Alaska -- Day 61

Today's walk was much more interesting than our trip to the mall yesterday. We drove to the Westchester Lagoon and part of the Coastal Trail. Both exercise and bird watching were on the agenda. We have always enjoyed seeing wildlife, but really looking at birds and trying to identify them only became interesting during our time at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge this winter. We saw a lot of Canada Geese, some Yellowlegs and a pair of Red-necked Grebes. None of those photos were useable. Here are a couple of gulls. Right now, I'm not sure what kind they are, maybe Herring Gulls.



I'm pretty sure this is a Blue-winged Teal.



A couple of days ago, as we drove around Palmer, I remarked that, with all the ponds, lakes and rivers in Alaska, I imagined there were a lot of drowning deaths. Today we saw this sign and supply of life jackets for children. It seems to validate what I thought.



The Coastal Trail is very popular. Since we started our walk a little before noon and the trail is near downtown Anchorage, we saw numerous runners and walkers. They were obviously Alaskans. The temperature was about 59 and several runners were in shorts and t-shirts. We were wearing coats. After spending the winter in Arizona and the Rio Grande Valley, we think 59 is almost winter.

We saw more beautiful flowers in the park around the lagoon.









Don't you love this statue?



As we were driving to the lagoon, we saw this large fishing poles and reels, holding beautiful flower baskets. What will they catch with this bait?



Have you ever seen this sign outside a UPS store? I guess it is posted only in coastal areas.



We didn't see any moose today, but yesterday, on the way to our RV park, we saw two. Anchorage has a large of herd of moose inside the city limits.