When we arrived back from the park yesterday we did have dinner at the lodge, King and Snow Crab Nacho's, have you ever heard of such a dish??

By the way, a refreshing ice tea is all they drink over here, not complaining - very nice, and it's normally bottomless too.

I must say yesterday was a wonderful day, it will be a hard one to top, you can tell how much we enjoyed it with so many photos attached to the blog.   As they say pictures tell a thousand words.

However today is definitely another one of those days.   We packed and left our bags out for collection, we were off to the Husky Homestead of Jeff King.   Jeff is a four time Iditarod Sled Dog Race Champion. The Iditarod race which began in 1973 as an event to test the best sled dog mushers, starts on the first Saturday of March every year, and goes from Anchorage with the finish line in Nome, it's the old mail run.  Duration of the race is between 9 to 15 days or more with a team of 16 dogs, of which at least 6 must be on the towline at the finish line.

Puppy Love is in the air! Over 30 puppies waiting to be cuddled, it was wonderful seeing them all so happy, lots of wagging tails.   We definitely got our dose of licks, cuddles and laughs, as they played with us, each other and the trainers. They did have to put the puppies away whilst the show was on, see photos - so cute.

The show was fabulous, we were shown how the dogs and mushers train in the summer months without snow, and how the hamster wheel helps the dogs exercise.   Judi there were a few dogs that looked like Cindy and Jenny, memories of your lovely dogs came back to me.

I also thought of all my doggie friends that have dogs I know well, and Tahla of course - I wanted you all to be here with us.  Dogs and people in a happy environment, you could tell how much the dogs at the homestead loved their home and what they were doing. 

I forgot to mention that Denali National Park is the only park that is monitored by teams of mushers in the winter. They run around the perimeter of the park to keep watch on things as there are no fences around the park.

We return back to the lodge and have the afternoon to ourselves, making time to download photos, write postcards, blog etc.   You should see postcards soon :)  The cinnamon rolls are so yummy over here, they are fresh baked, warmed and then the butter icing goes on top.

3pm we were transported to the station, for the last leg of our Cruise/Land tour, a four hour ride to Fairbanks in double storey carriages.   Seated at tables in the dome glass window carriage at the top, we go through the Healy canyon, where the surging waters of the Nenana River cuts through the steep-sided cliffs.   We pass by the Denali Lodge which is situated on the Nenana River we stayed at, and was told that it's the largest hotel in Alaska.

Again pictures tell a thousand words, so I will download those tomorrow, for viewing with this blog - so you'll have to return to see those. Another wonderful train trip, we like rail transport a lot. Grandfather wish you were here with us, you would love the Alaska Railway.

We had dinner at 5.30pm in the lower part of the carriage, which still had the large windows for similar views, and fine dined on Sockeye Salmon, and a glass of wine.   Mmm, this is a holiday!

Chillax!! Short for chilling out and relaxing!