July 1, 2008

Today we headed to Alyeska, a ski resort area.  On our way there, we stopped off to stretch our legs.  It was windy, which was a good thing, since the mosquitos were plentiful!

During our bus ride, Gigi had her own seating area.

Here she is playing peek-a-boo with Grandpa.

Our next stop was at the Iditarod headquarters.

Here, we got to see some of the dogs.

Here's Gigi petting a puppy.

This little puppy was so gentle and loving.  

He really made Gigi happy!

A silly picture.

We got to see some of the working dogs, but the handler warned us not to pet these dogs.

Gigi was all ready to start her dog race training.

Somehow she ended up in the sled with the same puppy.

After all that excitement, Gigi crashed in the bus.

We took another quick stop to stretch our legs.  Here's Papa and Gigi being silly, again.

We had to get a picture of Gigi with her street.  :)

We stopped again at a little park where you could look at the river.  Here we stretching our legs with Grandma.

Gigi actually wanted to get a little more exercise in and decided to do some hanging exercises like in gymnastics class.

There was a highly renown restaurant at the ski resort.  We took a tram to the top and had a wonderful dinner.  There really wasn't a kid's menu, but luckily I had packed some food.  Here's Gigi eating some hummus.  :)

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed a leisurely dinner, but the three of us had to eat and run.

We had to rush back down to the hotel for our dog sledding excursion!

We rode a helicopter to the top of a glacier, where the dogs live for the summer months.

Gigi and I sat in the back seat, while Papa sat up front with the pilot.

Here's the view as we soared up the mountain to the glacier at the top.

Papa looks very relaxed.  In fact, we all were.  The weather conditions were perfect!  The ride was so smooth!  Gigi even fell asleep.

This is the view of the camp as we were descending.  There are 65 dogs and three adults that are up here for the summer.

We got a chance to pet some of the dogs.

It was a real treat for Gianna.

This was the first time that Gianna's ever seen snow.

She had a fun, but challenging time walking around in the boots that the company let us use.  

They were at least three sizes too big for her.

Papa wanted to get a picture of Gigi on one of the dog huts.  A lot of the dogs were standing on top of their homes.  I was too afraid to let go of her, though.  I was afraid she was going to slide off.

All Gigi wanted to do was to play with the dogs.

She was so excited when it was time to load up onto the sled.  Papa actually harnessed one of the sled dogs.  Our team of dogs will actually be racing in the Iditarod.

Here we are with the dogs.

The sun had started to set, and it was quite chilly!

Here's a video clip of our ride.

After our run, we kicked back.  Gigi had a juice box while we waited for the helicopter to pick us up.  Notice "Puppy" came along on the dog sled ride, too.   :)

On the way back down, Gigi and I got to ride up front.  

It was quite thrilling.  Gigi stayed awake this time!

Back at the hanger, Gigi was still full of excitement.  Here she is pointing out the "helicopter" to one of the crew.