Seward, Alaska

Happy November to all of you! You might be getting tired of my moose stories but here are my two moose friends from last week at school. The big bull moose (rack was about 6 feet) was outside the classroom windows. I did not take my good camera to school so these two moose pictures were taken with my little Instamatic camera. Mr. Bull Moose stayed around for about 2 hours just eating the bushes. The next day a group of us were walking to our cars (after parent conferences) parked along the street so the parent could park in the parking lot. This mom moose was sitting on the other side of the sidewalk form my car. I had someone hold my teaching bag and I took a picture of the moose. If you zoom in you will see that her hair is standing up which is a sign that she was agitated. So I got in my car from the passenger side and slide over to the driver seat. Gosh, I haven't done that since I dated David in high school. Oh what sweet memories! I really am getting less excited about meeting so many moose.

Saturday (Oct 31) my friend, Beth, and I went to Seward, Alaska. Seward is on the Kenai Peninsula and the peninsula is about 9,000 sq miles. That is larger than the Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware combined. Seward was named for President Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Seward, who engineered the Purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. It is a fishing, hiking, kayaking, sailing, cruise stop, and artisan area. It is a typical Alaskan "cute" town. So as we head to the Southern Peninsula traveling through the Chugach Mountain range with some elevation of about 3500 ft. You can see the snow covered mountains and the no snow mountains which are much lower in elevation. Spectacular! Seward is a small community of 2,000 (who live there year round). The picture shows a typical street in Seward - lots of modest and colorful houses. The next is a picture of one of the many small churches around town. This is the pink Episcopal Church. It reminded me of Juneau because the forest is behind it and the ocean and mountain range in out the front door. I had forgotten that the original Iditarod went from Seward to Nome. Nowadays the famous race goes from Anchorage to Nome (1,050 miles in less than 9 days) and the hoopla all takes place in Anchorage. Seward is very proud of the hometown boy, Mitch Seavey, who won the 2004 Iditarod. Our next stop was to Alaska Sealife Center. Talk about amazing. It is the animal (mammal and bird) recovery, rehab and return center in all of Alaska. We happened to show our teacher ID's and found out teachers get in free. That's great. In September and May over 10,000 Anchorage students ride the Alaska train to Seward for a day at the Sealife Center and then they take the train back. I will have to volunteer to chaperon that day trip. I don't know if I have told you I started to wear socks just recently. The weather has turned chilly and I decided to wear my new boots today. As Beth and I walked around and learned all about these wonderful Alaskan rescue sea mammals and birds, my sock on my right foot kept slipping down in my boot. Not my left foot just the right one. So during our first hour of touching and learning I had to stop frequently and pull up my right sock. It was really annoying having my sock all wadded up in the toe portion of my boot. Not the left sock! So I continued taking some amazing pictures, some through thick glass. Finally Beth told me to leave my sock alone. So I decided to leave it alone and ignore it. I did just that. About half an hour later a man taps me on my shoulder and says, "Ma'am, I think you dropped this." It was my sock!!! I ignored it so much it worked its way right out of my boot. Beth and I laughed until we cried. When I got home I googled how to keep socks up and not slipping down your foot. They suggested using calf garters!!! Can you believe that? Can you imagine how cold those metal grippers would be in Alaska in the winter?? I will have to think of something else. Another Warmboldian moment. Beth was glad she was able to witness a Warmboldian moment.

Back to the sealife center. I would be able to tell you more specifically what the pictures are but the Sealife Center flyer flew out of my hand as we walked along the very windy and very cold (16 degrees) ocean walk. I felt bad about littering in the ocean. But that orange thing is an anemone that is about 9 inches tall. Isn't that neat. The next tank is called the "spooky" tank filled with ghostly and goblinny anemones. Next are Salmon eggs that have been buried by a mom. They will hatch in the spring for a delicious meal. The octopus is really ugly up close. His name "Killer Sam". We never found out why they named his "Killer Sam" so we just remembered it. The first bird is cute and the second bird is a Puffin. You probably think of the black, white, and orange beaked bird. This is it in with its winter coat. They really need a winter coat. We were outside for a about 7 minutes and had to go inside to warm up. It would probably have helped if we took our coats and gloves into the Sealife Center. The coats did a lot of good in the car. And now the best part. We took advantage of the hands on encounter with mammals. It was amazing. We spent an hour with sea lions and sea otters. They are only a cute that a mother could love. The Sea lion was putting on show for us the entire time. She was there for a study for pregnant sea lions. She was being trained how to enter the holding carriage so they can take all their data for the study. Then we met Tonga and Spencer. Tonga is the son who I think is ADD and Spencer is the father. Tonga never stopped moving and wanted to be with us every moment. We got to meet them, teach them to roll over, give a high five, and "point" (put their nose on a buoy) and hold that position. When they complete a hand task, they are rewarded with a "good boy" and fish. Lots of fish. I actually touched fish cut in half and fed it to the boys. It took me three attempts to put my hand in the fish bucket because the fish eyes and blood was slimy. ( I know this because Beth went first). These big boys (100-250 pounds) eat a lot of fish. We were surprised to learn that they sleep on land and when the caretakers arrive in the morning, the fur is fluffy and much lighter in color. It was an wonderful learning opportunity for us. The extra reward was being told that Seward is normally cloudy, foggy and rainy but it wasn't today!! Just perfect - sunny and clear but a tad bit cold. So after eating a local dinner, we got ready for our return trip to Anchorage. The final picture is from the Chugach mountains at about 6:45 pm. You can see the beautiful pink reflection on the snow-covered mountains and the blue sky. Now for an extra special treat. Look carefully. Look in the center of the picture, in the blue sky just above the middle of the mountain range and you should see a full moon. I think that was so neat. The gentlemen at the scenic view stop had several tripods, cameras and a cooler of beer waiting for the perfect picture. We pull up and chat a minute and I said I just want a pretty picture. The one guy kind of chuckled and said you will need to frame your picture using a tripod to get a good picture. I am sure his picture turned out great but I like the hidden rising moon on Halloween!!!

I hope you enjoyed your drive and visit to Seward, Alaska - I sure did. My family arrival countdown is 21 days. I am getting excited to show they around this wonderful State. Until next weekend.....

Gee Cun Gee (Inupiq for I love you)

Sheryl the Nanook of the North.