A Wildlife Experience to Remember

Posted on June 22, 2012 Updated on June 22, 2012

Another beautiful day here in Alaska.  This morning I had to laugh when the local news channel reported that it would be ‘extremely hot’ here in Alaska.  It did finally get into the low 80’s for about an hour.  However, I found it to be perfect most of the day.  I did finally see some mosquitos and was thankful for the bug spray I brought along.

After waking up, I made plans to meet Jordan Eastman who grew up in New London.  Jordan lives and works here in Anchorage.  His Dad is George Eastman and owns the funeral home in New London.  Jordan works with Scott Janssen the “Mushin Mortician”.  It was great to see Jordan and meet Scott.  Scott is a super friendly guy and spent some time talking about this year’s Iditarod.  Scott won a new car from an Iditarod fundraiser.   It was parked in the parking lot and as Scott says, “It goes a lot faster than a dog sled.”

Scott will be at the musher sign up next Saturday so I am looking forward to talking to him more.  Jordan is a sweetie and hopefully I will get a chance to see him again before I leave.  Jordan was also at the crash site in 2010.  It’s amazing how small the world is.  He was able to help our friends in a time of need.  I had been wanting to give him a big hug for the past 2 years.

Afterwards, I headed uptown to catch a shuttle to the Alaska Zoo.  My goal was to get a few pictures and videos to take back to my classroom.  I ended up coming home with so much more.  The Zoo charges $12 for admission, however, for an extra $13 you can go on a behind the scenes tour.  This tour was worth way more than $13!  Our group was made up of myself, the guide and one other person!  It lasted for over 3 hours and we were able to get up close to some amazing animals.

This awesome Polar Bear was taking a swim when we first arrived.  I ended up with great video of him playing with a ball underwater.  He made it look like it was so much fun!  Later we went to the top of the Polar Bear area to see the Polar Bears out of the water.  It was so much fun!  At one point I just kept thinking, I could reach out and touch these animals.  Now, I would NEVER do that…because I really value my body parts!

After hanging out with the Polar Bears behind the scenes, we headed for the wolves!  Having someone with you that has the keys to all the gates is just amazing!  We bypassed all the groups of people trying to see the wolves and headed to the back of the cages.  Once we opened the first gate, the wolves came running.  They thought they were going to get a little snack.  It was amazing to see these animals up close.  One wolf  began growling at the pack.  He appeared to be in charge of the pack.  I had a difficult time deciding when to take pictures and when I should video.  (At one point I was doing both!)  I did catch a very funny moment when the wolf decided to mark his territory right in front of us.

We were able to see Black Bears, a Kodiak Bear and a Grizzly.  It was amazing to see the differences between all these different kinds of bears.  I ended up with great pictures and videos that I know my classroom is going to love.  This was definitely a wildlife experience to remember!

After the zoo, I headed back downtown to the Anchorage Museum.  You could spend several days in the museum and never see the same thing twice.  It is a combination of Cosi, a museum and a Heritage Center.  There were so many amazing things to see.  I loved playing with the bubbles and seeing if I could get a bubble to go over my head.  There were plenty of videos that you could sit around and watch.  The art portion was amazing with one entire section that focused on the Arctic. I did locate some very old dog sleds that I had to get some pictures of.  They had a piece of the Alaskan Pipeline that was truly amazing.  It was much wider and thicker than I could have imagined.

Tomorrow is going to be a ton of fun!    I now have a roommate from New York,  she teaches 4th grade and her name is Kate.  We have tons of adventures planned! I can’t wait!