As seen only in Alaska

Driving down the road this afternoon; looked over to the left and this is what we saw!

Juneau to Haines and back to Juneau

 This is the frozen river with snow on it in Haines.  I thought it looked like lace.

 This is one of the many murals inside the school that were painted by the parents. (Haines HS) 

 This is a temple on an island in the middle of the river.

 Can anyone tell us what this is?  Only reachable by barge, there are no roads.  It looks like a secret operation!?

 We were fling back to Juneau right above these mountain tops!

 Another shot of the same!

This is the city of Juneau; the Capitol of Alaska.

Juneau to Haines

This is a picture of the Mendenhal Glacier from the plane.  We were leaving Juneau and Going into Haines, Alaska.

Hoonah, Alaska

This is another village in Alaska that we were in. 

 This is the village of Hoonah as seen from the plane. 

 This is the plane we flew in on.

 An eagle in the tree right outside the school.  There were a lot of them.

 This is the fishing lodge we stayed in.  It is right on the water.

 This is the view from the window of my room.  On the other side of the water are fishing huts.

 This is the outside of their school.

 This is the marina in the village.

This is leaving Hoonah.  Looking at the island from the plane.

Magpie's

These were in the parking lot when I was leaving work today.

Bohemian Wax Wing Birds

Took these pictures from inside my office.  Check out the red berries in their beaks.

And then........

After leaving the great day of festivities, we come up our hill and crossing the street right in front of us was this!!!!!!!!!!  Can you believe it??????   LOL

 Caught her "doing her business"  Hahahaha

Running With the Reindeer

Much like running with the bulls in Spain, we have running with the Reindeer.  It was really neat though; they brought in an Army squad from Anchorage that just arrived home 2 weeks ago from a year of duty in Afghanistan.  They honored them for 100% of them making it back; 2 with a purple heart and several others with medals of honor.  They then did a re-enlist ceremony along with a new recruit enlistment ceremony.  Very heart warming!

And then it was time for the reindeer.  A group of Army soldiers decided to "show their stuff"  by almost running naked.  Crazy them in 9 degree weather.  Prior to the start the MC went out and told them if they were real men they would drop and give him 20 even in the snow; they DID!  ENJOY!!!

Fur Auction

It is amazing how many different animal furs there are.  People up here actually wear them too!  For those of you who are opposed to killing animals....don't look.  However, please realize that the Native Alaskans do use every part of the animal for subsistence.

Blanket Toss

This is a traditional Native game played by all Native people.  It is a blanket toss.  The blanket is made from seal skin.  The Natives use the seal skin to coat their boats that they hunt whale in.  Once they have a successful hunt they take the skin off the boat and sew two to three of the skins together to make the blanket.

 There's Threasa in the red getting ready to "toss" someone!