Eagle River

Hello everyone. I missed you. You know it is October and that is flu season. My computer caught the N1H1 virus. I had to have it repaired and it took a couple of days. You forgot how dependent you are on a computer to keep tied to family and friends. So I hope you all are healthy.

I can't tell you how much I am learning up here. The students are teaching me so many things. The natives I work with are getting use to me asking all sorts of questions about the different cultures and words for the different cultures. I am learning words but I have forgotten which "tribe" the word belongs to so I say "Oh it is Alaskan". It works!!!

I feel like a native when it comes to moose. I don't immediately reach for my camera and I am pretty calm when they are close to me. So on Friday night I was stopped at the stop light. On the left hand side of the road was Mr Moose (bull) and he was grazing. I was shocked how big his horns are. Then all of a sudden a THUD at my driver side window. I jumped - somethings are still the same - and there was Mrs Moose (cow) kissing my driver side window. I looked over once I realized what the noise was and all I could see where her boney knees (at my eye level). She is tall. Then behind her were her twins, also grazing in the median of the road. I have been told by the locals that a car to a moose is like a match box car to humans. Now how is that for a vivid comparison!! I washed my car for the first time to remove the moose goo from my window. Her snout was so big and very flabby cartilage. Actually very ugly snout. I was amazed she had about a 6" beard. I am sure there is a technical name for it but all I can think of is beard.

I have found the Dollar Store in Anchorage. There is only one and it is actually the $2 store. Everything is $1.99. I guess because things arrive on barges they are allowed to charge more. If you recall from last blog, I attended the "Coupon Queen" information night. Well, I won't be quite as serious as these ladies. She brought her grocery cart full (over the top) to demo and she paid $27.19. She spends about 3 hours a week clipping coupons, driving to different stores, receives the Sunday flyer from the lower 48 (more in a minute) and shops only when things are on sale. For instance, her big box of cereal cost her about $1.25 instead of $4.00. Okay so it does pay off but for one person I don't want to spend 3 hours clipping coupons, hunting down different stores and stock piling toothpaste! We do not get Sunday coupons like the lower 48. So for $8 per month, you can have a person in the lower 48 ship you their Sunday coupons and they are good up here. So, I have been much more conscious of the sale items combining it with my coupon and my sweet neighbors prints me off additional coupons. So my Dawn dish soap cost me .73 cents last week instead of closer to $3. Not bad. So my savings from store coupons is spent at the $2 dollar store. Go figure!!!!!

So I thought I would show you around Eagle River and where I live. Perhaps the next open weekend I will show you around Anchorage. Eagle River has a population of about 25,000 and is quite diverse (military, civilians, locals and imports - that's ME). The average rain fall is 16 inches and the annual ER snowfall is 69 inches. ER usually experiences several "chinooks" in the winter. These are unusually warm dry winds that melt the snow and gives a brief snow melt. Then in the spring it is called "Break Up" and that is when the ice breaks up on the rivers and lakes and the fishing season begins!!! Eagle River is the home of the first Iditarod Dog Sled Race Check point. Nowadays, Eagle River is no longer the first check-in point because ER has been so developed it is easier and safer for the mushers to check-in in Willow. Willow is a town just this side of Wasilla (Willow is also Sarah Palin's daughter's name). Eagle River also sits in the base of the Chugach Mountain Range and so we have a 360 degree view of these beautiful mountains and forest. I also have the luxury of looking out my back door towards the Pacific Ocean, Cook's Inlet and on clear days I get a great view of Mt. McKinley. Just a quick sidebar - Mt. McKinley is the highest peak in North America with a height of about 20,350 feet. The locals tell me that Mt McKinley is actually bigger (in rise) than Mt Everest because Mt. Everest sits higher up sea level from the base and Mt. McKinley sits lower on the sea level. I am just repeating what I am told by the locals. Mt. McKinley can get -60 degrees in temperature and -120 degree wind chills. I won't be attempting that any time too soon. So back to my back door view, I can see Mt. McKinley most clear days and it is about 160 miles north of me. I guess there is a lot to be said not having pollution or high rise buildings to block such a gorgeous view.

My pictures are from around Eagle River. The one closest to the narration is out my back door. The "Sleeping Lady" or Susitna range covered with Termination Dust. Two Sundays ago, I took a picture of this same view and it was filled with golds, yellows, and orange colors. Fall was upon us. On Monday, well you can see what we woke up to. I told the locals I call that snow not a Dusting of snow. It is funny driving to and from school with the sun shining on the fall colors and the snow capped mountains in the background. The next picture I am trying to be artistic as I hiked up the trail and got almost into the snow. Don't you love the bus stop. No that is not an out house. That "bus stop" has a cute wreath inside of it decorated with Halloween items. Some mom has too much time on her hands to decorate a bus stop!!! I asked how the school buses get up and down the mountains and I was told the buses have thick chains on the wheels. Next is a mailbox. I bet that person is a big fisherman. Eagle River takes pride in its artists. The fire hydrants are decorated to match the nearby industry. Here is the fire hydrant at the ER post office. Cute huh? Then the ER post office. See it looks like anywhere USA. Next is the long gray building, not so aesthetically pleasing is the library and municipal offices. We have a six-plex movie theater and the dark picture (operator error) is our 24 hour WALMART!!!! You can't see it well but it looks like a fishing/hunting lodge. So appropriate. Then my favorite grocery store, Carrs, and in the lower 48 it is called Safeway. I learned from the Coupon Queen that Tuesdays are "container days". That means the barges arrive with new food/clothing items so the best day to shop in Anchorage and Eagle River is on Thursday. See what important information you learn from the locals. Then our big bank in Anchorage is Wells Fargo. Looks fairly normal like most banks. Then there is the local Baptist Church. It is very small (not like G'town Baptist Church). Then the fire hydrant by the school - note the painting of a school crossing guard. Cute! Yes I know it is. Then our local liquor store. I had to go buy an airplane bottle size of vodka the other day. My recipe called for 2 tbsp. of vodka. I think it is the first liquor I have purchased in 30 years! Gosh, I forgot all those little things David did for me. Buy the liquor, take out the garbage, kill the spiders. Oh, wait, Alaska doesn't have household spiders. This is the electrical box many houses/apartments have so the owners can plug in their cars for the block heaters. I am so lucky to have a two car heated garage and I don't have to worry about this chore. Any my last picture is also out my back door up about 2 blocks and it is looking at the Pacific Ocean and/or Cooks Inlet. I have been told if I take my binoculars on some days I can see the whale migrating.

Well, I hope you have a better idea about where I live up here. I explore every chance I get. I drive, hike, or bike a new road, trail or highway so I can take it all in. Next weekend I am flying to Juneau with a teacher friend. I hope to have some great pictures of this ocean side town. The locals call that part of Alaska the panhandle. I guess I can see it. I like the Alaskan comparison to a hand. If you hold your right hand in a fist and then stretch out only your thumb and index finger that is Alaska. The kids taught me this!! The thumb is Juneau and Ketchikan (pointing down) and the index finger is the Kenai Peninsula (pointing away from the wrist). The kids love teaching me almost as much as I love teaching them. I hope to a few pictures from school soon. I told the students I think it isn't right to speak their local tongue when I am around because how am I going to know what they are saying. The boys respond, "That is exactly why we do it Miss Sheryl." I told them I am going to understand them one day!
Until next blog. Gee-Kun-Gee (That is I love you in Yupik. I can't write the words yet because it has so many vowels. I am focusing only on pronouncing the words.)

Sheryl (Nanook of the North)