The Putman's Take Over

We had a great time in Alaska visiting with Nettie and Walter. I am putting just a few of my favorite pictures up to go along with our week. Everyone knows Walter would do nothing wrong……I think the look on his face on the beach in Talkeetna will dispel that theory. Over our week we looked around every corner just hoping to see a bear in the wild. The only one we got a clear sighting on was this one wearing a Thrasher’s shirt. We did get a glimpse of the elusive brown bear on the trail near Bryan Glacier. But it just turned out to be Walter; we made that mistake a couple of times. It seems Walter is not a “follow the trial” kind of guy. On Monday we rode the train to Talkeetna, as you can see Brian thinks his safety training for Norfolk Southern allows him to pass the sign that clearly just applies to untrained tourists. Once we got to Talkeetna we took a jet boat up 3 of the rivers in the area. We were very lucky and got to see ¾ of Mt. McKinley. On the bus ride back Nettie was returning to her Jekyll Island senior status and took the last seat on the bus. There was a lot of giggling going on back there so the rest of us just faced forward for the ride back to town. After dinner we were heading back to our motel room and we got this great picture of Brian at 10:15 pm with daylight in the back ground. On Tuesday we had breakfast intown and then took a flight plane tour to see Mt. McKinley up close. It was a really small plane, just the 4 of us and the pilot. Because the winds were strong we got about 30 extra minutes on our ride. We got to land on a glacier and have snowball fight. Nettie won when she shoved a handful of snow down Walter’s back. We took the train back to Anchorage that night. Apparently the wild animals did not get the memo to be right beside the train tracks, we only saw a few eagles and Nettie saw a porcupine. On Wed, while poor Walter worked, Nettie drove Brian and me down to Seward where we went on a boat ride out into Resurrection Bay. We got to see sea lions, puffins, seals, eagles, lots of birds, an otter and 2 humpback whales. We tried to make it out around the end of the bay to see calving glaciers but the seas were angry and we had to turn around due to 10 to 12 foot waves. It was really great to ride the waves. There were 3 people that we saw did not enjoy the ride as much as we did. One lady raised her hand to be sick and we never saw her again until we docked. We went to the Seward Marine center and got to see the animals that we saw on the boat up close and personal. That is where they bring the injured animals; it was funded by Valdez after the “spill”. On the way back to Anchorage that night we stopped at Exit Glacier. It was really cool to see glaciers that close up. As most of you know Brian cannot be held back by a little rope, so he jumped the rope and got right beside the Glacier. On Thursday Walter was off work so we went to Whittier and got to ride thru the train tunnel. Whittier is everything Nettie and Walter said it would be……Yuk. It took all of 3 minutes to see the whole place. Back on the main side of the tunnel we stopped at the visitor center and walked up to Bryan Glacier. There is a picture of Walter’s contribution to global warming. You can walk on a piece of the glacier with a river running under it. Walter was walking along and stopped to look down a hole and heard a popping noise and then a chunk dropped about a foot with Walter in the middle of it. Lucky for him he was near the side and caught himself with a boulder. There was a terminal moraine just behind the part we were standing on so Walter and Brian decided to go exploring. Want to guess what was on the other side of the big pile of rock??? That’s right more rock!! We drove over to the Alyeska Resort and Brian and I rode the tram to the top. We got to see some parasailers jump off the side of the mountain. Inside the Alyeska resort we saw a polar bear drinking a Coke. It was amazing how it looked like he had human hands. Driving back to Anchorage we stopped at Bird Creek to watch the fisherman and look for salmon. We talked to the park volunteer and there had been 2 bears fishing in the creek but they did not come out while we were there. On Friday, Walter went to work and we continued to play. We went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see the rescued animals. Nettie found a mold of a brown bear paw. As you can see it is as big as her head. As much as I would have liked to see a bear in the wild that paw print helped me get over it. We wrapped up the day panning for gold in a glacier stream. After an hour no one had found any gold, and we decided we would have not survived in the old days. The water was very cold and moving really fast. That night we ate dinner at a seafood place in downtown Anchorage. We had some great smoked salmon while we waited out the clock for the all you can eat snow crab legs to begin. Once we ordered dinner Brian decided against AYCE and went for a pound of snow crab legs and a pound of king crab legs. They were a lot of work for Brian to get the meat out but the bites I stole were worth it. On Saturday we stayed in town since our flight was that night. We walked down to the train station to do some souvenir shopping. They were having a street market near the station so we walked thru to find some gifts. It was really neat to see the handmade carvings, the clothing made out of muskox hair, things made with fur, and the Avon lady. That evening Nettie dropped us at the airport and we almost gave up our seats for $400 each but they only needed one more seat so we let the guy behind us do it. All and all we had a great time in Alaska. Nettie and Walter were great hosts driving us around all week and doing the sight seeing things that they had already done. Thank you for a great vacation.

They Came and Then They Left

Christina and Brian were here and we had a blast. Christina has the honors of being the guest blogger about her trip. Hopefully she will post soon!

I took Walter to work this morning for the last time. :( Can't believe the summer is almost over!

The Great Outdoors!

The other day we went hiking on Alyeska Mountain. It was great. There were local reports of a black bear and a moose on the pathways. The trail was well marked and was labeled "easy to moderate." Who decides its easy? Easy to an experienced mountain hiker is different than a South Georgia couch potato's easy! Hike wasn't that bad, but it is demeaning to be passed by three and four year olds hiking with their grandparents! We hiked down to a beautiful gorge. The water was so fast and a blue/gray color. The color is from the glacier. The gray color comes from glacier silt. We got to the hand tram that crosses Crow Creek. Walter and I thought that we would do it together. The sign said, "Weight limit 400 lbs." There blows the idea of Walter and I going together. The hand tram is very high in the air and if the cable were to break, you die! Walter got on the tram and realized that the door lock was broken. That cemented in my mind that I wasn't going! Walter got out in the middle and said the views were great. Two streams going into one creek. He also said you could see a hanging glacier from the tram. A hanging glacier is a glacier that hangs on the side of a mountain and doesn't go down to water. I was building up my confidence that I was going to go until a family of 15 came up and pushed me out of the way. They made it perfectly clear that they were next. How rude! Then the mother had to rub it in my face that she was 110 lbs. I could have crushed her with my foot! Walter came back and we went and sat for awhile overlooking the gorge. I decided to try out the hand tram. I was going to work past the door not locking and the tram tipping to one side. I went for it. I got about a quarter of the way out and couldn't handle it. Who monitors the cable? How do I know it will hold me up? I begged to come back in. We finished our hike without seeing any wildlife but did get to see amazing views. The ground is so weird up here! It is mossy and squishy to walk on. When you walk in the forest you king of bounce up and down!
Yesterday was beautiful in Anchorage. We went to the World Eskimo International Olympics. BORING! Not what I expected. Silly, silly white person.....I thought the contestants would be dressed up according to what tribe they were in. I thought it would be organized and very cultural. Nope. We were there during the arm pull competition. Four matches were going on at once. Two people sit in front of each other, lock there arms, and pull. The first person who has their arm straightened is the loser. The matches last about 1 minute. We stayed for maybe 10-15 minutes. Maybe it is different at night, but I was unimpressed at the day competition. And, some of the competitors didn't even look native. Turns out you only have to be 1/4 native to compete. Crazy! We went on our way. We went to Subway for lunch. I begged for a Bacon-a-tor. I love the commericals!!!!!!! Walter said no. What a punk! We went again to Alyeska Mountain and hopped on the tram to the top of the mountain. Walter was thinking of paragliding. The tram was very short, not long at all. A little bit of a steep climb. Another guy on the tram started talking about the tram in Albuquerque and how this one (Alyeska) was much longer and steeper. Uh, no!!!!!! The one in Albuquerque is the longest (or use to be the longest) in the world! The guy didn't know what he was talking about. Walter held me back. He didn't want a fight starting in the tram. Walter says I need to work on my rage issues. What? The top of the mountain was nice. We watched some paragliders taking off. There was a German film crew doing a reality show. So, anyone in Germany, watch for Walter and I in the background of the girl in white jumping off! We hung out at the top for a little while. We then went on to Portage Glacier. Portage Glacier is about 5 miles from Whitter (Yuk!) on the other side of the tunnel. We had coupons, so we went on the tour boat in the lake to go and see the glacier. The glacier grows and shrinks every year. It takes about 5-7 years for snow to turn into Portage Glacier. It takes 9 feet of snow for 1 foot of glacier. Pretty interesting! The glacier wasn't calving at all. No noise. No big pieces dropping off. The guide said that is because it is not over water right now, it is over bedrock. Active calving glaciers have water under them that undermines the structure. Didn't know that either! It was interesting to see where the glacier would grow to through out the years. There were little gravel deposits on the shore- a mini terminal moraine. A terminal moraine is at the end of a glacier and it is a build up of gravel. There were mini ice burgs in the lake from previous calves. The captain thought it would be cute to try and run them over. Made for a few nervous moments on the boat. Wonder if the Titanic captain was doing the same thing? While we were on the boat, we spotted a black bear wondering around on the mountain side. Too cute! We decided to take another hike to Bryan Glacier. Rumor had it that a brown bear sow visited the trail. Once again, no bear! Walter picked up some neat rocks along the glacier creek. We went on our way back to Anchorage and stopped by this amazing tree carving stop. This family carves wood on the side of the road. The dad is building a log cabin himself. The cabin looked awesome! The animal carvings were beautiful! Walter wanted to buy the big Shamu, until he found out it was $5000. The bear carvings were too cute and we will probably be back. We decided to stop by the Brown Bear Saloon. It was a biker bar. We had a healthy dinner of corn dogs! We decided to walk it off by going down to Bird Creek to see the sliver salmon running. We also have heard that a brown bear comes out to fish in the creek. We have been to bird creek several times and have yet to see a bear. We have seen bear tracks. Lots of silvers running. How frighting for them to swim up stream past all of those hooks! I have often wondered what would happen if there was a wreck on the Seward Highway. The highway is two lanes snuggled up beside the mountains and the water. People drive like crazy on the road! I had my question answered! We drove by another restaurant and a women was changing the marque to say, "Accident Ahead." Hmmm.......... sure enough, there was an accident. We never saw it. We were stopped about 2 1/2 miles behind. We didn't know whether to turn around, hang out, or what! We turned on the radio to find out more info. Nothing! You would think that if one of the two roads in and out of Anchorage was closed, the radio would say something! Walter got out and walked around. I finally got through to the highway patrol phone line after an hour of waiting. All it said was highway was closed at mile post 111 because of an accident. Duh! Walter walked on up about a mile and overheard people saying that the radio said it would be a couple of more hours. What do we do? Turn around? Go back to Brown Bear? Wait it out so we don't lose our spot? Where are the dall sheep to keep up entertained? After waiting 2 1/2 hrs, a line of cars from the other direction passed us. One of the cars was the medical examiner's truck. That doesn't look good! After about another 20 minutes we started to move. It took us a while to get up to the accident. Most of it was cleared. It involved motorcycles and a really big truck. We read in the online paper later that someone crossed the center line and a motorcyclists was killed. Hopefully it wasn't one from the Brown Bear Saloon that we just saw! We got back to Anchorage hours after when we thought we would. Do we go out? Do we go home? We decided to go home. On our way home we passed a moose. I turned around and pulled over. It was the biggest bull moose I have ever seen! It was Walter's first bull moose!!!!! It was huge! It was bigger than the Colbalt! It was probably 8 feet tall. It was eating, having dinner. Didn't care about anyone. Everyone was very respectful towards the moose. No one started shooting the moose or tried to pet it. There were probably about five or so cars pulled over. I think we were all afraid that the moose was going to walk out into the road so we turned on our flashers so people would slow down. The moose started walking towards us. He got into about five feet of us!!!! A car pulled up and had a dog in it. The moose did not like the dog barking. His eyes got really big and walked faster. That car was told it had to go! What a site! We got home and continued reading our books. I am reading a wonderful book about the Rwanda genocide- "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" by Immaculee Ilibagiza. If you believe in God, you have got to read this book! This girl, a Tutsi, lived through the slaughters by hiding in a very small bathroom with 6 other people for 3 months. They couldn't talk or move! For three months! All of her family except for one brother was killed. Sad book, but very powerful! Christina and Brian come in today! Wahoo! I have to start cleaning for them. I know, I know, I am a bad wife. Walter is gloating today because evidently he is a weather man. I wanted to go to Portage Glacier today because they are having a festival. He said it would rain today so we should go Saturday. He was right! What a man! Ok, seriously I must go! Later!
PS- you will see that one of the pictures is at sunset of a mountain top way in the distance. To the right of the mountain top is some trees. You may be able to see another mountain top behind the trees. That is Mt. McKinley. I know that there are some doubters out there. But, I have asked people who are from Anchorage and they have said that you can only see the top of Mt. McKinley from Anchorage. I also consulted with a diagram that shows mountains from Anchorage. Once in for all, the Princess bus driver was wrong about this one. :)

Another Beautiful Day

It is Saturday morning and it is great outside. We are getting ready to go to the World Eskimo Olympics. Walter wanted to go last night to see the seal skinning- I said no. One of the competitors in the stick tug of war was the guy who sold us Baleey. He was on the news. The event Walter wants to see today- white man vs. native woman tug of war. Last night we walked up to a small park downtown that shows what mountains you can see off in the distance. It was around sunset. It was clear enough to see the top of Mt. McKinley. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't the mountains that are in front of our apartment. We are getting excited to see Christina and Brian. We went down to Ship Creek the other night. The slivers are running, along with the last of the reds. It was neat to see both types of salmon swimming together. The reds didn't look too good. Some of them looked like they were starting to rot already. I will post later about the Olympics.

Introducing Baleey....

Here she is..... I can't stand it straight up because the piece is too tall. We are also now taking donations for baleey. We didn't consider shipping costs.....

Animals

So I am thinking that I can't live in Alaska. I am too much of an animal lover. I open the paper up everyday and, Bam! Another animal has died. Sometimes it is at the hands of a Fish and Wildlife man, sometimes cops are to blame, cars, a non-native ivy plant, Eskimos at the Olympics. I can't handle it! I have seen advertisements about the Eskimo Olympics coming to town. (Native Alaskans, what is the difference?) How cool is that? I want to go! Walter and I were at the mall and I was reading through the events. Thinking that the events would be similar to regular Olympics, I was shocked to read about some of the events. Ear Tug-of-War........Walking on Knuckles........Laying in a T shape and having people carry you around.... And then I saw it...... The Seal Skinning event. WHAT? Seal skinning? Isn't that illegal? In the contest, the winner is whomever skins the seal fastest with keeping the flippers on. I don't think so! Who do these people think they are?
On this one corner of Anchorage, on the weekends, there are people usually selling baleen. Yesterday we were on our way to the local Fred Meyers and the baleen sellers were out! Walter has been itching for some baleen. I, on the other hand, am not a fan of baleen. Sorry, the thing that is in a whale's mouth that filters out food doesn't float my boat. We decided to pull over and check out what they had. It was a young Native couple from Barrow. They had a nice selection of baleen at a reasonable price. Her mother still lives in Barrow. The mother gets the baleen, cleans it, and polishes it. She then sends it to her daughter so her daughter can sell it on the side of the road in Anchorage. The daughter explains that in her culture you do what your parents tell you to do forever. A little different than in "white man's" culture. The husband seemed a little bitter about it. We went back and forth about what to get. We decided on a 9 foot piece. It is beautiful. As we were looking at the pieces, the woman began to speak about the whale that the pieces came from. All of them were from one whale that was harvested this spring near Barrow. She then continued to talk about how old the whale was. The whale was in the news recently- about a month or so ago. It was the whale that scientists found the projectile in that dated to the 1890s. So, it was harpooned in the 1890s and lived through it! That sold me. We had a little piece of history. I mean, the whale was killed by Native customs and every piece was used. It wasn't like the whale was killed just for fun. We brought "baleey" home in the Colbalt. A little difficult since baleey was almost as long as the car. We are now trying to figure out how to get baleey home. We did make sure that there was a Native signature on it. You can buy things like baleen and ivory if it has a Native's signature on it.
We went yesterday to see the silver salmon in Ship Creek. We didn't see any. We did see some king stragglers still swimming up stream. They looked really tired. We also saw a beaver family building a new home. Very cute! Oh, and the homeless here in Anchorage are not called homeless. I was totally wrong. They are called "public intoxicants." They have a home, they just don't go to it. How wrong I was!
Ok, I must go. Celebrity golf is on and Jack Wagner is about to tee off. Walter doesn't seem envious when I tell him that I saw Jack Wagner in 1985 at the Ohio State Fair. I actually saw him two times that year. He says he feels sorry for my dad! His loss!

Staying local

Hello everyone! Nothing much is happening, although the Young and Restless is getting good! We have been staying in town and doing little day trips.
We went to the Alaska Aviation Museum. BORING! Don't get me wrong, I love airplanes. This place seemed like it was thrown together and wasn't kept up. We went to a restaurant by the airport. I ordered a salad with only lettuce, chicken, and cheese. I got a salad with a green tortilla shell and with the stuff in it that I like, but plus a can of black olives. One or two olives, ok. But what looked like over a cup? I think the waitress was being spiteful! What made it worse was that Walter loved his meal and ate almost every bite. That made for a nice rest of the day! We went to Kincade Park- home of the black bears. Didn't see any bears. But, they are doing major road construction in the park. Maybe that is why the bears are not staying in the woods. The woods have been torn down!
We went to the Girdwood Forest Fair in Girdwood. Girdwood is about 45 miles from here along the Seward Highway. One word that comes to mind: hippiefest. It was really nice. A fair in a forest. You had to watch where you walked because there were no specific pathways. Good music. Everything that was sold there had to be natural and not commercially made. We were having a nice time....until......The day we went was Sunday. The fair had been going on for two solid days. Most people who attend camp out beside the fair. There was a booth that was selling home made macaroni and cheese with reindeer sausage. Who can pass that up? While we purchasing the food, we over heard the sellers talking about what fun they had had so far and that they were doing good so far with the way they were feeling. Basically, they had a late night the night before. Within 30 minutes I had to go to the bathroom. No biggie. That happens. We left the fair and went to a side of the road gold planning place. BORING!!! There is a much better gold planning place in Girdwood. When we got back to town, I started to not feel well. Walter was hungry and wanted Mexican. I was not hungry and didn't order anything. Walter knew something was up- Nettie not eat Mexican? He started to fear that the world was ending. I really wasn't hungry and was feeling nauseous. Plus, the cheese dip was orange! We have yet to find white cheese dip up here. By the time we got home I was really sick. I couldn't get warm, yet I was sweating. I will just leave it at that. Walter, my private nurse, got me some Nyquil. I guess my fever broke and couldn't get comfortable because I was too hot. I was better the next day. Lesson learned: don't eat food on day three of a hippiefest.
Lake. This lake is about 15 miles north along the road to I took Walter to the downtown mall. He got a chair message, sushi, and ice cream. He is mad that we haven't gone to the mall sooner. He loves the mall! We then went for a hike at Eklunta Lake. This is located about 15 miles away along the road to Wasilla. It provides the drinking water for Anchorage. It is beautiful. You can rent bikes and kayaks there. While we were there he heard a helicopter. We don't know what was going on, but an Army or Air Force helicopter had landed on the side of the lake. Some people had gotten off. It took off again and looking like it was landing in the water. We couldn't see anyone getting rescued. The helicopter landed again and by this time a 4 wheeler had pulled up. Then some people got back on the helicopter and it left. We then went to play trivia. I can't brag that I won because if I do that I have to tell about how Walter is beating me at shuffleboard! We sat next to a guy who told us about the Top of the World Bar and Restaurant. It is located on the top floor of the Hilton Hotel. Sounded nice so we walked over. It is awesome! Great views! Couldn't see Mt. McKinley because it was cloudy, but you could see the mountain that the Princess Cruise bus drivers think is Mt. McKinley. We will definitely go back for the views.
Today Walter is working. Bob is sleeping as usual. Young and Restless is on. I have so much to do, so I better get busy. See ya!

More of our adventures....

I must apologize for being in a grumpy mood. I had just gotten out of my 4th of July funk when I opened up today's paper. Headline: "Curious holiday crowd dooms young grizzly." The bear that Walter and I tried to find was shot by police. The bear wasn't doing anything wrong. "A crowd formed, watching the bear, and some approached the animal. Police officer Brenden Lee thought he then had no choice but to shoot it...." He could have made another call to the Fish and Game biologist Rick Sinnott to come and get the bear. Oh that's right, he would have shot the bear too. I would think that if the animal is just hanging out and not bothering anyone, can't they tranquilize the animal and take it into the woods? I am afraid to let Bob out because he might be mistaken for a lynx and shot. On to other things....

We finally made it to Mount McKinley. Walter had it planned out...he checked the weather for days and saw his chance. We drove up to Talkeetna and booked out flight- Grand Tour with a glacier landing. We couldn't decided what we wanted- did we want to fly to the top or land on a glacier? The planes that go to the top (20,000 feet) have oxygen on board and doesn't land on a glacier. The Grand tour only went 14,000 feet. We had lunch at the Roadhouse. It was good- but you only have 6 choices of what to get. It wasn't what it was cracked up to be. We decided to spend the night at the Talkeetna hotel. Cute place. On the outside it doesn't look like much. But the inside is darling. While waiting for our flight, we walked to the river and relaxed. It was a clear day and we could see Mt. McKinley. AWESOME!! It is amazing that most of the time you can't see the mountain! We boarded our flight. It sat 9 people. We were with a couple from Richfield, OH and Japanese tourists. Al was our pilot. Al was a retired nuclear scientist from California. In is spare time he taught stunt flying. I felt safe. Also on the plane were sleeping bags and food, just in case! Our flight was about 1 1/2 hours long. We began our flight. We got to Mt. McKinley and it was spectacular. I think Al went a little higher then 14,000. Shortness of breath was felt by Walter and me. It was so clear up there. We could see the different camps for hikers. I didn't see any hikers, but you could see there path ways in the snow. Al said that Mt. McKinley is a non technical hike, meaning that if you can walk, you can hike it. Sure!!! And, that Mt. McKinley is really taller than Mt Everest because of the vertical climb. When you start climbing Everest, you are already high in elevation. We got to fly around the mountain- it was so close that we felt we could touch it. We landed on Ruth Glacier. There was a small little maintained airstrip up there! As we were landing I could see crevasses just past the air strip. I asked Al about them, he said some of them you can't even see the bottom. At the air strip there was a big hunk of rock in the middle of the glacier. The rock (about 5 acres) was privately owned. A man bought it before it was a national park. The government let him keep the land. He has since died. His wife lives in Talkeenta. She rents out the house on the rock. You can rent it for $85 a night, plus air fare there. It would be pretty neat to wake up to Mt. McKinley every morning. On the way home, we decided to take Hatcher Pass Road. Memories of Denali Highway came to mind quickly. The first couple of miles are paved. The road follows a couple of rivers and creeks. We saw a juvenile moose! So cute!!! The area has gold, I assume, in the mountains. You could see old mines high on the mountain side. I guess once they were done mining, they just up and left. There were a couple of still working mines. We stopped to see beaver dams. They are cute also! The road winded up the side of a mountain to another valley area. Lots of people were hiking. The area was known for paragliding, but we didn't see any. Walter hiked a little. I stayed in the car, didn't feel very well. There was a lake up there too. A guy was getting ready to dive. I don't know what he was looking for. We got off the gravel road and headed back for town. The next day we decided to go to an animal habitat and Whitter. The animal habitat was AWESOME! We drove down the Seward Highway. Of course we saw the Dall Sheep. We see them every time. The babies this time were so active, jumping from rock to rock. The animal habitat is located at the arm pit of Turnagain Arm. These animals were in their natural habitat. We saw elks, buffalo, black bear, brown bear, cyototes. The animals were all active. LOVED IT! We then went to Whitter. Our plan was to have dinner there and maybe stay over night. When we asked what was there, people would say not much. Well, most of the places we have visited have been small- but the places were cute and always had a place to eat and a nice place to stay. We lined up for the Whitter tunnel. Neat-oh! The tunnel is one lane. It is used for both trains and motor vehicle traffic. The tunnel opens up once an hour for traffic each way. You pay the toll and then you are assigned to a lane. We got lane one. We waited for our turn, then the light turned green. When you go through the tunnel you are actually driving on the rail road tracks. Every so many feet were safe houses. If there was a fire in the tunnel, you were to run to a safe house. When you do this you are told to leave the keys in your car and your car door unlocked. We saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Then we saw Whitter. Ah, Whitter. This is the town the cruise ships come into. Wonder why the cruises bus everyone out of Whitter so quick? One look around and you can see why. Imagine what a Soviet era town looks like and that's Whitter. Whitter was a military town during World War II and the Cold War. There are two big buildings that dominate Whitter. Both were military barracks. One building is empty. The other looks like an old high rise condo building. The colors on the outside were peach and cream. 80% of the town lives in the high rise. I think about 1000 people live in Whitter. Can you imagine living in a condo building with the rest of the town? The building also houses the post office and medical clinic. The school was behind the high rise. The scenery was beautiful, but we couldn't wait to get out. Bye, bye Whitter! We stopped by Potter Marsh on the way home. This area is a marsh area beside the Seward Highway where lots of birds hang out. We first saw a family of geese trying to cross the road. Too cute! We then just watched the birds and babies. I heard Walter yelling about something. I looked over and a seagull had crapped all over him. She had a baby and Walter had gotten too close. He said she swooped him once. She then came at him again and when she was about 10 feet away she went to the bathroom. He had just enough time to react. He turned, so it wasn't a head on assault. He had bird crap from his shoulder all they way down to his shoes. She did not want him near her baby! We went to see "Evan Almighty." An ok movie, but I don't understand why all of the animals came to the dam if there wasn't really a flood. Fourth of July was ok. Neat to see the fish swimming up stream. Walter is working and Bob is sleeping. Life is good!

Happy Fourth of July!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few. I am frustrated at dial up and depressed that I am not with my friends for the 4th. We have been up to many things. We finally did see Mt McKinley. I will post about our escapades in a few days. I will tell you about one thing that happened today......
The only animal that I haven't seen in the wild is a brown bear. Bears in the Anchorage area have become very active lately. An "aggressive" black bear was killed by a Department of Fish and Wildlife ranger (similar to DNR) at the local park. The bear was deemed aggressive because it was "stalking" hikers on the paved trail. Ah, hello! Everyone knows bears follow the path of least resistance and the paved trail would be that. If a bear is following the path behind a hiker, I would hardly call that stalking. Anyway........in yesterday's paper there was an article about a female juvenile bear hanging out in downtown Anchorage. She has been spotted by the ship yard, by the creek, and in the downtown area. Today we went walking around downtown and went to Ship Creek to look for the bear (and to see the salmon running). To see fish swimming against the current to go back to the place where they were born is really awesome! The salmon were all about 1 foot long. Some were on one side of the dam waiting for high tide so they could go over the dam. The others had made it over and were resting on the other side of the dam until they continued up stream. We decided to go up stream and see if the fish were swimming up rocks. Walter had to go the bathroom. He went into the woods beside the creek and then yelled for me. I went over and there....in the mud....was a fresh bear print!!!!!!! The bear had been there RECENTLY!!! While reports the bear is only 250 lbs, the print was huge. While we both really wanted to continue looking for the bear, we both decided that we shouldn't. We are going back tonight at high tide to see the salmon. I will keep you updated on the bear. Kinda weird....but there have been reports of a bear sighting in our building. It always happens when Walter takes the trash out and isn't wearing a shirt. I can't figure it out.
Congrats Shanna Wilkes on getting her doctorates degree. Mark, great to talk to you the other day. Yo, Yo Monica J in Michigan. Christina, counting the days! Tavia, congrats on the new pad. Hey Grandma! Remember to keep Nell McCullers in your prayers and Tina Hodges whose step father isn't doing too well. Have a happy and safe 4th! I will try to get over not seeing fireworks. It is rehashing a long lost 4th on Jekyll with my step father Jim and eating at the Holiday Inn. The fireworks starting going off before we were done with dinner. Wonder why I suppress such memories?
PS- Ian and John made it! They broke the record!!!!! Wahoo! Check out their blog at www.takemehigher.ie to find out more information.