24 January 2013 Ch 5 News, Seward, AK and More Nice people- Meet Anna

Climb every mountain,
Search high and low,
Follow every highway,
Every path you know.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
Till you find your dream.

Thanks Rogers and Hammerstein

Today was extraordinary. We started the day bright and early with an interview given by James Wieland from Ch 5 WPTV. The manager of the Hotel Captain Cook escorted us to an amazing room with an amazing view- of course it was just a bit dark, but will visit it again. We spent about an hour with Mr. Wieland and again it was a moment for me to be super proud of all of my students. Not only proud but genuinely intrigued about what is in their thoughts.

Later that morning Mrs. Gibbons was kind enough to get the 8th grade class in for a skype session- it was fun to see them.

Later we took a long, stunning drive south to a town called Seward- okay a beautiful town called Seward. Mr. Deeb was not only gracious enough to stop for photo ops, but he really wanted to stop too! We kept having to tell each "There is not enough time to stop every five seconds." In Seward, we were guests at the Alaska Sea Life Aquarium. http://www.alaskasealife.org/ What a treat it was to be escorted behind the scenes by Jeff Dillon. We all learned many new things, such as the Sea Life Aquarium has special space for rehab animals. Some of the animals will be released, but the walrus can never ever be released if it came in as a baby. The reason for this is because walrus are super social and learn from one another. After it spends a given amount of time in rehab, it can only stay in captivity or be sent to another facility due to imprinting. They are so sweet and require perpetual cuddling at early stages of lives, even from the animal specialists.

We also got to literally see puffins diving into the water and swimming. I have never ever seen birds as such swim like that from that vantage point.. awesome, amazing..super exciting to watch!

Seward was such a cute fishing town- did I mention I could live there?

Meet Anna

The Chat, The Sea, The Conference, and The Cuisine!!!

Yesterday, Wednesday, could be summed up into 4 main categories, like it says in my title. This morning we woke up really early to Skype with the 7th graders. It was really fun to see them and say hi to them all. Also we were able to talk to the 4th graders and answer some of their questions. That was fun as well. But the only bad part was that we had to get up really early, 6:45, to be able to talk to them at a reasonable time.

At about 10 here, we went to the Cook’s Inlet. We walked on the snow along the ocean. We saw breathtaking views of the mountains and the ocean. Most of it has ice floating on top of it. Garrett tried to “slide” down the hill of snow that was near there, but he jumped and just landed with snow going everywhere. It was really funny. Mrs. Eubanks said that she missed a perfect photo op.

Today at the conference, we listened to several talks. One was about how the Soviet Union did not allow whaling but after they did, whaling boomed. Everyone wanted to go be a whaler because it had a very profitable income. Also, there were some awards. Some of them were actually monetary, but we got one!!! People, COSEE, Center for Ocean Sciences Excellence Education, http://www.coseealaska.net/ thought that it was really cool that junior high students came all the way form Florida, so they gave us some awesome t-shirts.

Tonight was the first night we went out to dinner. We went to an obscure diner worthy enough to be on any cooking show. It was called the Lucky Wishbone, which is famous for its pan-fried chicken and milkshakes. I got a big open-faced Chili-Burger and a root beer milkshake, which was the best food I have had in Alaska. Anna

Bird of the Day
American Robin Turdus migratorius