeve shirts, two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, jackets, scarves, gloves, and headwear. With our room temperature jacked up to 80 degrees we were very warm. Bundled up and ready to go we trotted out into the open air and it was... actually ok. Again, we felt pretty ok in the cold, we weren't bothered too much at all. Guess we still have some New England blood in us, no matter what we tend to say!
We tried to follow the instructions on Jess's phone to our first destination, the Snow Sculpture Contest, but as we were walking downhill we were actually able to see the Comfort Inn we knew it was across from the display so we just followed that! The sculptures were awesome, mostly, a couple were kinda just weird, but there were different categories with some being done by corporations, some by individuals and teams, and a few done by families and schools. The latter two tended to be the, uh, less good of the group, but all of them were still awesome to look at! We voted for AK Okay team that featured a bunch of winter animals attempting to take selfies for the Public Favourite part of the competition, but it was a close tie for us with the one of a guy pulling himself through a portal. We were there until about 10am when we wandered over to a shop across the way called the Ulu Shop, named after some cool ancient knives they (and every other gift shop in Anchorage apparently) sell. It was neat in there and we got to look around to get a feel for what kinda tacky gift shop stuff they sell in Alaska, and also search for some more charming items. We were on the hunt for Iditarod and Fur Rondy specific items and we found some nice little trinkets for keepsakes, but we were still on the hunt for more!
In a stroke of good luck we found a sweet Things To Do map right outside the Ulu Shop so we located a few places we wanted to check out and headed off. The city is on a grid, so Letter Streets going up and down, Number Streets going left and right, which means it's WICKED easy to get around! Everything is organized! Everything is logical! Everywhere else is wrong, this is so effective! We navigated our way to the Anchorage Museum where we checked out the gift shop, because I believe museum gift shops are basically museums all on their own, but we found out that today is the First Friday so the museum is free from 6pm-9pm tonight so we figured we'd just go back later tonight if we still felt up to it rather than cough up $20 because we're, how you say, cheap Scrooges.
We found our way then to a local and well known little shop called the Kobuk (after stopping in a tacky tourist shop called Polar Bear Gifts), which is half novelty items, half coffee and tea cafe. They have hot chocolate there which Jess and I thought about getting but elected to come back and get it when we were sure we really wanted it. While there, however, we saw a woman wearing a cool Fur Rondy pin and asked her if they sold it there. She said no, but she couldn't remember where she got it. Either the 'Tourist Center' or the 'First Floor of the mall'. Not a lot to go on, but we checked our map to try and see if those places were listed. We went first to the 5th Avenue Mall, which we'd passed earlier and kinda knew where it was, but the only shop that seemed to sell tourist-y stuff, Once In A Blue Moose, didn't have it. We then checked the map and located something called the Visitor's Center and figured that was likely what she meant and headed over. That was also not the correct place, but the woman working there was very helpful and enthusiastic to tell us anything and everything she knew about being in town for the start of the Iditarod. She directed us to the Fur Rendy HQ, saying that was where we'd find anything we could want for keepsakes, but told us to also stop into the log cabin next door, the original Visitors Center. It also operated as a visitor center of sorts in there, but a lovely, cozy one. There was all wood furnishings inside and a wonderful fireplace, so it was nice and warm and welcoming! There was also, cool enough, a free postcard service they do where you can get up to five free postcards to fill out and they'll post and mail them for free! Must be part of an advertising campaign to encourage more people to travel to the area, and I think it's great!
We were right down the street from the Fur Rondy HQ so it only took a few minutes to get there. Inside we were ask if we could fill out a Fur Rondy survey, which we're always happy to do, so Jess filled it out while I went looking about and lo and behold! I found it! Along with a bunch of other memorabilia stuff from past Fur Rondys which was cool to look at. After debating with myself because I HATE parting with money, we got our little trinket and headed back out into the snow, satisfied with all our purchases for the day! At that point we'd been out and about for around 4 hours and were ready for lunch!
We got back to our hotel at 1:40pm and went to check out the hotel shop, which had been closed when we'd left in the morning. We didn't find anything we liked, EXCEPT the EXACT pin we'd been chasing all day! The hotel sells it too! We had a great laugh with the store manager, who let us pet his dog who was at work with him for the day, and discussed Twin Things as he is also a twin! We all really bonded over the stupid questions we get asked and how much we enjoy being twins. It really is the best. He had to get back to work though so Jess and I said our good-byes and ordered some Buffalo Chili to-go from the Hooper Bay Cafe in the lobby ($9, eck, but I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation) and headed up to the room to settle in for a few hours. The Blanket Toss, our next task on our agenda, wasn't until 4pm, so we had time for a little lunch break. The chili was totally amazing and I'd say actually worth the $9, it was a pretty decent portion size, and there's nothing better than a warm bowl of chili on a cold winters day! We ate a couple of our other snackies, the bagel and the apple pastries, and chilled out watching Home Town on HGTV to unwind and relax a little.
At 4pm we got ourselves ready and headed out into the cold again for the Blanket Toss! It's an Alaskan tradition of basically strangers using some kind of skinned blanket to chuck people in the air. Sounds great to us! So, we took off to find... nothing. Nothing anywhere. We wandered around the carnival, which we're gonna formally go to tomorrow, but we didn't find anything that looked like a blanket toss. We asked a worker at the carnival and she said she didn't know anything about it. Another worker said it already happened yesterday. Yet another worker said it already happened on the 29th of February, then looked it up and said it as happening at 5:30pm on a different street. So no one knew anything about any of this is the gist we got. We elected to head back towards the Fur Rondy because if anyone would know anything about it, it'd be them. We tried to ask the Iditarod Booth on the way but the man there as hard of hearing so we moved on and got to the HQ where a man finally pulled out a magazine with a pamphlet that said it would be happening around the carnival, and had happened every day for 3 days prior as a repeating event, but it was actually at 5:30pm, not the 4pm that was advertised online.
All that was fine with us as it gave us time to hit one more gift shop to look around then hit the hotel lounge to get their evening appetizers before we headed out again! We stopped in Grizzly Gifts and got all caught up in the Russian Dolls. While opening one of them to count how many were inside we dropped the tiniest one under a cabinet and while pulling it out I found two more lost doll pieces. We then spent the next 20 minutes trying to locate where they went but we had to relent and realize it just wasn't going to happen. When a worker came to ask if she could help we had to sadly hand over the two lost toys and she placed them on a shelf with more of them. Apparently this is a notorious issue. Having spent so much time playing with them, though, we decided it was a sign to buy on and parted with the $20 and I'm so glad we did! It's so cute! Then we headed back to the hotel, purchase in hand, to the appetizers. The food was ok, it as some weird cheese dish thing and the most bland salsa and chips known to man, but food is food so we ate up! We also decided to just make a trashy sandwich using the complimentary bread slices for the cheese dish, and the meat and cheese platters. Again, food is food! We ate until 5:20pm then go re-geared up in our room to face the cold and headed out once more. From our window we could see people getting ready and we were hype! Firstly, because it's cool, but also because we weren't crazy and this event was actually real.
There was a bit of a crowd forming so we just stood around for a few minutes until we found an opening to grab a bit of the blanket rope to help toss, because we really just wanted to be part of it all! It as pretty simple, there's like 40 people holding rope threaded around the outside of the blanket and on the leaders command we gave three stabilized bounces before we hurled the person on the blanket skyward! We threw mostly kids at first, cause that's the easiest on everyone to toss, but he said adults who were tossing were first in line before children to get tossed, and Jess of course asked to get sent up! She was so spooked! Her face when she got chucked up was just priceless! But she had an awesome time and I was so glad she got to do it, this was one of the main things on her list to even just watch so to be part of it was fantastic! We both continued to toss for while, but a lull in children lined up occurred so Jess told me to volunteer to go and he sent me on!
I actually managed to stand on my second throw, as you get 2 throws but if you manage to land in a stand you get 3, so I got to go up a third time, but I didn't land that one. Still, it was wild up there! The trust you have in people, the weightless feeling, the crowd cheering as you go up and land, just outstanding! A girl next to us, Elena, also went up and we volunteered to hold her purse and film her flying. The three of us chatted for the rest of our time throwing, until 6:30pm when all our hands just gave out and we had to say our good-byes following an hour of tossing! We were on our way to the museum for the free night and that as on the way to her hotel so we kept talking and were happy to invite her along to the museum with us since she was chill and we were having a good time! She trusted us to hold her purse, there's a bond.
It was bedlam on the first floor of the museum, because of course, but we got our free cookies and wandered around the Discovery Center where we played with bubbles, sand, air, and water in the name of science and saw the homelessness gallery. The second floor had a beanbag section where you could sit and watch outside the giant glass windows so we chilled there for a little bit, remembering that it was 11:30pm back in Florida so we were naturally getting tired. We still pressed on though, checking out the Inuit art and clothing exhibits before heading to the fourth floor in the elevator, specifically to see a strange 3-piece country band that was playing in the enormous elevator for apparently the whole evening, so that was super cool! The fourth floor was just a movie, which we didn't wanna sit and watch, but it had a fun lever-pull swing thing here you could sit, pull yourself up by the rope, then drop yourself down. I have no idea what it was supposed to represent or teach, but it was fun! We walked down the stairs to the third floor to see an exhibit on Snow Travel, featuring exhibits of old skis, snowboards, snow mobiles, snow plans, snow sleds, and more. They had the whole exhibit covered in white carpet though, so you had to put on these weird shoe-covers before entering which begs the question "Why carpet it at all? Does it really add that much to the exhibit?" Not that I really cared or was bothered, it was just odd, but hey, that's art! Right?
We needed to get back to the hotel in time for our 7pm-9pm deserts so we sped through the last to floors a bit, just fast enough to keep ourselves moving, and walked a bit of the ways back with Elana. We had to part at a street crossing but we asked for her Insta and hoped to see each other again at the start of the race or the Running of the Reindeer the next day. Jess and I shuffled back to the hotel, dropped off a few layers of clothes at our room, and hit the lounge to grab some cocoa, soda, juice, and today's treat: mini red velvet cupcakes! Delicious! We talked to another couple there briefly about the blanket toss then headed to our room at last to relax! We got into our comfy winter jammies, threw on My Lottery Dream House, and settled in with our cocoa and snacks for the evening, ready to relax to be prepared for the next days race, the whole reason we're here and the most important part of the trip! No pressure, but I expect tomorrow to exude brilliance and perfection. But no pressure.
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