myumyumyu

I went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and the Alaska SeaLife Center this weekend. I also have some food stories, so this post is probably going to have a higher picture-to-word ratio than some of my other recent posts.

Both animal centers have rehabilitation programs for animals that are orphaned, injured, or otherwise in need of care. The Wildlife Conservation Center has nearly two dozen interns, people my age, who live at the Center and learn to work with all of the different animals that are housed there. Scott, one of the interns, gave us a tour and introduced the animals. He was really nice and knowledgeable--I was so impressed that he worked with all of the animals, including moose, caribou, muskox, and, my favorite, bears. He introduced me to Joe Boxer and Patron, brother and sister brown bears (their names reflect their sponsors: Joe Boxer, as in the underwear, and Patron, as in the tequila!). They were pretty adorable (and humongous) as they begged for carrots! I asked about their diet and weight, and Scott told me that they can easily eat 50 pounds of food per day (they had just gone through a 10-pound bag of carrots earlier that day), and that Joe Boxer was approximately 800 pounds.

Two brown bears: Joe Boxer (left) and Patron (right)

The SeaLife Center in Seward is an aquarium, research center, marine wildlife rehabilitation center, and science education center. Some parts reminded me of the Liberty Science Center at home, where you could touch stingrays and things like that. There was a fundraiser art auction going on, and one of the pieces was a painting valued as "priceless." Why? It was done by Star, the Steller sea lion!

Star, the Steller sea lion

Spot prawn and starfish

Another really fascinating creature was the giant Pacific octopus. It lays strings of eggs that look like grains of rice and is just a huge and impressive animal.

Giant Pacific octopus with eggs in background

Something else about Alaska is that the weather changes pretty quickly. It's often cloudy with showers, but it can also change to blue skies and back several times within a single day. While at the Wildlife Conservation Center, it was windy, cold, and snowing a bit. As we headed down to the SeaLife Center, it cleared up and seemed like it would be a nice drive:

En route to Seward, AK

Soon, it was raining again. It stopped when we got to Seward, but it stayed gray and ominous:

View of Resurrection Bay from the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, AK

It rained again on the way back to Anchorage.

In food news, I walk past this small deli everyday on my way to work, and the sign advertising udon noodles makes me laugh every time I see it:

"U-Dong" Soup

There are also a lot of hot dog stands all over downtown Anchorage, with the specialty being reindeer sausage. One of the stands is run by Koreans and also has something else to offer:

Kimchi hot dog!

I have to try it at some point, perhaps one day for lunch. I've been missing Asian food, and seeing this regularly made me especially want some Korean food. I did some googling and found out that there's a K-Town-ish area of Anchorage, but it isn't within walking distance. However, I was at the Anchorage Market & Festival again this afternoon and saw that one of the food stands was Korean. It was 4pm, neither lunchtime nor dinnertime, but I had to fulfill my cravings. Soooo good, so worth it. I thought it was expensive at first for $10, expecting to barely get any food for my money as is often the case at street fairs, but then I watched as the woman gave me 9 pieces of meat!

Korean short ribs + veggies + rice from the Anchorage Market & Festival

As far as festival food goes, this was a great deal. Way better than spending $7 on funnel cakes or something like that. Though I did end up buying a big scoop of ice cream right afterwards because there was a flavor called fireweed honey. It was light pink/purple, and I had to get it after I sampled it. It had a nice, light, not-too-sweet but floral taste. The woman running the ice cream stand told me that fireweed is actually a weed, and it can be boiled or eaten raw and is used everything from syrup and jelly to candy and ice cream!

I'm done rambling now. Here is the sunset I watched tonight. Good night!

Saturday, June 9, 2012, 11:20pm, Anchorage, AK