Sunday
Sunday was the day of the wedding, and Liv had to join the wedding party early, leaving me to my own devices. I actually had a great day, walking from one end of downtown Anchorage (for brunch at Snow City Cafe, which was really, really good) to the other (for a trip to the museum). I tried reindeer sausage for the first time, and found it quite tasty. I stopped to squint to see Mt. McKinley (too hazy), I stopped in a few shops, and I checked out the outdoor market again. I wistfully checked out some of the fur shops, reminding myself that I live in Houston, Texas and have no need for fur-lined anything. Even if it was amazingly soft and luxurious.
The Anchorage Museum was excellent. It was a combo art and natural history museum with an interactive kids area. The dioramas about the history of Alaska were really well done, and I sort of felt a kinship with Alaskans when I got to the oil exploration section of the exhibit. The Houston Museum of Natural Science has a similar section. The Smithsonian has a wing in the museum, too, with many native artifacts. The highlight, though, was the Mammoths and Mastodons exhibition, which was specially ticketed. I probably spent a full hour going through that part of the museum, and I spent a good 30 minutes looking at Lubya, a baby mammoth that fell into a bog at about a month old 42,000 years ago. She was discovered in Siberia in 2007, and she's given tons of information to scientists, from DNA to the contents of her stomach. It was fascinating, and I almost regretted going without Liv, because I know she would have loved it too. I spent a long time in the gift shop, and I nearly bought a musk ox headband, backing out at the last minute because of the price. But oh my goodness was it soft! I did get a ring carved from a mammoth horn.
After the museum, I went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding, which was on the top floor of the Hilton. It was a great wedding. The weather was perfect, and the bride and groom looked very happy. The ceremony was lovely and meaningful. Everyone looked great. At a wedding like this one, so far from the rest of the country, only the people who REALLY want to be there are there. The drama level is reduced considerably, and Blair and Lewis's friends really loved them. There was lots of dancing and frivolity, and Liv and Blair's friends really were great at bringing me into their party and making me feel welcome. The wedding cake had puffins on it, and the dj was an ipod. The bartender made up wonderful drinks for us, and the food was quite good. We stayed until nearly 2:00 am, and I think we probably would have stayed longer if things hadn't been shutting down.
We walked back to the hotel (in daylight) dreading the reservations we'd made for the next day.
To be continued in next post because livejournal doesn't like long posts right now.
The Anchorage Museum was excellent. It was a combo art and natural history museum with an interactive kids area. The dioramas about the history of Alaska were really well done, and I sort of felt a kinship with Alaskans when I got to the oil exploration section of the exhibit. The Houston Museum of Natural Science has a similar section. The Smithsonian has a wing in the museum, too, with many native artifacts. The highlight, though, was the Mammoths and Mastodons exhibition, which was specially ticketed. I probably spent a full hour going through that part of the museum, and I spent a good 30 minutes looking at Lubya, a baby mammoth that fell into a bog at about a month old 42,000 years ago. She was discovered in Siberia in 2007, and she's given tons of information to scientists, from DNA to the contents of her stomach. It was fascinating, and I almost regretted going without Liv, because I know she would have loved it too. I spent a long time in the gift shop, and I nearly bought a musk ox headband, backing out at the last minute because of the price. But oh my goodness was it soft! I did get a ring carved from a mammoth horn.
After the museum, I went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding, which was on the top floor of the Hilton. It was a great wedding. The weather was perfect, and the bride and groom looked very happy. The ceremony was lovely and meaningful. Everyone looked great. At a wedding like this one, so far from the rest of the country, only the people who REALLY want to be there are there. The drama level is reduced considerably, and Blair and Lewis's friends really loved them. There was lots of dancing and frivolity, and Liv and Blair's friends really were great at bringing me into their party and making me feel welcome. The wedding cake had puffins on it, and the dj was an ipod. The bartender made up wonderful drinks for us, and the food was quite good. We stayed until nearly 2:00 am, and I think we probably would have stayed longer if things hadn't been shutting down.
We walked back to the hotel (in daylight) dreading the reservations we'd made for the next day.
To be continued in next post because livejournal doesn't like long posts right now.