That's 老板, me (=D) and Hanzi from John Hopkin, Baltimore (but coming back to Adelaid soon!)


With Cathy, my colleague from Beijing


daisies along the way

We planned to go south to Sewage but got to Kenai in the end =p. Passed by a gold rush musuem:




 
Are ducks the only animals that enjoy tilting their head so much? =p


gorgeous rabbit skin


some dried plants


gold nuggets - as mentioned in previous post, gold rush once happened in Alaska and there's still gold for panning today. Although similar gold leaves souvenirs etc can be found in Australia (eg. Ballarat), the price here is much lower and of more variety.


Cathy excited to see fox tail =p


Alaskan famous souvenir (which is pretty pricey due to the amount of genuine fur/skin)




Kenai animals refugee center

There's a lake in Kenai and we were being told by the lady in the center that it is possible to observe bears in one of the trail near the lake. This got 老板 really excited and we start discussing what we should do when we encounter one (which is very important, as bears in alaska are like at the top of the pyramid. Therefore they have no sense of danger, and would even clumsily run and bump into people, scaring the people and themselves =D). The best way is definitely to stand still and not move til it goes away. In case it starts to attack, we decided to lie facing down on the ground and using hands to protect our head. If it keeps sitting on us and continue to attack, we would then fight back vigorously =D.

With such devised plan, we think we will have high chance of survival. (Hang on, why are we risking our lives in the first place??).

Anyway, we parked our car at the beginning of the trail, and once we got off the car, we were greeted by thousands of giant alaskan mozzies =___="

But nothing can stop us, we think.

Venturing deep into the forest, constantly slapping the mozzies away.

15min(?) later.

Cathy: Will we really see bears?
Me: Hmm...
Cathy: I can't stand the mozzies anymore...
Me: I think I got 20 bites from the mozzies too...

And the worst thing is, Cathy got bitten on her neck so much that even her face and eye lids were swollen due to allergy (and I didn't bring my anti-histamin along unfortunately). So yea, we didn't see any bears in the end, which, is probably a good thing too =p. (I went to the zoo days later to see bears though)


The lake at kenai which name starts with 's' (I know I am forgetful...)




yes bear with my narcissism




free life jackets for kids


colorful alaskan car plate


we had 22ounces of icy beer




near the restaurant


salmon/trout fishing trip is a popular thing for tourists here during summer


cost around usd150 per day though


due to the road maintenance (well they can only do this in summer), we often have to stop for long time every now and then



But we still made it back on time for conference dinner =D

Halibut (the famous big fish in alaska) and steak



 


traditional dance performance




muddy chocolate cake =D

*Sewage would be more interesting (with glaciers), but we didn't have sufficient time to get there. We got to the north part of Anchorage the next day and explored a glacier there. Will write that up next!