Jul
2015

Day 5 – the Alaskan Zoo

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

Yesterday our immediate family split up a bit, first one way and then the other. In the morning, Mom, and us kids went to the Alaskan Zoo, while Dad stayed at the house and worked. As usual, I have photos and commentary… but a lot more today than before.

First, though, I'll share some of the history of the museum. In 1966, a newspaper promotion advertised that the winner of the contest could get $3,000 – or a baby elephant. Contrary to all expectation, the elephant was chosen. Then the newspaper company, who didn't have an elephant ready, had to go and find one. They were able to find an eighteen month old circus elephant that they could buy. The man who had recieved the elephant ended up giving her to another man, who was keeping her for him in a heated horse stall. When Annabelle outgrew the stall, four acres of land adjoining it were bought. Soon, Highway Patrol brought in a bear cub, which was accepted in the new zoo.

Alright, now for the pictures.

1. Coming out of Anchorage, the clouds had lifted and we could see the mountains around us.

2. A Harbour Seal!

3. River Otters!

4. A watchful wolf…

5. And a wolf looking quite peaceful and comfortable.

6. Some bear cubs. They were super cute as they played and wrestled together, but I couldn't persuade the camera to focus on them instead of the wire.

7. Oh no! A headless goshawk!

8. Or not… (The bird had its head tucked way down when I took the first photo) 🙂

 

1. A Bactrian Camel – with a flopped over hump and quite the mane and beard.

2. Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see some tourists looking at me.

3. A yak in the process of shedding its winter coat.

4. There was another bald eagle who was standing up on a stump, but I have never seen one do this before, so I used this photo.

5. A Dall Sheep – I love his expression.

6. A reindeer. Did you know that reindeer and caribou are actually the same species, but reindeer are domesticated and caribou are not? I didn't before. You can remember because Santa has tame, domesticated reindeer to pull his sleigh.

7. A mountain goat.

8. A mouse who was checking out the eagles' salmon, even though both big birds were quite close.

 

1. I liked this bear statue.

2. A baby moose. There was an adult moose too, but I don't think I will show pictures of it, as the pictures I got of a some moose a bit later were a lot better.

3. Some recently shaved alpacas. Don't their necks look long?

4. This is a moose viewing platform, but we were not able to see the moose very well from it.

5. A display about Annabelle the elephant, along with some artwork that she had done during her time at the zoo.

6. A polar bear!

7. A very relaxed Musk Ox.

8. Models of bear paws. The white one is a polar bear paw, the brown one a grizzly paw, the small one a black bear paw, and the hand Gregory's.

 

In the afternoon we went for a bike ride, which I will talk about in another post. 🙂

 


Jul
2015

Day 4 – Alaska Museum of Science and Nature

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel

Yesterday our family went to the Alaska Museum of Science and Nature. It was more of nature than science, and really cool prehistoric nature at that. It had a lot of fossils and history, as well as several models of prehistoric creatures and some geology. It also talked about earthquakes and a little about the Alaskan native peoples. Most of this, however, was in two display cases showing some tools and garments that native peoples had made. There was even a gut parka, which is what it sounds like!

As usual, I have some photos to share.

1. A stuffed black bear, the white line above which shows how much bigger a polar bear would be. The brown bear shows how much bigger an Alaskan Short Faced bear would have been than even the polar bear!

2. The front of the museum.

3. The skull of an American Lion, which was much bigger than the African Lion of today is. This skull was discovered by a twelve year old boy while he was on a family canoe trip.

4. A real fossilized mammoth tusk, which we were able to touch! A sign said that the original owner of the tusk had covered it in Elmer’s Glue, but did not offer any comment on whether that was a good thing or not.

5. Selected pieces from the collection of Joe Turnbow.

6. A piece of fossilized mammoth skull. To make them light, yet strong, enough to work for the mammoth, mammoth skulls had a hollow honeycomb pattern on the inside.

7. Skull of a Zygorhiza.

8. Model of a Tylosaurus. Note the diver in the lower left side. He’s to scale. In real life, this one would have been about 45 feet long – but Tylosauri(?) could have grown to 80 feet!

9. A tree that was frozen inside a glacier for 2,000 years! It came out feeling just about like it was before it got frozen. We were able to touch it, and it felt just about like ordinary wood, though maybe a little stony. Despite its age, the tree was definitely not petrified.

 

I think that’s just about all for the museum, but I have some comments I would like to add about the blog in general.

All the photos you will see on my blog, unless otherwise specified, are ones that I have taken myself, and I have made all the collages on here also.

Please leave a comment on this post / email / message me if you would like to be texted whenever I post.

And, thank you very much for reading my blog!

 


Jul
2015

Day 3 in Alaska: Portage Glacier and the Whittier Tunnel

categories: Alaska, Happenings, Travel
In the morning today we drove out to Portage Lake, where we went on a boat tour over to Portage Glacier. We also saw several other glaciers, all of which were quite interesting to see. This morning’s trip was also interesting because I have not seen any glaciers before.

Here are some photos I took:

Top Left: I don’t know its name but this was my first glacier!

Top Right: A mini iceberg from the Portage Glacier.

Middle Left: Portage Glacier.

Middle Right: Burns Glacier.

Bottom Left: A closeup of Portage Glacier.

Bottom Right: Some ice from Portage Glacier.

 

And, to crown them all, the picture of Portage Glacier – blown up:

(I really like this picture – in fact it is the new wallpaper on my home screen 🙂 )

 

After lunch we went out to Whittier, which is a deep water port on Prince William Sound / converted army base.

There is not much to see in Whittier, but the main attraction there is a two mile long tunnel which was built as a rail tunnel in 1943. It is now used by cars also, and is the only way to access Whittier from the land – excepting a 1 mile trail with some 700 feet of elevation gain. We went through the tunnel to Whittier, walked around a bit there, and drove back. I thought I would share some photos from Whittier:

 

 

Top: Whittier small boat port.

Middle Left: You can ignore the foreground, and focus on the converted army building that is the condo building where most of the inhabitants of Whittier live.

Middle Right: The opening to the tunnel, on the side away from Whittier.

Bottom Left: A sign with a map of Whittier.

Bottom Right: Whittier has a pedestrian tunnel going under the railyard from the waterside to the downtown.

 

 

Also, I have pictures of some wildflowers that I have seen in Alaska over the past two days. I have identified as many as I can, using a flyer found at the visitor center for Portage Lake.

 

Top Left: A plant that is not in the flyer! Not allowed! I am not sure if this is a non-native flower, or just one that is not very common. (The flyer only has 50 flowers)

Top Middle: Nootka Lupine (?)

Top Right: Fireweed

Middle Left: Yarrow (this grows in our area down in CA, as well)

Middle Right: Dwarf Fireweed

Bottom Left: Unidentified again!

Bottom Right: And again!

 

I’m sorry so many of the flowers are unknown, but I did my best. 🙁

 

We’re all really enjoying Alaska, and I will post again soon. Goodbye for now!