Whittier Sound

"We need the tonic of wilderness..." ~Henry David Thoreau

At the end of July Mom and I spent the day in Whittier Sound, Alaska.  We rode the train from Anchorage to Whittier Sound.  Below are pictures of the view from our train!

We took the Glacier Quest Cruise around Blackstone Bay.  It was such beautiful weather and we saw many natural waterfalls, glaciers, and even some icebergs!  I did learn that there were 3 types of glaciers: Tidewater, Piedmont, and Alpine.  

The glaciers above are the following: Ripon, Lawrence, Marquette, Beloit, and Blackstone.  

These waterfalls coming from the Blackstone glacier.  

Need ice????  Yes Glacier Quest Cruise staff retrieved some ice for their kitchen!

The view of the other cruise ship!

Black-legged kittiwakes!.

The glaciers were beautiful and serene!  I hope to see more while I am here in Alaska and if I do I will be sure to share them with my fellow bloggers!  Until next time. 

"Not all who wander are lost"~Tolkein

Lil' Adventurers 

Teacher Inservice Dillingham

"Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon" ~Paul Brandt

Cama-i (Greetings!) everyone!  I know it has been about a week since the last blog... but I have been busy traveling to Dillingham for a week long teacher inservice!

I left for Dillingham on Wednesday August 12th and returned on Wednesday August 19th.  I can tell you Cassie was very pleased to see me even though she got into some harmless shenanigans while I was away!

My first day of inservice was for Special Education training.  For all my fellow special education teachers I have to say the program we are using this year is extremely user friendly!  I had the opportunity to meet amazing special education teachers in our district along with a fantastic Special Education director!  Mary Lillie and I were the new special ed teachers and quickly became buddies! I learned that Carol and Tobee are just a hop and a skip across the river from me in the village Togiak!

Friday and Saturday was New Teacher inservice.  There was the standard going over district policies and making sure you sign all those essential papers!  Cross those "t's" and dot your "i's".  Now, how many of my teacher friends can ever say new hire orientation is fun???  Probably not many because they generally are sleep inducing.  Not here in the Southwest Region School District.  We had a crash bush survival course on dressing and necessary supplies for this life style.  The next day was quite the adventure.  We learned some Yup'ik words and cultural traditions.  On top of that we helped load Silver Salmon that was caught in the net that morning and sliced it for the grill to eat for lunch!

Kanakanak Beach

The Coho (Silver) Salmon closes to the bottom of picture is male

The Coho (Silver) Salmon beneath is female

The last Salmon is Pink (Humpy) Salmon

(I have been told is not really as tasty as the other salmon!)

Helping load the Salmon!

Part of our experience was learning how to split the fish.  Believe it or not there are many different ways.  Each village has a Yup'ik teacher who demonstrated to us how they split the fish.  These techniques have been passed down in the family.  The men load and wash the fish on the table and the women split the fish.  Generally the table is covered with grass and not the artificial looking grass you see in the photo. The women use a particular knife as you see above called an Uluk to split the fish.  After the meat is removed from the fish, out of respect for the fish it is to be snapped in half a the spine. Then, depending on the village, you can take the fish to shore so the next tide can carry it out or dispose the body back into the source of water that you caught it from.  The Yup'ik belief is that the fish will be reborn and present itself to you again.   They believe in the Circle of Life and that animals will be reborn.  It is very important to use every part of the animal when hunting and properly disposing its body so it will be reborn.

Our fearless Yup'ik leader for the District showed us how to prepare salmon to be dried!

After all the hard work we did eat Salmon for lunch and it was delicious!  Nothing like some fresh just caught Salmon!

The rest of the day was spent discussing incorporating Yup'ik language and stories into our curriculum on a daily basis.  We even learned a Yup'ik dance that symbolizes that we are "presenting" ourselves.  We did have to perform during teacher inservice!  The language and traditions are slowly disappearing with each generation that is born.  Hopefully as teachers we can help prevent that from happening!  

Finally I am pleased to say that I have learned the Yup'ik name for my village Twin Hills: Ingricuar (I can enunciate it for you if you come see me in person!)  

Inservice was extremely informative but I was very happy to return home after a week away from my village to see Cassie and start working on my classroom.  The picture at the top of the blog was taken by Meghan.  Yes, I am in the co-pilot seat and what an adventure!  I hope I get more opportunities to sit up front again!  The view was just breath taking!  

It was great meeting all the new teachers: Brenna, Katelynn, Cam, Nick, Ben, Hannah, Amanda, Mary!  It was great meeting some veteran teachers too like Danielle who taught here in Twin Hills last year and this year is in New Stuyahok!  Have a fun and adventurous teaching year everyone!

My ride home!

Stay tuned for some pictures and history of Twin Hills!  Piurra (Good-Bye)!

"Not All Who Wander Are Lost"~Anonymous

Lil'Adventurers

Bristol Bay

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better"~ Albert Einstein

Dear Family and Friends:

I hope my Florida peeps are not drifting away and my Texas peeps I hope you are not melting!

The photo above was taken a few days ago courtesy of Meghan who took me to the beach on Bristol Bay.  We rode a 4 wheeler down to the beach being that it is about 4 miles from the village.  It is amazing to think that I can walk down to this place free of charge.  There are not enough words to describe the beauty of this area!  Yes, I am wearing a t-shirt because believe it or not it was kind of hot this entire week.  But starting today the highs will be in the 60's which is not too bad but it will be over cast too.

Here is another view of the beach on Bristol Bay.  If I were to turn right you can actually see Togiak across the way.  If I had gone to the left a little you would have seen an island where walruses reside and are protected by the government.  

Some shrimp like critters that Meghan and I found under a rock on the beach.  Every time we picked up a rock they appeared.  Still looking up to figure out what they are!

This is a cannery that still operates but does not actually do the canning but takes the salmon that is caught and special delivers it to be canned.

It was low tide when Meghan and I went to the beach and we discovered quite a few washed up jellyfish with the tentacles missing. 

This is fireweed which is not poisonous and has various uses.  You can make tea, honey, jelly, or use it medicinally.  I have tried the fireweed nectar and it is quite delicious.  

 This is typical tundra plant life.  Most of the plants are low to the ground.  This is not the best picture but there was an abundance of lichen which was surprisingly a little on the dry side.

For an afternoon snack we ate these Alaska blueberries!  They were just perfect!

I tried some of the black berries pictured here but they were a little tart.

The plant pictures above were taken on this lookout point of the beach.

Most of you know that after teaching Science a few years ago, this was quite an exciting adventure. There will definitely be more visits down to the Bristol Bay area.  It is a true treasure to have this in my own backyard.  No tall buildings or traffic.  The only sound you hear are the waves and the occasional seagulls!  I cannot wait to make fireweed tea and assortment of jellies using the tundra berries!  

Stay tuned for the next blog about the village of Twin Hills itself!

"Not all who wander are lost"

- Lil' Adventurers

From Anchorage to Twin Hills

"It feels good to be lost in the right direction"- Anonymous

Dear Friends and Family:
A lot has happened since that picture above was taken on the last night in Anchorage on Sunday August 2nd!  Cassie and I are posing at the top of a Mount Flat Top lookout point!  A friend had me get in touch with her parents and I am so grateful that I did.  Now I know friends in Anchorage.  Thank you Brittany, Mary, and Steve!
Monday morning Cassie and I got up and prepared ourselves for our next part of the journey to our new home.  I think Cassie was starting to think I was telling her tales for we I have been promising Cassie we would be moving to a house for over a month.  In Anchorage I had the opportunity to meet Meghan Redmond who is the Lead Teacher at Twin Hills school.  I also met her husband Andy and her adorable daughter Liberty.  Their dogs Ash and Piper rode in cargo while Cassie once again got to fly in cabin.
Once we arrived in Dillingham I was greeted by the staff of the Southwest Region School District.  Sherry was kind enough to take Cassie for a quick walk while I waited on my luggage.  I want to say there were 2 gates out of this airport and the run way was a lot shorter.  Baggage claim was not on a big carousel, therefore the small airport quickly became crowded when it was time to retrieve luggage. Once my luggage was retrieved and Cassie and I were checked in for our air taxi ride to Twin Hills Sherry gave me a tour of Dillingham.  Great little town and definitely a place to get a lot of my shopping done.

Since Cassie and I were riding over to Twin Hills with Meghan and her family we waited until Grant Aviation would take us at 4pm.  We had a lot of down time in which there was not much to really do but hang out in the lounge.  Checking in was interesting.  Not only do they want the weight of your items that you check in, but your personal weight too!  As you will see below this aircraft is small and it takes a lot of cargo and not so many passengers!

This was our ride to Twin Hills!  I thought I would be nervous but I loved it.  I almost fell asleep as usual but did not want to miss the scenery below as we flew!

Stay tuned for the next blog!  I will be sharing with you guys the view of Twin Hills!  

"Not All Who Wander Are Lost!"

Lil' Adventurers