Alaska Land Day 1: Alaska Native Heritage Center, Turnagain Arm

After we got off the bus from the cruise ship in Anchorage, we picked up our car and headed to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.  

We enjoyed watching the interns do native dances. They explained their dances and costumes to us.

So much pollen!

We went on a tour of the villages. They explained about their houses and tools. A number of the homes had different summer and winter entrances. It was also interesting how they used the animals that lived around them for survival.

We visited the museum. Here U is with a canoe.

A parka made of sea otter fur. It was reversible: on warmer wet days, the parka was worn fur side out as it helped repel the water. On colder days, the fur side was worn facing inside to help insulate the body.

The interns demonstrated a number of native games for us. It was interesting to see how they would challenge themselves to do better, reach higher, etc. Several of the kids were going to be participating in the world championships in Fairbanks later in the summer.

U with the map of Alaska. It's quite large!

We stopped by the Anchorage temple on our way out of town.

We saw these three baby eaglets at Potters Marsh.

We enjoyed the views of Turnagain Arm on our drive down to our lodging at Bird Creek.

Unfortunately, both U and Megan were not feeling well by the evening. Some of U's family had been sick on the boat and it seems like they shared with us. It was good to get to our lodging so that they could rest.