Playing Paparazzi with Sarah Palin, and the Iron Dog 2011

Yesterday, we went into downtown Fairbanks to get in on some of the Iron Dog 2011 action. Before the Grande Finale, the Tired Iron 2011 (races with antique snow machines, things for the kids to do,etc.) was doing it's thing.

Gabe was so excited to do the Kid-a-Pult. He'd been talking about doing it for a couple of weeks.


We put Sarah in a bucket, but I call her a "dud", because she didn't go very far; they didn't want to give her whiplash, so they didn't pull the band back too much.

After the kids had fun for a while, we realized that we needed to go inside for a bit to warm up (it was near zero in temp), so Phil and the kids went off to get hot chocolate while I went to a nearby favorite store to get some more hats, mittens, etc.

I'd forgotten to put some items in our "warm extras bag". Darnit, where's that matching mitten?!

When we got back to the River, I set up camp on the foot bridge to try to get pictures of the winners of the race as they came in. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, was racing. As I was standing there, and waiting, the lady next to me started making small talk, and I asked if there had been a Sarah Palin sighting. The lady next to her then said, "I don't know where she is, but she'd better get here!", then looked at us and whispered, "I'm her Mom.". No doubt, it was because of the resemblance and the voice! We talked to her for a small while, and in conversation, after I mentioned the Kate Gosselin episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska", Mom rolled her eyes and said "What a Loon!".

Now as all this is going on, I text Phillip down below to tell him that the lady next to me was Sarah's Mom. And while we were talking (Mom, the other lady, and I), we saw Sarah's Dad and in a joint effort tried to call out to him and get his attention (for Mom, she wanted him to know where on the bridge she was). I look down a little later at Phillip, and he waves at me and points...he'd been talking to SP's Dad!

You may be thinking "What luck. What are the chances?". At this time in the day, there was a crowd, but it was still small enough. Get it? People began to trickle in as the finish got closer, which was about 1 hr-45 minutes after I first talked to Mom.

To make a long story short, I say goodbye to the two ladies (Mom and the other), and make my way to the finish line and Phillip/Sarah's Dad so that I could take better pics of the finish.

Phillip had a better perspective from where he was, so I figured that I'd get better pictures...of the winners...and of Sarah, who had by then made her appearance. While we were talking to Mom, I think she called Sarah to tell her that she'd better get out to the finish or she'd miss it (I could hear her end of the phone conversation).

So, anyway...here's a picture below of the Winners of the Iron Dog 2001 race. And a, kind of long video, of Sarah, Piper Palin, and Todd Palin's team mate's wife waiting for their team to come in 2nd.

All in all, it was quite a fun and interesting day. You can see more pictures of the day, and of course, lots of Mrs. Palin, if you go to the Alaska album in Photo Collections. Oh, and the guy standing behind me said "She's a lot hotter in person.". I have to agree, she is tiny...and quite pretty.




What you are seeing in the video is everyone waiting for the 2nd place team (Todd Palin and team mate) to arrive. We'd been out all day, and I had to take off a glove to operate my camera, so my fingers were really not feeling like normal fingers should; I needed to put my glove back on, and we all needed to get to some place warm.