Power Shopping and Elevator Blues

This is the new Pisten Bully 600 at Kincaid Park.
It has nothing today with today's post, but I forgot my camera today.

I'm still in Anchorage for the 2008 cross country skiing Junior Olympics and today was the last non-race day. It is hard to believe it has already been a week since we set out on this journey. Classic race Friday and the team relays on Saturday, then we're back on that big airplane to Minneapolis.

The high was again above freezing today, but temps dipped into the 20s last night. We're supposed to have teens tonight and upper 20s tomorrow, so let's hope the course is fast and that Mike hits the wax!

We (i.e. the parental units) started out to "get a couple of things" from the shops in downtown Anchorage today. We left the apartment about 11:30 a.m. We returned at 5:45 p.m. Yes, we did some power shopping today. I guess it wasn't all shopping. I learned what an "ulu" is (http://www.ulu.com/aboutulu.htm) and we saw videos about the earthquake of 1964 and one about Denali National Park. We had lunch at a downtown deli and what trip to Alaska would be complete without finishing the day with some Moose Tracks ice cream?

A group of skiers, including Jay and Madeline but we're not sure who else, went to the Portage Glacier today (same place we tourists went on Tuesday). Jay said it was an incredible trip - that it gave him a taste of Alaska's beauty (see my post from Tuesday for photos of the glacier).

Meanwhile, this just in from the Westmark Hotel, Madeline reports that she and Olivia and 17 of their (now) closest friends got stuck in the hotel elevator for 40 minutes tonight. The elevator sign notes the capacity at 2600 pounds. Nineteen people. Do the math. The machine slowly descended down and stayed put. This apparently was not the first occurrence this week, according to the hotel operator. People were sweaty and there was condensation everywhere, but apparently there were no claustophobes and no one lost it.

More tomorrow....