2 days left!

I can't believe it has been 3 months already!  I am already half way done with my internship!  I will be super bummed IF I have to leave Alaska to find another job....

Today was another day in town running Bones and Fur programs.  The 3 programs went very well.  We even went to a spanish emersion class of fourth graders.  I think it is so smart to have kids learn a foreign language from Kindergarden through highschool.  This particular class was all the way in Chugiak, Alaska.  It was about an hour and half from our center. 

We only have 2 days left of going to anchorage for programs!

I was thinking about how many places I have been to in Alaska already.  It is a lot for only being here 3 months...
Portage
Gordwood
Whittier
Seward
Anchorage
Wasilla
Eagle River
Chugiak
Fairbanks
Healy
Fox
North Pole...

I think that is it so far...

Before we started our last 2 programs at 1:00 pm we had about 2 hours to spare.  So we went to Fred Meyer, giant grocery store, and walked around.  Then I started to get very tired...

Starbucks!  Ahh I feel much better now...

So our programs went very well, and then we headed back to the center.  We fed the birds, Deer, porcupine, and then headed to the bunk house.  We ran 2 miles and called it a day!  It is starting to stay lighter much later into the night now.  The sun doesn't go down till about 9ish or so. 

Well the sun actually went down a few hours ago and I am going to call it a night...

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

Seward, Ak

This day finally came!  After waiting almost 2 weeks we were finally going to Seward, Alaska.  We left around 8 AM to stop in Girdwood and get gas.  Well I guess I should say that Amelia actually went to get gas and then came back to the center to pick me up...I slept through my alarm.  So we went on our way to Seward.  It is about an hour and a half drive south of Portage. 

This is a Puffin.....

A Stellar Sea Lion....

Jellyfish.....

Then we had a Gray Whale Tour at Noon.  The tour was great however, we did not see any whales.  We did get to see Sea Lions which was very cool...

The water was also very beautiful; it almost looked like we were in the carribean.

After the tour we headed home since we still needed to feed the animals....

Back to Work

Our first day back to work and it was busy!  We needed to be in Anchorage at 10 for a porcupine presentation.  So today we had 2 presentations total....  not too bad of a schedule.  Our first one was at 10 for a special needs class.  They were very well behaved.  Then we ran a few errands before we headed to our second presentation at 1:45.  The last presentation also went well.  We stopped and picked up a few groceries before heading back to Portage.  It was a beautiful day to go back to work.  We finished the day by feeding the animals and went for a 2 mile run.  Then we had sushi for dinner!  yummy!  Tuna!!!
Not really a super exciting day, but tomorrow we are going on a whale watching tour!  So be expecting some awesome pictures!  I do hope that the whales will be photogenic for us tomorrow. 

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

Easter,Fairbanks and Denali National Park

Before I talk about the Denali trip I will talk about Easter at the AWCC!
Amelia and I had the lovely job of boiling and dying the eggs.  On Easter the bears will be getting the eggs.  So on Saturday it was a really rainy day.  We spent a few hours dying the eggs for Sunday.

Here are the 72 eggs, wait 71 (I ate one of them), that we set off to dye.

We started out by setting up all the colors, and then quickly realized that our time would be cut in half if we used 2 dye packages at once.

Here is the final result......

I think the bears will approve...

Easter has arrived!  It was really weird not being home on such a major celebration.  This was the first time that I would not be home for an important holiday.

We had a lot to prepare!  We were having a special easter egg hunt and other activities for about 50 kids.  They didn't arrive until 11 so we had some time to get things ready.  First, we set up the puppet stage for the special easter puppet show.  Second, we gathered the porcupine and a chicken for presentations.  We got all of the hot dogs and fixings ready to grill.  We finished adding a few last minute touches to the decorations just before the guests started arriving. 

First, Kelly read 2 stories and then presented her chicken.  Then Amelia and I very successfully did the easter puppet show.  Right after the puppet show we also let snickers out for his presenatation.

He did very well.  He loved his apple that we had for him. 

After everyone had hotdogs we delivered the bears some easter eggs.

Taqoka was looking for an egg that I hid.  Notice that his summer coat has finally grew in.  He has gotten a little bit more red in on his head.  I think he is going to be a very handsome bear. 

Shaggy has almost found another egg....

Once the easter celebration was over we finished packing for our Denali Trip.  We were leaving in just a few hours to fly from Anchorage to Fairbanks.  After waiting those long few hours to leave it was finally time to start our 2 day vacation!  So we headed into Anchorage and even had a nice dinner on the way out.  Jeremy, Amelia, and I were the only 3 on the trip.   

Oh, and did I mention this is what the Easter weather always is on Easter in Portage...

                                                              Wet and rainy....

We arrived to Fairbanks around 11:30...it was only an hour flight.  We stayed in a hotel before heading to Denali the next day.  We left the hotel around 9 in the morning, grabbed some breakfast, and we were on our way to Denali National Park.  The ride was only about 2 hours to the park.  It was a very scenic ride.  Once we arrived in Denali it finally felt like we were on vacation. 

Before going into the actual park, we stopped for lunch

Then we went to the Park!

I didn't think these pictures needed words....

After hiking a few miles, and spotting 3 moose, we headed to the Denali Inn. 

It was so nice!  There were 3 beds, a balcony, and a gorgeous view!

This was the view from our balcony....


We had dinner and then headed home for a nice relaxing night with actual television. 

We left on Tuesday morning around 10 to head back to Fairbanks.  But, before we went to Fairbanks we made a pit stop to North Pole, Alaska.  Yes, there is actually a town named North Pole.  There was even Santa's workshop!  The store was so cool!

 The road it is located on is even called Santa Claus Lane!

  After we left the Workshop we also went to the Knotty Shop.  It is a shop with lots of things that are made out of knotty wood.  However, the store was closed....bummer...

 We also visited the Alaska pipeline...

We headed back to Fairbanks to meet up a previous intern from 2 summers ago that Jeremy was still friends with.  We ate dinner and then sadly headed back to the airport.

It was a really fun trip and am glad that I was able to visit Denali.  I definitely recommend visiting that national park.  In the summer it is crawling with all sorts of wildlife.  Bears, wolves, wolverines, and lots of other animals are typically seen. 

Last Day of Puppet show

I had to wake up so early this morning!  Ok, Ok, so it was only 7:00 am when I had to wake up...but. that is the earliest I have had to wake up ok.  Anyways, we left at 8 and headed to Anchorage for our last day of puppet shows.  We barely made it through the shows, because we were laughing so hard!  And let me tell you...it is really hard to do a puppet show and not burst out laughing at the same time!

Miguel the moose is on my right and the ranger from Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is on my left.

Then we headed to mall to get a nice outfit for vacation.  Oh, did I tell you where I am going on Sunday night?  We are going to Denali!  I am so excited!!!!  We leave Sunday night after work for the plane ride to Fairbanks.  Then we drive about an hour to Denali national Park.  You guys are going to be seeing some awesome pictures after that trip.  Our days off are on Monday and Tuesday so it works out really well.  We get back on Tuesday night. 

Anyways, after about 3 hours at the mall of trying to put a decently priced outfit together; we headed over to Sam's to get 200 hotdogs and buns for Sunday.  On Sunday we have special events for Easter.  We will be having a special easter puppet show, porcupine presentation, easter egg hunt, and lunch. 

The animals will even be getting eggs!  The bears especially.  So who boils and dyes the eggs you ask?

You guessed it!  The interns of course!  We are currently boiling 72 eggs...I know you wish you could be helping us.....

Well, I gotta go start the second batch of eggs!

Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn

The Dirty parts of my job...

Well today I quickly learned why I would rather work with animals than with humans.  We were doing 3 puppet shows today in anchorage.  As I watched the kids cough, sneeze, pick their noses, and put objects in their mouths I new immediately that I would NEVER be a teacher.  I have a very high appreciation for teachers.  I would rather go into a cage with wild bears than be thrown into a classroom of 1rst graders.  Don't get me wrong...I LOVE kids and in fact I am a pretty good babysitter.  However, I just don't think I could stay in a room for 8 hours a day with kids running rampid.  Teachers are DEFINITELY under paid.  Can I get an amen to that.....

We had a quick lunch in the car before doing 2 more puppet shows.

This is my lunch bag that my boss at TGR Exotics, the internship before Alaska, gave my along with a few other goodies before coming to Alaska.  Thanks again for that Kim!

Well, we finished our puppet shows with great ethusiasim and went to run a few errands. 
We stopped at Fred Meyer, a grocery store on steroids, to get groceries and a few easter decorations for the center.  Then, we also went to best buy to get some cords for the center as well. 

We arrived back at the center and we were welcomed by some rain.  It has been raining all day here at the center while it has been sunny in Anchorage. 

This was really all we did today....We have our last 3 puppet shows in Anchorage tomorrow!  Not that I am sick of it or anything...the script is just pretty much drilled into my head. 

The beluga whales are starting to come in every morning with the tide so hopefully soon you will get to see some close beluga pictures!

Goodnight lower 48,
ErIn

Bones and Fur......again

Last night we did some last minute geocaching for some exercise....

This geocache was hidden under some logs.

We also did a few other caches and there is still snow that is super deep!

Remember this picture....

I didn't know why there where houses over the graves instead of tombstones.  A fellow blog reader (thank you very much by the way) emailed this link for me to understand the reasoning of the houses. 
Here is the explanation of the houses:  In the 18th century the missionaries suggested to the native americans to bury their dead rather than cremate them.  They agreed to do so and they now have the blended tradition of placing a blanket over the recently deceased.  Then they go back and add a miniture house painted with their tribes colors over the grave.  This explains the cemetary full of different colored houses.  So that was very interesting to learn.  Now...onto Wednesday's events

Bones and Fur was first thing on the schedule for Wednesday morning......so.....
We jumped in the car right away at 9:00 am for our first group at 10.

We divide the kids into 4 groups and give them each a skull.  This group had a black bear skeleton that they were trying to figure out.  The other three skeletons are porcupine, coyote, and Moose.  After we give them skulls we also give them fake poop, paw prints, and fur from the animal. 

We hurried back to the center for a tour at 3:30.  We had 45 kids from anchorage tour the center.  We divided them up into 2 groups for me and amelia to each take a group. 

A few of the employees where cleaning out their fridges so the porcupine and deer were fed very tropical meals tonight.  Julie, the deer, had some mango and bakchoy.  Bakchoy is basically chinese cabbage that is delicious.  Snickers had some bakchoy, mango, grain, and asperagus.

I fed the cubs...

To end the night I tagged along with Eve and Kat (fellow AWCC employees) to take pictures of flat stanley.  Flat Stanley is something Eve's niece does for school.  They take Stanley and get pictures of him traveling.  Eve is getting pictures of stanley then sending them to Wisonsin for her niece.

 
I also got a few pics of other animals..
Does anyone know what bird this is.....

 It is actually a juvenille bald eagle.  They do not get their white heads until they are about 5 years old.  People are always arguing with us that it is some kind of Hawk.

This is Slide the musk Ox...

This is Hershey the Caribou/Reindeer...  notice He is growing his new antlers.  Caribou's antlers grow up to 5 inches a day when they are just starting to grow back.  Once they get to the length they were the previous year they slow down to about an inch a day. 

  By the way santa's reindeer where actaully females since males shed their antlers before late december, while female caribou shed theirs at the end of december and early January.  The females may also keep their antlers later if they are pregnant to use for protection.  Just thought I would leave you with that fun fact...

Goodnight Lower 48,

ErIn

Adventures galore

Sorry that I have not posted in the past 2 days.  Our internet at the house has been down and I am just bursting with storite to tell. 

On Sunday we had a film crew from Germany come and visit to shoot for somefootage of the bear cubs.  And guess who they interviewed?  ME!  Jordan was out of town so he asked me to take his place.  First, I went in with the cubs and a camera lady and she filmed me training the cubs.  Then she switched out with another guy and he interviewed me while the cubs ate behind us.  It was so cool!  They said they are going to send us the piece that will be aired in Germany.  I can't wait to see what it will be like.  They said it will be about 4-5 minutes worth of air time. 

So that was the highlight of the day. 

Here is another update of the baby caribou...

  Oh, and we also had a cookout on Sunday night.  Rick, the maintenance guy, broguht us some moose meat.

I had never tried moose before but it was delicious! 

 Jeff did most of the cooking.....he is the new cook for the center.

I got to prepare the potatoes....

Joe Boxer wished he could have joined us.....

So I went to bed with a full stomach.

On Monday we had a day off.  We decided that we wanted to drive through Wasilla and then hike in Eagle River.  So we stopped in anchorage for a few short errands and then we were off to Palin Country. 
After searching for Sarah Palin's house we think we found it....but anyways we also stopped at the Iditarod headquarters..

It was also a museum.

On the way back through Wasilla we did a quick geocahce...
The name of the cache was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang....Can you guess why?

We found the cache hidden in the trunk...

We aslso stopped at a really old Russian Orthodox cemetary...

For some reason, I have yet to have learned, they put miniture houses over the graves. 

Then we hopped back on the road to go to Eagle River.

It was beautiful!  We walked a 3 mile long loop and on the last mile or so we even saw 2 moose in the water.  There happened to be a bridge that we were on ,so we were able to get within 20 feet or so from one of the female moose.

She was so calm and gorgeous. 

The last picture I got was in this tree that was hollowed out.

Well I hope these pictures made up for the last two days of no blogs......

Today we will be having a school group of 25 kids come to the center.  Well, gotta go set up for the tour...

Even though it is a little early to be saying this....Goodnight Lower 48,
ErIn