ALASKA Days 1 and 2: Anchorage and Denali

I'm baaaaack!!! So today was our main day in Anchorage. Because it is light nearly 24 hours, I woke up constantly because I thought it was 8 am! First, we went to a pancake place and it was very good! Then we took the "scenic" route through Anchorage because we were trying to find the Alaskan Native Heritage center and couldn't find it. Once we reached it, we had Orientation and then followed a tour group that was walking through the grounds. Of course, as soon as the tour began, I fell behind because I was so distracted with taking pictures! There were very awesome totem poles and pretty flowers that I loved to photograph. After "lunch" of a Clif bar and some jerky, I went inside and photographed some high schoolers doing a native dances! Once we finished at the Heritage Center, we drove out to Kincaid Park and trekked through the forest. During our hike, we saw a mom and baby moose! They were just sitting in the middle of the trail and didn't even move once we all began to take pictures of them.
There are mosquitoes everywhere. Everywhere. They are humongous and I'm not exaggerating. They are constantly swarming us... THERE IS NO ESCAPE
Anyways... We got back into town and walked to downtown Anchorage and explored. We went into a bunch of cheesy tourist shops and had dinner. There was a local concert going on, so that was very entertaining to watch! My highlight of the day: I ate reindeer. Sorry Rudolph!!

Day 2: Today was a very fun road trip day! We drove from Anchorage to Denali National Park, and it took quite a long time (7 hours). However, it didn't matter because we were jamming to awesome music the entire time!! We stopped in a little mountain town and I explored a field/landing strip where a bunch of small planes were! I watched a lady demonstrate how to get gold out of the mud without sifting. I ate a reindeer hot dog for lunch and it was delicious!!!!!! I also walked down to the river, and had it been clear, I would have been able to see Mt. McKinley! But it wasn't. So I turned around. Once back in the car, it began to rain, and I succeeded in putting the majority of the van to bed with some really moody and chill music... It was hilarious! What made the long drive so awesome was the fact that every time we saw a gorgeous view or an interesting sight, we would pull over and photograph it! Finally I am in Denali, and tomorrow I think we are going on a long hike! I'm pumped!!!