Alaska, part two
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| Turnagain Arm mudflats. Intriguing, but deadly. |
After exploring Denali National Park, I drove to Anchorage and camped along Seward Highway, south of the city. The highway is a two lane road which connects Anchorage to Seward. The Iditarod, before it was a race, started in Seward, and the town is also a hub for cruses into Prince William Sound. I did not visit Seward, but I considered it. I would have taken a whaling cruse, but decided the time to drive there and back with my limited time in Alaska would be too much. Luckily, I saw whales from Bird Point. Beluga whales live in Cook Inlet (which Turnagain Arm is apart of) year round. They chase fish along the coast during low tide. A pod of them frequently broke the surface as I watched. I only saw their backs, but it was still cool!
On Friday, I went to Anchorage's Zoo. They had wolverines, tigers, and bears, oh my! No lions. The bears where active, two were pacing along their fence, and one was trying to get peanut butter out of a jar. It was a normal zoo. No animals had escaped and were staging a take over. The zoo had a sign talking about the various animals they sent to other zoos and which animals they received. That was neat. They sent a polar bear to the Columbus Zoo!
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| Black bear |
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| Grizzly bear |
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| Polar bear |
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| Porcupines |
On Saturday, I attended the Great Alaskan Duck Race! A fundraiser for local groups, people paid $10 per rubber duck. The duck that crossed the finish line first won a monetary prize. I don't know what place my two ducks came in since they only tracked the first ones to cross. Hundreds of ducks participated in the race and at the end, crews scooped them up in nets. One duck jumped the barriers and tried to escape down river! The crowds watching from a bridge that spanned the river started calling out and a man in a canoe paddled after the runaway duck. A big cheer went up when it was recaptured! The event announcer said this was a "special breed of duck" which trained all year for this race and asked bystanders not to take the ducks home.
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| Duck collection at finish line |
Tuesday, I visited Alaska Native Heritage Center and watched dance and World Eskimo Indian Olympics demonstrations. Hopscotch was the first demonstration. Played as a warm up game, participants take turns making a series of jumps. From the starting line, a two foot jump is made, followed by a jump landing on one foot. While still balancing on one foot, the player reaches forward and places a stick/tall cylinder as far as he/she can reach onto its' end. The next player tries to beat the jump distance and move the stick farther. The game continues till no one can move the stick to a more distant position. Swing kicks and high kicks were also shown and their traditional uses where shared. The high kick was a way to communicate to the distant village if a seal hunt was successful or not.
Hopscotch:
Swing kick:
Birch bark bowls are bowls created out of birch bark and tied with roots from a different type of tree. They were traditionally used for cooking and food storage and could be made water proof. I think they are cool looking. I was unable to find a workshop that taught how to make them, though I found some videos online.