Sunday at Fur Rondy!

Sunday dawned once again bright, clear, cold and after our grocery run, we were off to Rondy. Events for the day were dog sled sprints (finals), shopping and reindeer races.

We arrived downtown about 11:30 and once again went and watched the sleds take off. The dogs appear to absolutely love to run and are ready to go. We lucked out later in the day and actually walked up to the winning sled dogs not knowing it. They were getting ready to drive off and the musher stopped to talk to us for a while. Very interesting. Then it was off to shop as some of the stores were having Fur Rondy sales and you can never have enough winter gear.

We stopped and purchased a couple of items at the Outfitter store (50% discount on everything) and then headed back to the fur shops. Yep – I did it – I ordered Mukluks. They are going to be custom made of dark brown beaver and will be ready in 3 weeks. Just in time for spring. While we were there, something odd actually happened. A beautiful, copper color, sheared beaver jacket jumped off of the rack into my arms and begged to be taken home. It was 70% off and I couldn’t disappoint it. (As I used to say to my Dad – “Just look at the money we saved.” That would drive him nuts. I sure miss him!) It should match the mukluks rather well and this will complete my Alaska clothing ensemble I have been working toward. I just have to remember not to wear it downtown for the Fur Rondy grand parade as last year PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) showed up and caused a stir. It will be interesting to see if they show up again this year. (As a side note – PETA means something different in Alaska. But that’s another blog.)

We wanted to cap the day off watching the reindeer races. This is where someone hooks up a sled (plastic type kids sled) to a reindeer and the kids jump onto the sled and hang on for dear life. Unfortunately, the reindeer were late plus we had mis-leading information from one of the sled dog race workers and we missed it. The local newspaper article has a couple of pictures though.

This week is the Native Crafts show and if it is anything like the one we attended a couple months ago, we will be buying family Christmas presents already!

I am counting down to the Iditarod start. Saturday morning we will be up and out early to get good viewing positions and to go see the dogs prior to the start. Start time is 10:00 am local.