Eagle Day in Eagle River, Alaska

Hello from Far Above.  I had to share with you the wonderful photos I took yesterday of the Bald Eagles sitting outside our kitchen window.  Beth, my roommate, noticed one Eagle sitting in the tree out our window and we both grabbed our cameras and headed outside.  Did I mention that it snowed 6 -8 inches of snow the night before.  So in our pajamas and big boots we roamed the streets taking pictures of Eagles.  There had to be at least 30 eagles within our two blocks.  People came out of their houses to see what we were taking pictures of in their yards. Are these pictures not amazing?  The first Eagle is so perfect for a Christmas tree Topper?!The photo with the 5 eagles in a tree made both of us sing "5 Eagles in a Tree", four calling birds, three french hens. etc. Amazing how many Eagles were in one spot. The two birds in a tree is spectacular because they represent the two birds of Alaska.  The Raven is on the top branch and the Bald Eagle is on the lower branch.  The next Eagle photo is slightly blurry.  That is because I took this picture through my kitchen window which has a screen.  Not too bad for a window shot!  So while we are standing outside the teenage Eagle decided to fly away and flew right over my head.  You can see the talons and beak point.  He was very close. And our favorite show was taken by Beth as the Bald Eagle decided he had enough of us photographing him.  Is that amazing?!!!!! We had such a great morning. That is Beth in her pajamas to show how silly we looked. The gray looking tings are frozen water bubbles on a pond.  The Totem Pole is something new in our neighbor's yard. We took the pretty berry picture because it looks like it should be on note card.  I am sitting in a hollowed out big tree trunk.  This was a few weeks ago.  If you look closely you can see my black-eye. Do you know it has been over 6 weeks and I still have some black and red marks under my eye.   The last picture is the teacher sorority, DKU, of which I am keeping busy preparing for our State Convention in April. 

Now for Eagle information.  Those of you that just want to look at the pictures you can sign out now.

There are three species of Eagles - Bald, Golden and Stellar Sea Eagles.  Bald are the most common and can always be found near a river or stream where salmon are swimming.  There are about 30,000 Bald Eagles in Alaska.  They are the biggest bird with a 7 foot wing-span.  The Bald Eagle is the National Emblem but they are not bald.  See David, not everyone can be bald and beautiful like you!  Eagles select a mate for life and humans are their biggest enemy.  The Eagle eats about a pound of food per day and travels about 20 miles day during the winter and 125 miles during the spring and fall to hunt food.  The female Eagle is slightly bigger than the male Eagle.  The premature Eagle is brown and stays brown for about 3 years.  Then the white head feathers come in along with the darker under feathers.

I hope you enjoyed these spectacular pictures of Eagles.  I hope you had the best Thanksgiving and were surrounded by a lot of family.  David and I joined Jenna in San Francisco where she cooked our Thanksgiving dinner. She didn't enjoy preparing the turkey but she did it.  She was a great cook and served a very delicious dinner.  I will be home to Memphis in just a few short weeks.  I hope to catch up with my Memphis friends over the holidays.  Until then...... Let is snow, let it snow in Alaska!

Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.

Kenai Fjords Cruise

Greeting to all of you.  I hope you all are doing well.  I am finding it hard to up-date my blog every week.  I thought I was busy last year, well, this year is even busier.  Thanks for being patient with my blogging.  Here are my beginning pictures from my Kenai Fjords Cruise with my Aunt Sharon.  We had a wonderful week and packed it full of so many Alaskan adventures, it will take me a while to get them all posted.  We took an all day cruise out of Seward through Resurrection Bay as we headed to the Artic Ocean.  It was an overcast day and we had high hopes to see everything.  We did!  It was amazing.  I spent a lot of time out on the deck because I am not really good with the swaying of the ship inside or down below.  The Captain gave us specific instructions about how to stand on the deck, not to disturb the wildlife with whistling or clapping.  So I took a zillion pictures with the chilly breeze, as witnessed by the lonely tree on top of the rock.  I found the rock formations so interesting on our way out to the Artic Ocean.  Eagles abound on our trip.  These two eagles posed for us as the ship went by.  Look at the rock formation in the next picture.  Doesn't it look like an Eagle or Bird diving down to get a fish out of the water?  Do you see the beak and eyes? We were heading to the Holgate Glacier and you can see how far away it was when we were still about an hour away from the Glacier.  A very large sea otter swam with us for a long period of time.  He really enjoyed showing off his swimming skills.  Another island was loaded with Stellar Sea Lions basking in the sun.  They sure were noisy with their different levels of grunting.  Then from around back of the ship comes a whole bunch of otters playing.  They tussle and dive in the water to fill their hollow hairs with air so they can be buoyant and swim.
David has been busy in Memphis.  Last night he was a "paid escort" for a friend. They went to an auction and had a wonderful time.  He won the bid of Elvis's leather motorcycle jacket, sneakers ands sunglasses.  He wore the jacket as he took a motor cycle ride today.  He told me he was Taking Care of Business. 
I have finally figured out why some of you are going to be very JEALOUS of my new find in Anchorage.  A friend took me to the Antique area of Anchorage.  Let me tell you - the finds are up here.  Remember that many of the antiques are Russian origin and they have the most wonderful price tags up here.  The marble  top dressers, hall tree, chest of drawers, wooden snow shoes, furs, and very old ornate wooden sleighs (like Santa Claus would use) can all be found up here at remarkable prices.  I just have to figure out how to get some of these big items to Memphis.  I haven't figured that out yet!  My black eye is still here.  It has been 5 weeks so Went back to the doctor today.  Seems I have an infection which is why it hasn't gone away yet.  I can't believe we don't have a lot of snow.  We had snow about 10 days ago. Big, beautiful white flakes and piled high.  Unfortunately, we got up to 47 and sunny two weeks ago and turned all that snow into ice. Our driveway is solid ice (about 6 inches) as well as areas around the school yard. The highways, however, do not have snow and so my studded tires join the rest of the drivers with that "clickity click" sound on bare roads.  I have been selected to join the Iditarod Finish Team in Nome, AK. I will be working the beginning of the race in Anchorage/Willow and then 6 days later fly to Nome for a week.  The Nome Team leader is Deborah from El Paso, TX.  Go figure.  So we have to build the entire finish line, dog housing, prepare for the finish line banquet.  I will be staying with a Native family for the week.  I have been told it is very cold in Nome in March.  I am so excited. 
I hope all of you have a wonderful family Thanksgiving.  David and I will be joining Jensina in San Francisco this year. I leave tomorrow night (midnight - almost all AK flights leave at midnight). We have a full week of fun planned. We have a lot to be thankful for and let's celebrate it with family.  Enjoy.
Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.

Anchorage Botanical Garden

Hello everyone.  I thought I would share some photos from the beautiful Botanical Gardens in Anchorage.  My Aunt Sharon and I strolled through the grounds and enjoyed the fall colors so I thought I would share.  The split trunk birch trees are everywhere in the Gardens.  I have never seen them but I think of a sling shot when I saw them.  The walking paths are identified by the twig fence.  This took some major time to make. The twig fence is about 18 inches high and the twigs are woven through steel pipes every two feet. The picture doesn't do it justice but it is neat. Perhaps your gardens would like a twig fence?  Then I couldn't forget to show the "outhouse" at the Gardens. It is located way in the back of the grounds so it is pretty primitive.  For those who can't see, that is a marine toilet.  The fox gloves were so big I couldn't believe their size. That is Sharon's hand on one huge leaf.  The blue flowers were so soft even though they looked spiky.  When it is in full bloom it erupts with all those small curly ques.  The full bloom was soft as well.  No I don't remember the names I just take pictures!  I thought you would like to see our beautiful foliage from the end of September.  The end of September to the first week in October is our fall.  Then about mid-October everyone is expecting the first snow and winter begins.

However, this year we had Halloween with no snow.  The locals can't remember the last time that has happened.  So we had a gorgeous fall all throughout October. It was in the mid 60's and sunny all day and cooled off to the low 50's at night. Great sleeping with the windows open.  Let me fill you in on some "Sheryl" activities.  First, my eye is starting to look better. The swelling finally went down this week. I have a Nike Swoosh mark below my eye in beautiful deep purple, reds, blues and no more yellow.  I can't believe how hard I was hit. The concussion was really the worse part. I couldn't sit up for two days without being nauseous.  I forget about my big black eye and people will look and ask if I fell or got hit by the corner of the car door.  When I tell them I was attacked by a "paper cutter" in the class room they look amazed.  They say, it must be real because no one else has ever had that as an excuse for a black eye.  Oh well - Sherylisms!  So one day last week I walking across the playground during recess.  I was carrying my box filled with stuff to be copied, placed in teachers boxes, and my lunch.  As I walked across the play area, the little K - 2 grades were outside playing. They all came over to see my eye. I am quite the celebrity among the little folks.  So about 7 or 8 of them were hugging me.  Remember they are small and are about as tall as my thighs or hips. Let me back up a minute.  I have purchased some very silky winter silk underwear this year because everyone said they are comfortable and extra warm.  So I had on a pretty blue pair of winter silks and my low hip hugger pants.  I didn't wear a belt because the buckles are cold so I don't wear them.  Back to the hugging children.  I was trying to keep walking but they hung on so tightly that the next thing I knew my pants were hanging around my knees!!! Yep, I mooned the playground children and the playground supervisors.  The adults looked in amazement while the kids could have cared less. I handed the biggest child, Ger, my box and I pulled up my pants and continued inside.  Well, unbeknownst to met the play ground is video taped for security purposes.  Yep, the playground supervisors had to tell the story at lunch and in the office. I was quite famous for other reasons that day!! I have never lost my pants at school before in all my teaching. It was brisk on bare legs.  I wore my hip huggers again but with "cotton" undies and had a very uneventful day.  My school friends and I laugh quite a bit about our adventure but more of my mishaps then theirs.

WE GOT SNOW!!!! This week we got 3 inches when I woke up and it has been snowing everyday a bit. We have about a 6 - 7 inch base layer on the roads and grounds.  It is nice not hearing the clicky click of the studded tires on the bare roads.  And, my room mate, Beth, and I went to a Flash Mob event yesterday. It was so much fun. A Flash Mob is when a whole lot of people gather and perform for a few minutes and then leave.  We did a recycling dance at the convention center.  If you want to check our the first one this year check out U-tube Mama Mia Anchorage Flash Mob.  It required two days of practice to perform for the lines of people waiting to get into the Performance Center for opening Saturday of Mama Mia.  Anchorage comes up with some fun things to keep the long winter days an afterthought. 

I met up with David last weekend in Denver for a long weekend. Tyler, was in San Diego at a football game, and Jenna was  in Las Vegas. We were a traveling family last weekend.  We are all back in our cities and waiting for Thanksgiving. David and I are going to San Fran to be with Jenna for Thanksgiving. This year Tyler will be joining Cara's family for Thanksgiving.  I have never had to share a child before but we will all (my siblings and all our children and my mom) will be celebrating Christmas in Chicago at my brother Chip's house.  That will be fun.  I hope you all are enjoying your beautiful fall.  I have heard that Houston Levee is finally open!!!! Yahoo.  Normal driving patterns again. It took a while. Enjoy your week. I will blog again next week.  I with you all well. Until then, Sheryl the Nanuq of the North