Miscellaneous Around Anchorage
Anchorage bumper sticker:
View from our hotel room:
Live aquatic transportation:
Moose crossing signs are everywhere; hitting a moose is a lot like hitting a camel, not good for your car and not good for the moose:
We didn’t expect much from the Golden Palace on Tudor, near our hotel, and we were delighted at the quality of the meal. It was wonderful and spicy, and the flavors shone!
Summit Lake Lodge and the Sterling Highway
We hate to leave Homer, a truly wonderful place on God’s earth, and even more glorious in the full sunlight:
We drive along the Sterling Highway en route to Anchorage, a totally different day from the rainy day we drove from Seward to Homer. On this day, we are caught in traffic, all the fisherpeople heading to the Kenai river, lined up to catch salmon. The scenery is beautiful, and AdventureMan spots a moose and her calf (not pictured) grazing near the highway.
We stop for gas and a pit stop at Grizzly Ridge, and the restrooms are immaculately clean:
We start getting hungry. We actually stop at one place, but the food is all tired looking, and not fresh, so we continue on. AdventureMan spots Summit Lake Lodge and we agree this is the right pace to stop:
After lunch, we stretch our legs a little; Summit Lake Lodge is on a beautiful, huge lake:
There is a beautiful ice cream and coffee shop on the Lodge grounds where we enjoy a huckleberry ice cream before we hit the road again on our way to Anchorage.
The Pratt Museum: A Gem in Homer, AK
It’s our last day in Homer, and we are going to the Pratt Museum
The Pratt Museum is a WOW. It is beautiful, for one thing, all woods and stone, a beautifully crafted, cared for museum. We happened in at a relatively quiet time and had time to talk with the volunteer at the desk, who sold me several raffle tickets for this year’s quilts. I really want to win it; it has blueberries all over it. I suppose I could do a blueberry quilt, but this one is already done!
They also have a super gift shop, with lots of gift ideas, many locally produced by local artists. You know how it is with tourists, there are a lot of places that sell schlock. When you want a step up, go to a museum gift shop. I used to buy my blank cards at the Tarek Rajab museum in Kuwait, beautiful cards with silver bedouin and Arabic jewelry, or doors of old Kuwait, old Oman, etc. Lovely, artistic cards.
This is one of the permanent exhibit quilts. It may have been on the bottom floor, with the marine exhibits. Things got crazy after our quiet visit with the volunteer; a large group of students came in, maybe eighth grade, with all the chaos and laughter kids that age engender. We hurried ahead of them to the exhibits, and there are a LOT of exhibits.
This was a map of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, from which Alaska is still recovering. We learned something interesting, and that is that as horrible as the spill has been for the environment, it put Alaska on the map, raised awareness, and that is when the tourists really started pouring in, maybe like to see the splendors of Alaska before they are destroyed by oil spills or climate change.
These are some of the Alaska birds you can see on the Kenai peninsula, including, I think, a puffin 🙂
The Pratt has so many clever and original exhibits. I loved the film presentation on how the First Nation peoples catch, smoke and store salmon. If there is ever a zombie apocolypse and I have to survive, now I know how to prepare and keep salmon over long stretches of time by smoking it and drying it in strips. And protecting it from bears, who love salmon.
This presentation was like a table, but the movie was on the table. There were foods, and it was like we were the people eating. Someone would pass a dish and explain a little about what it was, like whale blubber or seaweed something. As much as I like to try new things, some of what they had on the table was stuff I would cut into very tiny pieces and push around the plate so it looked like I had tried some but I didn’t. I loved the presentation; so interactive.
Although there were a lot of really good exhibits, we sort of hurried through once the crowd arrived. We did spend a good amount of time in the garden outside, where I laughed at myself. I learned a lot about myself this trip, why I love the colors I love (mostly greens – blues – purples and why I don’t like a lot of yellow or red in a garden. Almost everything in this garden was blue -purple – fuchsia with just a smattering of tiny yellow flowers, not a speck of red, except muted in some of the foliage, which was mostly shades of green. AdventureMan laughed, too, as it is the bane of his gardening existence that I want the bright red Turk’s Heads and the big yellow Cassia where I can’t see them.
Skyline Drive in Homer
An entire day, free to do whatever we want, and it is clear, no rain, even some sun sparkling through. We know what we want to do; we want to find Skyline Drive.
We wouldn’t have even known about Skyline except that AdventureMan found a book in the Driftwood Inn lobby about Quilts at the Pratt Museum, and as I read the commentary from women who had worked on their annual lottery quilt, I discovered many of them mentioned coming to Homer and living on Skyline Drive. Skyline is up the hill – way up the hill – from Homer. You can see the sun glint off windows up there, but we hadn’t thought to go there.
One of the women mentioned that people came to Homer in the 70’s full of hopes and dreams and moved into abandoned homesteads up on Skyline, and a whole community evolved, focused on self-reliance and sustainable living.
You can kind of see it in this map:
The scenery was spectacular. We started on the Diamond Ridge road, which you actually catch outside of Homer, and then continued on Skyline. Most of the houses we saw had views to die for – forest and bay, endless mountains and glaciers. The drawback is that during snowy season, it could be difficult to get into town, and if you lose electricity, you could find yourself very cold and very isolated.
We ended up on East End Road, drove to the end, and then took the Old East End highway for a while, looking at wildflowers and scenery. I found this house which I thought would be a good house to live in – close enough to Homer, but still on a quiet road, lots of acreage, nice garden spot, and look at those floor to roof windows to capture the view. Gorgeous location, nicely thought through house.
Bear Photos From AdventureMan
When I saw the photo of the bears that looks like they are waltzing, I laughed. They are wrestling, but oh, he caught them at the perfect moment. The second has such serenity, is such a testament to the glorious creative power of God, that I love it, too.
Alaska Bear Adventures and K-Bay Air
The other thing we do immediately upon arrival in Homer is to go down to the Homer Spit and check in to Alaska Bear Adventures, to confirm AdventureMan will be on the next day’s bear trip. He signed up for this months ago, and he is PUMPED!
“Dad’s going bear hunting?” our son texts, and we can ‘hear’ the incredulity in his text.
“With his camera” I text back. AdventureMan is getting his instructions and stepping on the scales. They are going out in small planes, and they need to know what weight they are carrying to balance the loads and plan for enough gas. He is told to be at the K Bay hanger at seven the next morning, and I wander off to make a dinner reservation at one of our favorite restaurants anywhere in the world, Captain Patti’s.
I think I told you earlier, this is my day off. I will do a little laundry and goof around in Homer and have a day to myself. I grew up with bear on the mountain in our back yard. I don’t go looking for bear. I don’t think bear are cute. Have fun, AdventureMan!
Seward, Alaska and Alaska Saltwater Tours
We made it to Seward, a cute little town that almost disappears when the tourist season ends. As you will see, there is a cruise ship here, and most of the cruise ship tourists book with either Major Marine or Kenai Fjords. If you like boats with a lot of people, you will enjoy either of those. If you prefer smaller boats, with fewer people, there is Alaska Saltwater Tours.
“Are you going halibut fishing?” the girl at the Windsong Lodge Desk asked when we said we were going with Alaska Saltwater Tours, little frowny lines forming between her eyebrows. No, no, we replied, wildlife and whale watching, in a small group. I guess the hotel books tours, but mostly for the bigger tour boats. We made our reservations months ago, we were so sure we wanted this boat, the Alaska Saltwater Tour.
Cruise ships berth in Seward:
We had a totally forgettable dinner, the worst clam chowder I have ever eaten, so no photos. The next day, we met up at The Bakery, from where we headed to our boat.
I don’t usually have pastry, but I could not resist that cinnamon roll. It was so huge, I could only eat a little, but they wrapped it in foil and AdventureMan and I were able to nibble on it mid-afternoon, as we watched more and more whale.
Our boat, the Stellar Sunrise, carried 15 people. AdvenuteMan and I believe it is one of the best day cruises we have ever taken. We never dreamed we would see so much wildlife in one day.
Alaska, how I love you. Alaska has a mandatory life vest program for all children. Not only are life vests mandatory, they are also provided FREE. When I think of true love, it is manifestations like this I think of, protecting children, making it impossible for anyone to have an excuse to have a child on board not in a life jacket.
Scenery leaving Seward:
Little otter saying goodbye – later, we saw a RAFT of otter, two by two, about 18 of them floating in a group. They are so CUTE.
Barely out of port, he find humpback whales, puffing and diving:
Its a very low minus tide, and our Captain Tanya finds a grouping of purple and red sea stars – doesn’t it look like modern art?
Mountain goat:
A family of mountain sheep, Dad, Mom and three little kids:
Orca whale!
Penguin like birds, not penguins, but I can’t remember their name:
Throughout the day we had porpoise playfully racing alongside the boat:
Puffins are so hard to photograph, and so adorable!
A slug of sea lions, LOL – don’t they look a little like slugs?
The big bull sea lion roars and chases off a challenger. You would be amazed how loud he can roar:
Another eerily beautiful glacier, with it’s roaring and cracking, deep, loud sounds like the earth groaning. We had a lunch break at the glacier:
Although it is out of sequence, I saved this for the last. Do you know how many times I have tried to get a shot of a whale’s tail? Timing has to be perfect, even if you shoot in bursts. I will admit it, this time I just got lucky, and this might be the best I ever get:
So, all in all, a “whale of a day!”
Celebration 2014: Friday Afternoon Dancing
For the first time ever, the announcer tells us, the groups are all ready on time and the dancers ready to go – they are astonishingly ahead of schedule.
We return as a group of mixed dancers, from many Alaskan tribes, and some dancers with roots in classic “lower 48” tribes, so they all respect one another’s traditions, share, and do a little bit of everything. I kind of like this kind of flexibility. Some of the female costumes are a little ummm . . . skimpy . . . for the cold Alaskan climate, LOL, and some of the tattoos a little un-Alaskan and it doesn’t matter, they make it work.
The Celebration Hall is full and brimming over, dancers and their families in the waiting rooms, behind stage, in the halls, in the gift stores, children wailing for their Moms or Dads, it is totally a family affair. Grandma’s step in and help, and the dance goes on.
Dancers, Costumes, Transmitting Culture at Celebration 2014
I am getting questions about the clans and tribes. I can’t answer your questions. I know there are the Ravens, and the Eagles, and I know they are not hostile but two halves of a whole. I know the raven legend; raven steals the sun – knowledge – and shares it with everyone. He is often shown with a long beak and/or curled around a ball. Eagles have short curved sharp beaks. But, with dispensation, an Eagle may marry a Raven. There are also subgroups, so you can be at once a Raven and a Bear, or a Killer Whale, or maybe a Wolf.
I try to understand, but it is a lot to absorb, and sort of complicated and flexible. As I look at my photos, I can see I was most interested in focusing on the costumes / textiles and less interested in the story. I wish I could tell you more, but you will have to read it for yourselves!
Here is a mural in downtown Juneau that demonstrates some of the artistic traditions of some of the various clans:
It’s important to remember – this is about them. It’s about holding on to traditional values and core beliefs, and transmitting knowledge of the culture to children and grandchildren. It’s not about us. As I said, we are there to witness and observe and celebrate, but they are there to celebrate who they are. Meanwhile, you can share the experience with these photos:
The front and center rows were reserved for the elders, and once the dancers started, every seat was filled. There were wet eyes, and open weeping. There were joyful moments, too, when the dancers would invite ‘all the Eagles’ or (something I didn’t understand) to rise and join them in their dance. My own heart swelled to witness their joy.
The Children’s Costume Contest at Celebration 2014
One of the sweetest events at Celebration 2014 is scheduled early early in the morning, so early, we missed a part of it. The families of the clans take great pride in creating their ceremonial robes with clan markings, and get the children started in the tradition early.
These children were SO adorable, and their costumes finely and lovingly wrought. They had an enthusiastic – if fairly sparse – audience at the early hour, but it was necessary with all the many different groups dancing throughout the day.
I THINK this might have been the winner, but I am not sure. Not everything was in English, and sometimes I couldn’t understand what was said. Winner or not – adorable 🙂
Recent Comments
ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge intlxpatr on Waiting for Snow Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 