The ceremonial start of the Iditarod, combined with Fur Rondy, is a big deal in downtown Anchorage. Streets are shut down to traffic and overflow with pedestrians cheering for their favorite teams, tail-gating, and generally having a grand time.
Here are a couple of my favorite moments from today:
- Watching a father use the slippery street to teach his daughter to moonwalk
- The kids running onto the trail to collect discarded dog booties
- The mushers high-fiving the crowd as they cruised by
- All the awesome doggy athletes; they look so happy when they run!
- The little girl wearing a dog tail in honor of the racers
- Making friends with a six month old English bulldog named Maggie (Grover’s new lady-love)
- The mutual adoration between crowd, mushers, and dogs
- Topping off the day with a glass of bubbly and good friends
Best of all, it was a sunshiny, blue-sky day. We reveled in the warm weather and good times. It was an Iditarod day to remember.
