Senior Trip & Ice Fishing

Last week I took a trip with four students and another chaperone to Anchorage for the senior trip.  Since I am the senior advisor I had the great responsibility of planning the entire trip.  About a week before we left everything came together: plane tickets, hotel reservations, the car rental, and all of our tours and activities.

First stop when we got to town... IHOP!

Of course we got in some shopping time at the 5th Avenue Mall and Dimond Center Mall.

We went bowling at the Dimond Center.

We also went to see a late night movie.

Taking a tour at UAA - the University of Alaska Anchorage.

UAA's sports complex

They had a jogging track around the ice rink.

Their mascot is the "seawolf."

Giant snow piles around the campus.

The majority of the buildings on campus are connected by these "sky-bridges."

View from one of the sky bridges.

Getting hotdogs and cotton candy at a stand downtown.

We toured the Anchorage Museum.

Having fun in the hands-on science exhibits.

A newspaper from 1958 "We're In, 64-20 Vote Makes Alaska 49th State."  Here is a snow machine from 1960.

Riding the museum's gigantic elevator.  The weight limit was 18 tons.

On our way driving up to Flattop Mountain we saw a wild moose on the side of the road.  Ironically, it was standing by a horse crossing sign, and was across the street from the Anchorage Zoo.

We made it to Flattop Mountain just in time for sunset.

The walking trail.

The silhouettes of our seniors at sunset.

On the second to last day, we went to the Anchorage Zoo.

Red Fox

Musk Ox

Siberian Tigers

Gray Wolves

Bald Eagle

Caribu

Camel

Alpaca 

 petting zoo goats

Dall Sheep

A baby Dall Sheep

Otters

We stuffed ourselves here!

 Fun time at the H2Oasis Indoor Waterpark.  It had a lazy river, tide pool, and water slides.

We stayed at the Residence Inn.  I ate a waffle every day at breakfast.

Fine dining on our last night at the Glacier Brewhouse downtown.

 Boarding the Dash-8 at the Anchorage airport, heading back to the hub in St. Mary's.

Leaving Anchorage.

Some teachers were on their way back to the village too and I got to sit in front of B.

On the way from Anchorage to St. Mary's.

 Frozen tundra

Riding back to the village on a 6-passenger C-207 bush plane.

ICE FISHING

The natives call it "manuqing" (pronounced muh-nuck-ing).

This weekend we got an invite from some local friends to go ice fishing at Mount Kusilvak.  

We went with a group of 9 snow machines from our village.  It took over an hour to get there.

Nathaniel drilling a hole in the ice.

Scooping the snow away to have a nice fishing hole.

Kusilvak Mountains

Me ice fishing...

Using blackfish as bait.

A "manuqing stick" is basically a wooden rod with braided line, and a fishing hook.

We drove around the mountains to the other side on the frozen lake.

Checking out another spot to fish.

Looking out for fish swimming from the lake to the stream.  This weekend was too early for fish near the stream.

The water at the lake was so clear you could see straight to the bottom.

 The streams flow off the mountains and into the lake.

 Nathaniel got some ptarmigans along the way.  The males had brown feathers.

 We saw this red fox along the trail.

Driving away from Mt. Kusilvak.

Parked up on a hill to view the tundra.  The snow on the higher hills is already melting away.

After 14 hours of ice fishing and traveling, we got to see the sunset at 10:30pm as we arrived home.