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.

Guess who came to lunch?

The Kaczmars were in town this afternoon. Had a wonderful lunch at the Brewhouse. They are on their way to Cooper Landing and then on to the Princess cruise. They say they had a blast in Fairbanks and Denali. The picture was taken at Elderberry Park in the Bootleggers Cove area of downtown.

Update on Ian, John & the 7 Summits Challenge:
26th June 9:00am
The waiting game continues.... Dave, Ian & John are all established at the 14,000ft camp waiting for a break in the weather. The forecast is predicting high pressure but the critical factor is the wind speed. They were hoping to move up to the high camp at 17,000ft last night and, all being well, to make their summit attempt tonight (Day 152)

The have until July 10 to break the record.

Up on the housetop, click, click, click,,,,,

Hello all! Tuesday Walter and I decided to venture up into the "valley." The Mat-Su valley that is. We drove up to Palmer to the musk ox farm. Musk ox became extinct in Alaska in the 1860s. They are big animals with horns that grow towards the ground. They can be easily killed because when attacked, the males form a circle around the females and little oxen. Whole herds can be wiped out quickly. In the early 1920s, there was a push to bring them back to Alaska. 40 or so Greenland musk ox were brought to Alaska. They were taken to an island in the Bering Sea and grew to a herd of over 500. 34 of these ox were brought to the musk ox farm in Palmer. The ox have two layers of hair. The inner layer protects the oxen from temperatures down to 100 below zero. The inner layer is called quvioit (sp). The hair can be brushed out or it simply falls to the ground. The hair is taken and made into thread. The thread is then sent to "The Bush" where the Native women make blankets, scarves, hats, etc with it. These items are then sent to coop stores in the state. The items are very warm and soft. I was disappointed because I was not allowed to pet the musk ox. Something about how they are not domesticated yet. One did get close to Walter and made a growling noise- almost like a lion. One the way to the farm, we saw signs for a reindeer farm. We decided to leave and head to the reindeer farm in hopes that I could touch some animals. We were in luck! The reindeer farm in Butte, AK was the best!!!! There were two pens of reindeer- tame and wild. We were allowed to go into the tame pen and feed the reindeer. They were very pushy! We learned that that reindeer antlers are very sensitive. Messing with an antler would be like if we slammed our fingers in a door. Reindeer can actually die if they cut their antlers while they are still growing. We saw all sorts of reindeer- including babies! After we tried to pet the babies and feed their mothers, the other reindeer wouldn't eat from our hand! And, the reindeer make clicking noises when they walk. The noise comes from their hind legs. There is cartilage like material in their legs to help them run faster when attacked. When they walk it sounds like their bones are cracking. That is why in the Christmas carol it says, "up on the house top, click, click, click..." It is the reindeer walking around on the top of the house. We then wondered over and met Eddie. Eddie is an elk with REALLY big antlers. Eddie likes to eat grass and be pet on his nose. He is very friendly towards humans, but not his fellow elk. He bosses them around and doesn't let the other elk eat grass. I tried to walk over to the other elk and feed them grass, Eddie ran around to where I was and wouldn't let them have any. What a bully! Also at the farm were horses, buffalo, moose, deer, and cats. We could pet all of them except for the moose and buffalo. I was happy! We then went on to eat at the fancy Mexican-Italian restaurant and then on to play shuffleboard. Walter and I are tied at one win a piece. Tonight we are heading north and praying it is nice tomorrow. We are going to try and actually see Mt. McKinley! If it is nice we are going to rent and plane and fly around it. Hopefully we will land on a glacier and drop off hikers!