Denali National Park, AK Days 3 and 4

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My! Not really, but caribou, moose, and bears anyway.

We took the McKinley Explorer train down to Denali. It is a dome-topped train car and the view were pretty awesome. That night, we took a covered wagon tour into the woods and had dinner with local history provided by a Serbian college student of all people. He was very knowledgeable, but how strange to hear about Alaska from someone that's not from here! Almost everyone that is here working in Alaska is not from Alaska. I guess that tells you something about how people feel when they visit...they don't want to leave!

We had a great tour of the park yesterday. We got to see two big bull moose cross the road right in front of us. Then we saw a mother grizzly bear and her cub playing on the hillside and cross the road right in front of us. We were also extra lucky and got to see several Dahl sheep cross the road in front of us, so we got some great pictures! Last night we took a last minute flight-seeing trip to Mt. McKinley. It was really cloudy all day yesterday until early evening, so we were able to take the last flight. We didn't get to see the mountain, for it makes it's own weather and was cloudy, but we got more great pictures of glaciers and the Alaskan mountain range.

Today, we are on a full-day trip down to Seward to board our ship for the cruise.

Fairbanks, AK Day 2

I'm sure all 2 people who might be following this blog are at least slightly curious about how we did at the gold mine yesterday, but not so fast. I'll give you a hint and tell you that our total involves the sixth digit! We started the day on a sternwheeler riverboat tour that took us past a dog sled kennel, where we got a brief lesson on how the dogs are trained for the iditorod race. We also stopped and got off the ship for about an hour at a recreated series of Athabascan villages. One was set before the Eurpoean influence, one was set after, and one was a little more recent. Fun fact: reindeer and caribou are genetically identical. The only difference is that reindeer have been domesticated.

We had a very long day of geology, natural history, archeology, and just plain fun.

We ended our bus tour at Gold Dredge #8, where we saw the true meaning of "work." After that we went over to the El Dorado Gold Mine and tried our hand at panning for gold, also much work. We sat on the bench and worked steadily at sloshing out the rocks and sand as we bent over a large trough of water. It sure is hard on the knees and lower back!! After about 30 minutes-that-seemed-like-30-hours, we finally had some help finishing up sloshing the pans. (For those that have never done this before, you have a very strong urge to be VERY careful because you don't want to slosh out your gold!) We took our little flakes out of the pan and took them into the store to be weighed. I thought I might actually make some money because mine flakes had weight to them and they rattled in the canister. I heard people ahead of us getting totals of $40-$60 worth. Eventually, we ended up getting mine weighed, and the total was....

$6 for 2 grams of gold. Stan wasn't so lucky, as his little flakes didn't even register on the scale. Then, true to the American dream, we spent $40 to buy a locket-type necklace to show off the $6 worth of flakes!

We ended the day at the Museum of the North, which is on the campus of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. It was very interesting and we took several pictures, and completed our knowledge of the Alaskan interior, but to our bodies it was 12 am Central when we left the museum, so we were exhausted.

Today, we are taking the dome-car train down to Denali National Park. There should be lots of wild animal viewing...

Fairbanks, AK Day 1

We arrived in Fairbanks at 8 PM Central time (5 PM local time). We decided to try out some local cuisine at the Thai House. It was really good! Afterward, we decided to head over to a local ice cream shop we heard about (Hot Licks), but we had to take the bus. On the way, one of the stops was at the local Wal-Mart. I believe we witnessed something slightly unusual...
As we pulled up to the bus stop, I looked over and saw a military truck complete with the canvas roll-up roof. There were several soldiers that were loaded metal folding chairs into the back that they had just purchased at Wal-Mart! We thought it was a little unusual just to see the vehicle. We are now sitting in the hotel lobby making use of the wireless and it is 11:30 PM Central time and broad daylight. They say the official sunset is 12:30ish and sunup is abou 3:30, but the hours in between are more like twilight, not dark.

Check back tomorrow to see if we strike it rich on our Gold Dredge Tour!

Science part II

This week, in order to celebrate Nurse's Day, we were allowed to wear scrubs and tennis shoes to work. I don't own any, so I went over to my sister Amy's house to borrow some from her since she is a nurse. I picked out a cute polka-dot top that has a modern look to it. It is brown with turquoise, pink, lime, and pale yellow dots that sometimes overlap. When I walked out to the dining table where the kids were having breakfast that morning, Joshua pointed to my top and said "Momma, your shirt has molecules on it." It's a good thing I teach Science...

Science Lessons from a 3 year old

Katie decided she wanted to talk about spiders on the way home today. She told me that they are on webs. I told her that webs were where spiders lived, like a house. Then she told me that spiders don't eat candycanes. The next thing out of her mouth was that Santa is coming soon. I wonder if the daycare workers were using the Santa Claus and/or candycane bribery tricks to get the kids to behave at school today????

As for what's going on with Josh, I check out several books each week from our school library and he reads them at night to us and takes tests on the computer at school. The kids get points based on how many tests they pass, and the principal gives rewards for reaching certain point goals. Anyway, Josh has been reading first grade books by himself without much help, and can read second grade books with a little help. Last week I checked out a Frog and Toad book that was rated a 1.4 (that means fourth month of first grade). Today he took the test for it and the librarian emailed me to tell me that he made a 100 and that the book has been re-evaluated and it now considered a 2.9 (ninth month of second grade). She was so proud, and so are we!

Toilet Training and Wedding Progress

For all those parents out there, toilet training is a frustrating and time-consuming experience. I guess we have crossed a major hurdle in this area after last night. Stan went to get Katie up this morning only to find that after we put her to bed last night, she apparently took off her pull-up and nightgown. He found her asleep wearing panties, jean shorts, her Easter dress, and black dress shoes. This is somewhat of a feat considering the dress was hanging in the closet, the shoes were put up in the shoe holder, and she can't reach the light switches... Here's the biggest news: She was DRY (she has been dry most of the time lately, but not wearing panties)!!!

On another front, wedding plans are continuing for Josh. Every few days he gives us a new update on what they want to do. His latest idea is that parents shouldn't spank, they should just buy their kids toys to make them mind. This seems to be the philosophy of many of the parents we see in the school system, but it is particularly funny considering that Josh has told us that they will be having 10 kids.

Wedding Bells!!?!

Josh announced to me on the way home today that one of his friends that he has been friends with for a long time told him today that she wants to marry him. He added that she says she wants to have 10 kids. 5 that are girls and 5 that are boys. The whole conversation was very matter-of-fact. However, he does seem much more preoccupied with who will be attending his birthday party in May and what we will have at it. :)