Today was my last full day in Alaska and it was a rather boring day. We had to get ready to head back to New York tomorrow, so we spent the day cleaning our cabins and packing. The nice thing about today was we all got to sleep in since we did not have anything to wake up early for. I slept until 8 am which to me was sleeping in because every other day I have been up between 5 and 6 am. When we get back to New York we have to give presentations on a topic we chose about Alaska. I am doing my presentation on moose. I worked on putting together my presentation today so I will have less work to do when I get back to New York. As a way to celebrate our time in Alaska and as an ending to our trip, we are going out to a fancy steak and seafood restaurant in Homer tonight. This will probably be the last post I make. The next time I go online I will most likely be back in New York. Tomorrow we have to get up early and depart our cabins. We have about a 4 hour drive to the airport in Anchorage. Our plane does not leave until 5pm but on our way to the airport we are stopping at one more big attraction in Alaska. We are going to a wildlife conservation center where there will  be all sorts of different animals that live in Alaska. That will be a great closure to my adventures in Alaska. I have had a great time here but I am ready to come home. 

Goodbye Alaska! 

Today was the last big adventure of our Alaska trip. We went on an 8 hour hike. The hike had all different parts to it. At times we were walking along a beach, other times we were hiking up a steep hill through the woods, or maneuvering our way through huge bolder rocks. It was quite the adventure. We hiked all the way up to the peak of the mountain and had lunch then we made our way back down. This morning we took about a half hour boat ride from Homer to the mountain we hiked. While on our hike we came across a dog and he followed us for the remainder of our hike. Then he headed back home as we boarded the boat to head back to Homer. The dog belonged to a family that had a cabin up on the mountain. The cool thing about our hike was that the tide was really high when we first arrived and really low by the time we left. We saw a rock that looked like a sea otter and it is known as Otter Rock. When we got to the mountain it was almost completely covered in water, by the time we left, the rock was hardly in water at all so we were able to climb up Otter Rock and explore around a little. It was a great day overall and a nice way to end our adventures in Alaska. Tomorrow we will be spending the day packing and cleaning our cabin and then we fly back to New York on Monday.

This is Otter Rock

Some people from my group exploring the tide pools on Otter Rock

Lunch time...although you can't tell in the picture we are on top of a very high cliff

After the hike we were all so tired. As a joke, when we were told to smile for the camera we all pretended to be sleeping on the beach

Today was such an exciting day! I got to go dog sledding (the summer version of it) and whale watching all in the same day. Our day began bright in early at 5am and we drove three hours to Seward in order to go dog sledding and whale watching. The place we went dog sledding at was the home of the Seaveys. They are a family that has been dog sledding for years and participating in the Iditarod in Alaska. One man from the family, Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod in 2004 and one of his sons just won this year's Iditarod. Some of the dogs that pulled us today in dog sledding were the dogs that helped win the Iditarod. Since there is no longer much snow on the ground in Seward, we did not actually go dog sledding. Instead, the dogs pulled us through a trail in the woods on a wheeled cart. It was such a cool experience. The place also had puppies for us to hold and play with. They could be possible future winners of the Iditarod. There were lots of dogs at the place, and one dog was special because he was in the movie "Snow Dogs." After our time with the dogs, we went on a four hour whale watching cruise. We ended up seeing five whales. I'm not sure what type they were. We think they were Humpback whales. We also saw lots of sea lions,seals, and a mountain goat while on the whale watch. After our two adventures were over, we drove three hours back to our cabin and relaxed for the night because we were all tired from a very long day!

This is the dog from the movie Snow Dogs

This is what the carts looked like that the dogs pulled us in

The dogs were so friendly!

This is one of the puppies I got to hold :)

This is what it looked like as the dogs pulled us on the cart through the woods

Although it isn't much this is one of the whales I saw on the whale watching boat

These are some of the sea lions we saw from the whale watching boat

Today's adventures made me truly feel like I was in Alaska. I got to go snowshoeing. Before doing that though we went exploring around a salt marsh in search of birds. The birds are currently all migrating back to Alaska now after leaving for the winter so we were able to see lots of them along the shoreline and in the salt marsh. Our tour guide said that salt marshes are like McDonald's to birds...aka fast food on the go because the birds stop there to get food and then continue migrating elsewhere.The only thing I did not like about walking around in the salt marsh was the fact that it was muddy. I got muddy enough yesterday and did not want to be in more mud today. After we were done looking for birds we walked over to a lake called Beluga Lake and we took samples of the creatures living in the water. We found some snails, egg sacks, and lots of larvae. Our day ended by going snowshoeing. We went on a 3 mile hike using snowshoes through the woods. Normally, the hike would have been just a normal hike wearing hiking boots, but there was still over 2 feet of snow on the trail so our hiking guide provided us all with snowshoes. I had never been snowshoeing before and had lots of fun trying it. Tomorrow will be another great Alaskan adventure, because we are going dog sledding and whale watching. I am really excited. 

Here I am bird watching in the salt marsh

These are people from my group searching for critters in the lake

Ready to snowshoe :)

Today was a dirty adventure! We went clam digging in the low tide and got VERY muddy. At one point I got stuck in the mud and it was up to my knees. People had to come and dig me out because I literally could not move. I was so scared being stuck! We were clam digging as a volunteer project for the Alaska Fish and Game Department. They wanted to collect Razor Clams and analyze their shells to see how old the clams are. In return for our volunteer services, we got to keep all of the clams from the shells. In all we dug about 170 clams and we were digging for about 5 hours. After we were done digging the clams, we had to clean the mud off of them and then remove the clam from the shell. That was my job. Someone else stuck the clams in hot water until they opened up their shells, and then I took the clam and removed it from the shell. Can you guess what we ate for dinner tonight? I don't usually like clams, but after all the hard work we did today to get the clams I decided to try a few and they tasted good. 

Ready to go clam digging. We were given water waders, boots, a bucket, and a clam shovel

This is a good example of how muddy we got

This is me and my clam digging partner. We got really dirty.

This is after we were all done digging. I had scratched my nose because it was itchy and ended up with mud all over my face because I forgot my hands were so dirty.

Here I am cleaning the clams

After I cleaned the clams, I opened up the shells and removed the clams.

Today was a busy day filled with lots of different things but it was kind of boring. We mostly went on tours all day of buildings. First we went to a Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik, Alaska. It is claimed to be one of the most photographed churches. Next we went to a Historical museum in the town of Kasilof, Alaska which had lots of old buildings that people used to live in such as cabins and farm houses. The buildings were so small. In one cabin that I went in, it was so little that I could touch the ceiling with my hands while my feet were touching the ground. After that we went to a similar place but in a different town called Soldotna. At that place there  was an old school. The classroom was much different to the current classrooms. Our last stop of the day was to a wildlife visitor's center in Kenai, Alaska. After that some people chose to go to a movie theater and see the Avengers. I was not interested in going to see that movie, so I headed back to the cabins with a few other people. While the others were at the movies, we went out to dinner in Homer and all had fresh Alaskan Fish and Chips. 

This is a picture of the Russian Orthodox Church

This is a picture of one of the cabin buildings we saw. 

This is what the old classrooms used to look like. This particular room used to have students from grades first through seventh in it. Would you like to go to school in this classroom?

The weather was much nicer today than it was yesterday and today was much more adventurous than the past two days were. We began our morning by going to tide pools. The tide was so far out so we had lots of space to explore along the beach. There were so many different creatures to look at inside the tide pools. We saw star fish, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, crabs, clams squirting water  from their shells, shrimp, a baby flounder fish, and even a baby octopus. It was really cool. Walking through and around the tide pools was quite the adventure and a very slippery one because of all the seaweed on the rocks. I ended up slipping and falling into a tide pool. It hurt a little but I was mostly just laughing about it. I just got very muddy and wet.I was not the only one to fall. We explored the tide pools for about two hours and then we had to leave because the tide was starting to come back into shore. In the afternoon we attended a presentation on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill which was a bad oil spill that happened in Alaska in 1989. They are still finding traces of the oil on beaches from the spill. We ended the afternoon by going for another beach walk and then headed back to our cabin to make dinner. 

This is the tide pool area we went to

This is the baby octopus that we found in a tide pool

I am holding one of the star fish we found in a tide pool and this photo was taken right before I fell (hence my expression because I am about to go down to the ground)

This is another star fish that we found and it is a different type than the one in the picture above

Today was another relaxing day for me. The third group of students were supposed to go fishing today but the weather was so bad that they were told they could not go today. Therefore we all had a free day and just kind of relaxed. I went downtown to Homer again and did some grocery shopping with some other people so we could cook dinner tonight. I also went for a walk on the beach this morning. The tide this morning was the lowest it has ever been all year. That made it very nice to walk on the beach because there was lots of room without having to worry about getting wet from the waves. A few people went to the local movie theater today and watched The Lucky One. The movie theater was so small and that was the only movie playing. While they were at the movie, I walked around downtown with another person. It rained the whole time we were outside. The cool thing about our walk was we saw a moose and it was the closest I have ever been to a moose. It was standing in the parking lot of a building and eating the flowers surrounding the building. It was a fairly small moose compared to some of the others that I have seen. I am hoping the weather will be nicer tomorrow and it will not be raining because we are spending some time outdoors studying tide pools. 

On our beach walk we found a hermit crab. He was still inside of his shell.

This is the moose I saw in the parking lot

He was a hungry moose!

Today was kind of a boring day for me.  The 17 of us on this Alaska trip were split into three groups and yesterday, today, and tomorrow the three groups would be going fishing each on a different day. Since my fishing day was yesterday, today and tomorrow are free days for me. I got to sleep in today which was nice, but I only slept until 8. It is hard to sleep in here in Alaska because of all the daylight. Sometimes I wake up at 5am and think it is later in the morning because of how bright it is out. It gets dark now at around 11pm and light between 4 and 5am. The group that went fishing today caught 33 fish! My group was a little jealous because we only caught 3 yesterday on our fishing trip. This afternoon I went downtown to Homer with my group and we went to a museum that had information about the Kachemak Bay which is the bay surrounding the area where I am staying. Then we did some souvenir shopping and headed back to the cabin for the night.

I spent my entire day fishing. The fishing trip began at 6am and was supposed to go until 6pm. However, the water was really rough and we were not catching much fish (plus a few people on the boat with me were starting to get sick) so we decided to end the fishing trip a little early. We got back to the boat launch at 3pm. That means we were out to sea for 9 hours. I loved it! I was not one of the ones who felt sea sick, in fact I loved the bumpy ride. The boat launch was really neat because instead of driving a truck down into the water and releasing the boat into the water, it was a tractor that pulled the boat down to the water edge and then we were released. We were not having very much luck while we were fishing for King Salmon so we decided to go further out and try to catch Halibut. As we were fishing for Halibut we caught our first fish of the day. However, it was not the fish we were intending to catch. It was a Pacific Grey Cod. We kept it anyways since it was at least a fish. A few hours later as we went back and tried to catch Salmon, we caught another fish and again it was the wrong type. This time it was a Halibut! It was just a small one though about 15 pounds. At the very end of our fishing trip we ended up catching a King Salmon. It was about 30 pounds. There were six of us total out on the fishing trip today and three fish was all we were able to catch in 9 hours. I was disappointed that I was not able to catch a fish personally but I still enjoyed the experience of fishing on the Ocean very much! I want to do it again sometime. After we got off the boat, we went to a fish processing place where they cut up the fish that we caught. We ended up eating the Halibut and Cod fish for dinner and the King Salmon got boxed up and shipped home to New York.

This is the first fish we caught. It is a Pacific Grey Cod

This is the Halibut. The same girl who caught the Cod caught this one too

This is the 30 pound King Salmon

We took the Salmon to be cut up which is what is happening in this picture. The fisherman of our boat is the one who cut up all the fish.

We could tell the Salmon that we caught was a female because inside of her were these sacks of eggs

This is the end result of the Salmon. These fillets were packaged up and shipped to New York to the family of the girl who caught it.

Today was a much less busy day compared to yesterday. A lot of people spent the day recuperating from the long day yesterday of kayaking and hiking and preparing for our long day ahead of us tomorrow. We will be going fishing tomorrow (Friday) from 6am to 6pm. We will be fishing for Salmon and Halibut. Today we went out and bought our one day fishing licenses in order to go fishing tomorrow. If we catch any fish we get to keep them and can eat them right away or ship them home. If I catch any, I plan to ship the fish home. It will be the freshest ocean fish my family and I have ever had. I went to a gift shop today called the Time Bandit and it was the official store for the show "Deadliest Catch." We also went to a place called Islands and Ocean adventure center today in Homer where we learned about the seabirds of Alaska. We attended a presentation where they had real stuffed birds that they passed around and we got to hold and touch. My favorite seabird from Alaska is the puffin. We did not really have any photo opportunities today so I do not have any to post in this blog, however I am hoping that the next time I post to this blog, I will be able to show off a picture of the fish I am really hoping to catch when I go fishing.

I had the most fun today so far this trip. I spent the day kayaking and hiking through the Alaskan wilderness. We spent a total of 10 hours on these adventures. The day began by meeting in the bay in Homer and catching a boat to a little island about an hour away from the bay we started at. Once we arrived to the island there were kayaks waiting for us and we all got into them and went for about a 3 hour kayak trip around the surrounding water of the island. The kayaks were made for two people in each one. We all had to wear rain suits to keep us warm and dry as we kayaked. On our kayak adventure we passed sea otters and seals. It was so neat to be up close to those animals in the wild. I have only ever seen them before in aquariums.  After our kayak adventure, we had a picnic lunch, and got back into the boat and traveled to a different location off the coast. After about another hour of being in the boat we arrived to a giant mountain where we would begin our hike. The hike was about a 2 mile hike and it was a true mountain hiking experience because of how steep our climb was. We had to maneuver through patches of snow, under fallen tree limbs, and over large rocks. The trail that we were hiking led to a lake and a glacier off in the distance. That was the first time we have been able to see a glacier. The scenery on our hike was amazing! Once we reached the end of the trail and saw the glacier we had to turn around and head back to the boat. The hike back down to the boat went much faster than the hike up because it was mostly downhill. By the time we reached the boat we were all very tired and ready to head back into the harbor in Homer and then head back to our cabins for the night. When I got back to the cabin and looked in the mirror I realized my face was really red. I had gotten a sunburn! It never crossed my mind to wear sunscreen while in Alaska because of how cold it is here. Despite being cold it has been sunny everyday so far. 

My partner Heather and me in our kayak ready to begin our adventure

This is a picture of me with the glacier (center behind me) that we hiked to

Midway through our hike we stopped to take a picture of the views behind us.

This is one of the views we had as we were on our hike up the mountain.

Today was an interesting day. We did a little bit of everything including eating a huge breakfast cooked by the males on the trip (we all take turns cooking meals), grocery shopping, visiting an art gallery, visiting a Russian Village (in Alaska), eating a Russian meal at some woman's house cafe, and then visiting an Alaska visitor's center where we learned about the history of Anchor Point where we are staying. We ended the day with a taco dinner and some relaxing.

Let me tell you about the two main adventures of the day which was the art gallery and the Russian Village. The art gallery displayed paintings all done by one local Alaskan man. His name is Norman Lowell. He owns and operates the gallery so we got to meet him. He told us all about his paintings. He moved to Alaska in the 1950's when there was a such thing as "homesteading" where people could move to the Alaska territory and claim up to 160 acres of land as their own property. He used his homestead land to build a house for him and his wife and begin painting. He paints scenic pictures from all around Alaska. They were beautiful to see.

Our next adventure was at the Russian Village. It is a little village right outside of Anchor Point. We started out by having lunch  in a cafe in the village. It was owned by one Russian lady and she cooked everything for us. We were the only people in the cafe. Everything was "family style" and prepared for us. We were told we just had to try a little bit of everything whether we liked it or not. There was no menu to order food from. We just ate whatever the lady cooked for us. It was very interesting food to say the least. I did not really like it. After we finished eating lunch the lady took us on a tour of her Russian Village. It was a neat experience to see what the Russian culture is like but it was kind of strange thinking about the fact that I'm in Alaska but learning about the Russians. However, with Russia being so close to Alaska, they have quite an influence on this state I am told.

This is the whole group with artist Norman Lowell at his art gallery. We are standing in front of a picture he painted of the Northern Lights.

This is the whole group in front of the Russian Cafe that we ate at and the Russian lady that cooked for us is in the picture with us.

We saw more Bald Eagles today. This was a pair of them in a tree. They seemed to be mates and did everything together like turn their heads at the same time and fly away together.

One of my professors from college on the trip with me (the woman on the right) got chosen to dress up in Russian clothing. Standing next to her is the Russian lady.