First, I won the Twinkie Town competition! Thanks for all the votes…
Today was a lot of driving as I had to get from Talkeetna (currently in the running for my favorite town in the United States) to Seward. I splurged on my lodging for the last day and… wow. I’m currently in bed, looking out across Resurrection Bay at the Kenai Mountains. And the bed is really comfortable too!
On the way down, I made two detours. First was to Girdwood and the Mt. Alyeska ski resort. I road the Alyeska tram to near the top of the mountain and hiked the rest of the way. I even made a snow angel at the top! And of course, I stopped and hung the camera on a tree (just at the edge of the treeline) and filmed an Alaska Minute.

My second detour was to Hope. I had heard it was a preserved mining town, but when I got there, I discovered that it was all shut down for the winter. I was mentally cursing myself for going an hour out of my way for nothing when suddenly I spotted a moose — my first Alaskan moose! She was just laying the yard of the old Hope schoolhouse. I was going to take a movie of her, but the camera died — but not before I got the following still shot.

As I drove away from her, I almost found myself needing some of Sarah B’s advice — another moose darted across the road right in front of me! Luckily I was only going about 15 MPH, so I had plenty of time to stop. The second moose was male with some nice antlers. Unfortunately, the camera battery was still dead, so you’ll have to take my word for it!