Only in Alaska (Part 2)

Here are a few other things I ran across today that are unique to this state…

This bus is advertising a special burger only available up here — the McKinley Mac, named after Alaska’s Mount McKinley or Denali, the highest mountain peak in North America. They’re really large burgers.

A 24-hour drive-thru coffee spot… This probably really comes in handy in the winter months.

This license plate signifies a Native group that is from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

Salmon in a box. You can find it at any grocery store, Wal-Mart or gift shop up here! It makes a great Christmas gift.

This is the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, which serves as a medical center to Natives, as well as a medical supply distributor, a professional recruiting agency, a health research organization and a public health and advocacy agency, among other things.

Only in Alaska

Here are a few things I’ve stumbled across in the past nine weeks that you usually don’t see in other parts of the U.S. …

Look at this gorgeous sky today. It’s surreal, isn’t it? The clouds appear smeared. This is common for Anchorage, locals told me.

Moose crossing signs!  I pass a few of these every day as I’m driving to work and coming back home.

Unleaded gas at $4.44.

FedEx Kinko’s proudly ships fish in Anchorage!

Okay, so this is something you probably see more often than we do up here, but I had to get a picture of this… yesterday was the first day in probably a week that it was sunny outside. Everyone was elated!

Praise God for the sun. This unexpected surprise really brightened up my day.

Big story of the day in AK

You may have heard about this already, but just in case you haven’t, one of the Alaskan senators was indicted by a federal grand jury today. This is HUGE up here. He’s a big name in the area. The Anchorage International Airport is even named after him.

Here’s the story: http://www.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/stevens/story/478349.html

Anchorage doctor bikes around the country – literally

Here’s a story I wrote in yesterday’s paper about a local doctor who is riding (he’s finishing up Thursday) around the periphery of the country to raise money and awareness for cancer: http://www.adn.com/life/health/story/476455.html. 

12,000 miles in 120 days. And he’s 62. Impressive, right?  I’m 41 years his junior and I know I’m not even close to being in that kind of shape.

The fishing trip

We woke up around six and drove about two hours to a town named Sterling, where we met up with a couple and their three kids (friends of my host mom) to take a spin in their boat around the Kenai River and do some fishing for that good stuff — the fresh sockeye salmon.  

We all packed on layers and layers of clothes because it can get cold in the river and most people (like we did) actually stand out in there in the river and fish, rather than just cast a line out from the boat.

Unfortunately, no one in our group was able to catch any fish, but there were many people fishing in our area that were successful.

Hundreds of people actually live right on the edge of the Kenai River and have prime fishing spots. If you look closely, you can see two men standing out in the water in front of their homes.

Many people just bring their boats out, tie it up to a tree or something stable, and walk out into the water.

There were hundreds of sea birds out to greet us on the cloudy afternoon.

All bundled up. I felt like I was about to go skiing…

Note to Mom and all other concerned parent figures in my life: This was a floater jacket, which triples as a life jacket, warm coat and raincoat.

I was trying… hard. ha ha.

You like those glasses? The family loaned me those to protect my eyes from hooks that sometimes were flying through the air. I was told that people have been known to lose their eyes from hook accidents. I have to make it back to KC and NC with my eyeballs intact.

‘A’ for effort.

Here’s my host mom, Pam, doin’ her thing. She’s a tough cookie. She drove back to the Kenai River a few hours after dropping me off in Anchorage and is fishing out there today for king salmon. They started at 5 a.m. 

I had to get a picture of this. This duck probably had close to 30 offspring trailing her. Whew. That’s a strong female right there. 30 kids!?!

After a couple of hours, it started raining.. and pouring.. It rained like I’d never seen it rain before. We were freezing cold and wet. Lots of ’true Alaskans’ stuck it out and kept fishing as if it was 75 degrees and sunny. After a while of braving the weather and seeing that it wasn’t going to clear up anytime soon, we decided to call it a day.

Goin’ fishin’

Yay! Tomorrow, I’m going salmon fishing with my host mom a few hours away from Anchorage. I’ve never been fishing before, let alone in Alaskan waters, so this should be quite an experience.

Today, my camera wasn’t working… That concerns me. Very much. Don’t worry. I’ll figure out a way to get some pics, folks! Keep hope alive!!

God bless.

A marine mystery

Photo by Cy St-Amand, North Gulf Oceanic Society

Three dead humpbacks in Alaskan waters. A pod of 11 killer whales are suspected.

Read here for more: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/marine/story/472527.html

This story took me back to my days when I dreamed of being a marine biologist…

Youth detention center is over the hill

McLaughlin Youth Center, the largest juvenile detention center in Alaska, celebrated its 40th anniversary a few days ago. It was really interesting talking to the guy who’d been around since day one.

Here’s the story I wrote: http://www.adn.com/crime/story/469709.html

Cats, cats, cats galore

Here’s a link to the story I wrote about cat overpopulation in Anchorage and the sad fact that 50 percent are killed at animal control because not enough people come in and adopt them: http://www.adn.com/anchorage/story/466942.html

I filmed and put together to go with the story, and here’s the link to it: http://community.adn.com/mini_apps/vmix/player.php?ID=2006159&GID=118 (It’s not perfect since it’s my first one, but it was a lot of fun to put together and I learned a lot in the process)

What everyone is complaining about

A lot of people have apologized to me for this summer’s cooler-than-usual temperatures (“If you came any other summer, it’d be warmer”). Here is a story I wrote for yesterday’s paper that shows that even though it is slightly cooler, we’re not setting any records: http://www.adn.com/anchorage/story/464849.html