We went to the Eagle River Festival on Saturday. All of the little towns have some sort of festival. They all last for three days. We had to choose between the Talkeetna "Moose Dropping Festival" and the Eagle River one. Next year we will probably go to the one at Talkeetna. They had a record crowd of over 5000 people there. Talkeetna has a population of about 700 (but remember, that is all the surrounding area too. So the town itself is not very big.) Eagle River is only 13 miles from Anchorage, so it is quite a bit bigger. We watched the Slippery Salmon Race. In this competition, one had to carry and open can of Coke. a glass and a raw skinned salmon around an obstacle course.
After all that fun, we headed to Anchorage to visit the outdoor market. It is a summer tradition. Hundreds of vendors set up tents in a parking lot. You can get furs, handmade jewelery, Russian crafts, pottery, paintings, etc. In addition you can also get standard commercial makeup and household things and all kinds of Alaska souvenirs. It is a regular stop for the tour buses. There were three of them parked at the market when we were there.
We attended Mass at the downtown cathedral. The priest had all the visitors stand. About 40-50% of the people in attendance were visitors.
