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.