Day 1 Anchorage to Soldotna AK

Here is a map to show where we traveled in Alaska on Day 1

We flew from Seattle to Anchorage early this morning, arriving in Anchorage at about 9:30 am (after a 3 ½ hour flight). Connor did great on the plane, it was a wide open flight, so we were even able to take his carseat on, so he could spend most of the flight there (which he slept the majority of the flight-tired after getting up at 4 am!) 

At the airport in Seattle, notice how much stuff there is! Hope it all makes it :-)

In the airport. I came across this thing called the "tote a tot" it is a small bag that basically converts your rolling suitcase and carseat into a stroller.. it was GREAT!! we had so many people comment on it.. wish I would have thought of it!

In Anchorage waiting for our shuttle.. it was raining. We were "under cover" but it was still chilly.. Connor didn't seem to mind

The RV rental company picked us up. It took a few hours to get checked in, review the motorhome and get our luggage all unpacked and situated. Then we went to town for supplies J Unfortunately we had SOLID rain the whole first day, so we weren’t able to see much of the scenery, but fortunately…. It’s only the first day, and it’s not supposed to stay like this! We HOPE! 

After getting all the things we needed we headed south down the Kenai Penninsula. We stopped about and hour down the road to take pictures and so Jeremy could "glass" the mountain side for Dall Sheep.. Notice Connor asleep in his carseat.. While he is facing backwards like he is supposed to, he doesn't mind because he can see into the motorhome and out the window :-)

Our ride and bed for the next week! Not to shabby...

A little further down the road we came across the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It is a rescue center for Elk, Black Bears, Brown/Grizzly Bears, Musk Ox, Caribou, Bald Eagles and Moose. It was VERY cool.. It was amazing how close we could get to them :-) Not the same as seeing them in the wild, but got some sweet pictures! ** Please note, these animals are all behind fences, while the pictures may look like they aren't, I was able to
shoot photos through the fence. So while we are still VERY close, they are in fenced areas (similar to a zoo)....It was completely safe :-)

Look at the claws on her! No wonder Grizzly's are "feared"

So most bears are lazy, they eat and sleep... She is sleeping about 15 feet from us... very COOL

Beautiful creature :-)

Moose.. He was close enough I could have reached out and touched his nose!

Two baby moose! They were so cute!  

Very curious, came up right to the fence to check us out.

Caribou :-)

Black Bear cubs! They were pacing back and forth so fast this is the best picture I got..

Grizzly bears...They didn't mind the rain!

This one was getting branches out of the tree to chew on...

This bear was about 30 feet away....

While we were driving around the wildlife conservation center I just held connor on my lap, below is a very cute video of him laughing. It took me a while to figure out what he was laughing at, but when I did, it made Jeremy and I both laugh :-)

Video of Connor laughing....

 

Some of the scenery.. because of the weather, we aren't seeing as much as we'd like, but it is still BEAUTIFUL!!

We drove as far as Soldotna Friday night, where we just camped in the parking lot of the bear watching/fishing guide company as we had to be there to check in at 8 am Saturday morning.