A moose, a moose!

One day coming back from the train to no where, we saw a moose and her calf. They were hanging out near a fishing cabin and really close to the road. We watched them for 15 minutes or so, before they disappeared into the willow.

A moose and baby by the Bering Sea.

Close to a fishing cabin. We saw a few other moose on our trip, they were all female. Even living in Montana and Utah. Most of the moose I have seen have been female. I think I have only seen 2 males.

Musk ox. Don't they remind you a little of mammoths? They are smaller than I expected and Doug says they are mostly fur.

Musk ox running. We watched them run for quite a while. They would run a little and then stop. A few minutes later they would start running in the direction they just came from. They kept switching which way they were going. It was like they were running just for the shear joy of running. It was fun to watch them play.

Kind of like a kid running. After watching the musk ox, we drove a while and came to a bridge. We got out to look at all the birds (Nome is a birder hot spot- I had no idea). Everest could have cared less about the birds. Any ideas on why he is running?

Can you guess now? Grami and Everest got lots of rocks to throw  from the bridge. When they ran out, they went back for more. Grami is such a good sport. Look how happy he is running.

Doug, Nathan, Leaf and I saw lots of birds and a fox. We got pictures, but the fox was pretty far away and the picture doesn't show much on the blog so I deleted it. We also saw a snowy owl and golden eagle, but the same was true for those pictures.

Nome and the wind farm

One of the biggest reasons we went to Alaska was to visit a wind farm. Not just any wind farm, but the one in Nome. Nathan and Doug are writing a grant for an educational piece about the wind farm. Nathan wanted to see the farm and the program Doug runs, to better understand and write the grant. He also met some local people who will be involved and wanted to make sure they were all on board.

While we were there we got our own tour of the wind farm. It was fascinating. They have 18 small windmills. On a windy day, those windmills can generate enough power for 1/4 of Nome's power. They are hoping to get more and become more self sufficient. 

As we drove up the hill to the wind farm, we saw a herd of musk ox. They were fairly close, but took off running when we drove by.

We stopped to check out the musk ox, but by the time we go the camera out they were down the hill. You can just see black dots in the middle of the picture. We got better pictures of the musk ox the next day. You will see those in a future post.

Leaf and I hiking around some of the rocks on the hill of the wind farm. Can you tell how windy it was?

SO we were on a dirt road in Nome, where there might be 300 or so cars.  We let Everest steer a little. We never went more than 5 miles an hour and in 2 hours only saw one other vehicle (which was a 4 wheeler and we happened to be out of the truck at that time). He is sitting on Nathan's lap.

 Leaf had a great time hiking around the wind mills. He LOVED his hiking boots. He had a hard time walking in them at first, they are a little too big. But it didn't take him long to figure it out. Thanks to these he was able to walk all over Alaska and not get his feet wet.

Everest exploring around the windmills.

We found water on the side of the road, which of course called to Everest. Leaf needed his diaper changed so we stopped and let Everest throw rocks in the water. The wind farm is in the back ground.

A little later we found a beautiful water fall. The boys played her for over an hour. Leaf threw in rock, as did Everest. But Everest got into building dams in the water and trying to change the route.

Eating crabs

While we were in Nome, we tried some local treats. We all tried Musk Ox (yes, vegetarian Mentzer's ate Musk Ox). We decided before we went we wanted to experience Nome as it was meant to be. With Doug's girlfriend Dar being an Eskimo, it was easy to learn. We ate mucktuck (no idea how to spell it). Which is whale blubber, you eat raw but frozen. And one night we enjoyed something we love, crab legs.

Leaf's first encounter with crabs. He kept picking them up and saying crab. I was surprised, they hurt when you grab a hold of them.

Everest trying to help crack the shells and get the meat out. He liked cracking them, but decided he didn't like them.

Leaf snuggled up with Dar, since she was the best crab meat getter. He really seemed to like it. He sat like this for a while with his hand on his chin, chewing. We were all laughing.

Dar was feeding Leaf crab, so Leaf decided to feed her too. She was a good sport.

While Dar and I were shopping, she found a cute pair of polar bear slippers for Leaf. It only took the first day for them to see his obsession with shoes too. He loved the slippers and ended up falling asleep with them on. I think this picture was taken at 11 pm and I don't think we used a flash.

We also enjoyed Shura (again I have no idea how to spell it, it is an Inupiaq (one of the Eskimo languages) word. These are greens they enjoy in the "Spring" time. They eat them in the summer and then dip them in seal oil to preserve them for the winter. We did not get to try seal oil...next time. We have heard it is very strong, but most Eskimos love it.

It was great to see that even though some things have dramatically changed for Eskimos, some things have remained the same. They may drink coke and get clothing shipped in from WalMart, but they also look for bird eggs when the birds return, and go on seal and whale hunts. They go to fishing camp and dry fish to eat throughout the year, and they pick greens and preserve what they can. Dar doesn't speak fluent Inupiaq, but she knows a lot of words in her language. It seems they are a people, struggling to keep up with the modern world and yet, keep their roots. I think it is a little easier for them that Native Americans because they are still somewhat secluded. We loved learning about Native ways, thank you Dar for sharing all your knowledge with us. We can't wait to visit again.

Out and About in Nome

We spent as much time as we could exploring Nome....you never know. We had a lot of fun even though it was over cast most of the time. When the sun did come out, it was amazing. The one thing I didn't get to see and really wanted to, was watching the suns path throughout the day. We saw it at different times, but I would have loved to have seen it rise, and set. Although, they say, it doesn't really do either there, it dips but is never fully out of sight. 

As we took a drive to the south, we followed the Bering Sea. We found all this drift wood. There is not a tree in sight, Nome is on the tundra. It was amazing to see how much drift wood washes ashore. This is what most people use to help heat their homes in the winter.

We found places that there was still a lot of ice floating close to shore. We got out to look around and play and Nathan decided to go out onto the ice. Being very pregnant and not having good balance right now, I decided to stay on shore.

After stepping on the first ice berg, Everest agreed with me. Leaf didn't have a choice, but didn't seem to mind.

On our adventure we stopped at the Train to No Where (This was our set destination, but we kept stopping along the way, so a 30 minute drive turned into an hour and a half. We didn't think we would make it back in time to pick up Doug, but thankfully just as we were about to turn around, there it was.) This was probably Everest's favorite thing about the entire trip. To say he loved this train is an understatement.

The train was brought here over a hundred years ago. I didn't get a chance to read the history, I assume it was to haul gold to Nome. They laid the track and had the train ready, and then a big storm blew in, ripped up all the tracks and the train was never used. A few of the tracks are around the train, all twisted and bent, and some sticking up in the air.

This train was such a highlight for Everest, that when Grami arrived on Friday night, he wanted to take her to the train. We compromised on Saturday morning. Doug, Nathan, Grami, Everest and Leaf all went back to the train to no where. They spent a good hour playing on the train. Nathan said Everest was so focused on playing, he couldn't get many good pictures of him. I got to sleep in and then go to a few Native stores downtown with Doug's girlfriend Dar.

Doug walking Leaf around the walkway for the train. As you can see, Everest had no interest in the walk way, he went straight to the real thing.

I am sure Doug is pointing out birds to Leaf. He loves birds, almost as much as balls. He really started talking in Nome. Every time he saw a bird, he would say bird and then more.

The photographs do not do Alaska justice. It was amazing how beautiful it was. I didn't think I would like the wide open space of the tundra, but the view of the sky it offers it breathtaking. They say Montana is "Big Sky" country and it is (that is one of the things we love about it), but Alaska has even bigger sky's. This is Doug and Leaf on a ridge with the tundra, clouds and mountains in the background.

Around Nome

Welcome to Nome Alaska! Nome has only 3 flights a day from Anchorage, the only carrier is Alaska Airlines. The plane from Anchorage to Nome was bigger than I expected. It has 3 seats on both sides and maybe 20 rows. There are smaller carriers that fly to the 15 villages. Most of the planes only carry 4-6 passengers.  

Nome is the end of the Iditarod race, the longest dog sled race. One of these days we are going to make it to Nome for the Iditarod. 

Nome was founded by gold miners. Nome is still a prosperous place for gold mining. We were told about a few mines the kids could walk around in and find small pieces of gold, but we were so busy we didn't make it. Next time!

This was one of the buildings in downtown Nome. (Notice how high the fire hydrant is) There are no stop lights in the town of Nome. Town is about 3/4 miles long and has about 3,000 people. There are also 13 bars in Nome because the villages are dry, so Nome is the only place to get alcohol. Nathan wanted to buy a beer at the grocery store, he looked at Alaskan Amber (which is made in Alaska), it was $18 a six pack!!!! How anyone has the money to drink is beyond me.

Everest saw this truck and had to get a picture of it. He was very excited that there was a cool truck in Nome. Most vehicles there are beaters, because they have to ship them by barge and there are only a few paved roads.

We went to the Nome museum. It was small, but really nice. There was a lot packed into a small space. Nome may be a small town, but it has a lot of history, from gold mining to dog sleds, to Eskimos. The library is in the top part of the museum. It was small, but as a former reading specialist, I was quite impressed with the book selection. The library has a few big windows that overlook the Bering Sea. Everest and I sat and read a few books with the Bering Sea in the background.

This is a dredge about 1/4 mile outside of town. We are not sure if it is supposed to be in water or not. All the other dredges we saw were just on land. This was used for gold mining. There are scoops in the back and somehow it sorts the gold from the dirt and shoots the extra stuff out the front (where Everest is standing). I have no idea how it works, it was huge. There are dredges all over the outskirts of Nome.

Nome is a cool place, but because they have no place for junk, and they reuse all that they can, there is junk laying around everywhere. Most people have old vehicles, 4 wheelers or snow machines that do not work, outside their houses. It makes the place look rough when you first see it, but after a day or two you overlook all of that and can see the potential Nome has to offer.