I really DID see them!

Oh my gosh ... last night was truly amazing!  I had hoped to see a little light show and got SO much more.  I'm running to my conference, so I'm just posting a few of the pics.  I'll explain more later ...

It started small ...

And they danced ...

And it got bigger .. and more beautiful

More details to come!!

Lights, camera, action!

Hey, OCS -
It's 3:00 in the morning and we just got back to our hotel from Palmer to see the Northern Lights.  How do I describe it?  Stupendous, amazing, fantastic ... who's got a thesaurus??  Give me some other words to use ...

Sorry I don't have a picture yet ... but did I mention it was 3:00 in the morning?!  I just wanted to let you know that our hunt for the lights was successful and that we'll post a few of the pics when we get up in 3-4 hours.

P.S. Woof Waldo enjoyed it too!

To my OCS Hawks family -
What an amazing day I had ... and it's not over yet.  It's 8:00 p.m. right now and we're heading out in less than an hour to try to see the Northern Lights.  Because I'm a little short on time, I'm going to post just a couple of teaser pictures of the 2 places we visited today.

First we went to watch the vets check out some of the musher teams.  Do you recognize these women?

Anna and Kristy Berington - two of the mushers we're going to follow!

We spoke to a few mushers and got to pet their dogs - some even brought their sleds!

      

In the afternoon, we visited a working dog kennel, met loads more dogs and got to hold the newest puppies - they only just opened their eyes!  

I'll post more pics tomorrow - wish me luck in seeing the Aurora Borealis (also known as the Northern Lights)!!

Did you know?

I'm a big fan of fun and interesting facts, so here are a few for you:

Did you know that Denali is the highest mountain in all of North America?
http://www.softschools.com/facts/us_national_landmarks/denali_mount_mckinley_facts/2233/

Did you know that 4th graders can get FREE access to hundreds of federal parks (and that includes your family!)?  https://everykidinapark.gov/

Did you know that earthquakes are incredibly frequent in Alaska?  On Monday, throughout the state, there were approximately 55 recorded quakes!  They are generally very small, so don't worry about me!
  https://earthquake.alaska.edu/earthquakes/recent_list

Did you know that the strongest earthquake (a whopping 9.2) in North America happened 74 miles south of Anchorage in 1964?
https://www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/1964-alaska-earthquake

Did you know that out of the 7 teens that ran the Junior Iditarod last weekend, 6 of them were GIRLS?!  (yaaay!)
 http://jriditarod.com/race/2019/mushers/

Did you know that for this Iditarod, out of the 52 mushers, 17 are WOMEN?  (Math bonus - what percentage is that?)
 https://iditarod.com/race/2019/mushers/list/

Do you have any "did you knows" to share with me?

Hello, OCS!
Today was the first full day of my conference and it was filled with exciting tools and resources to bring back to my classroom!  This year's Teacher on the Trail, Brian Hickox, showed us a couple of websites we can use to create games for our students.  The first game we played was on the history of the Iditarod - I had to guess at a number of the answers; the second one was all about Boston (where he is from) and I got every question right and won a beautiful poster!

Then we went to visit Jon Van Zyle, the official artist of the Iditarod.  Check out the video on this link

Right outside their back window were 2 beautiful (and massive) bald eagles, just hanging out.  They are young eagles which you can tell because their tail feathers aren't entirely white yet.

He had photos of all the dogs he's raised - they are all so adorable:

And last, I got my picture taken with him:  

Tomorrow is going to be really awesome - we'll be watching the vets check the dogs to be sure they are healthy enough for the race, visiting a real dog kennel, and hopefully going out to see the Northern Lights! 

Thank you to everyone who's been reading my blogs and especially to those who are commenting and asking questions - I love reading and responding to them!  Enjoy your early dismissal tomorrow!

A day on a glacier!

Hi, OCS!
Today we drove to Palmer to check out the Matanuska glacier - Alaska's largest glacier that you can get to by car.  Glaciers are really fascinating - you can read more here.

On the way we saw some moose.  We walked around the glacier for several hours and saw a lot of interesting formations.
Although it was cold (about 20 degrees), we had a lot of sunshine which makes the ice look blue - ask your science teacher why (it isn't actually blue). There were some areas where we had to squeeze into some tight spots which was a lot of fun!

 

My husband, Mr. Redfern, came with me!

Tomorrow I start my conference!  I hope your week is going well!

Sunday was a fun day!

Hi, everyone -
Today we spent a lot of the day at the Fur Rondy festival.  Woof Waldo had a blast at the snow sculptures - can you find him?  Hint, he's not in every picture ...

       

Rime ice - really cool!

Ice fog

And of course, there were racing dogs: (can't seem to get videos posted - I'll keep working on it ...)

And I got to run a team - not racing, but still a blast!

  

  

Bonus!

Although I expected a quiet evening last night, while we were eating dinner, we realized there was a fireworks show that was viewable from the lobby!  

I didn't know why it was going on, but was told by a nearby couple that it is part of something called the Fur Rondy - a festival that is going on all week!

Unlike the Iditarod, which is a long-distance race, the Fur Rondy centers on a short, but really fast series of races over 3 days.  We missed the first two days, but today will be the last race and I will definitely be there to watch!  Check out the festival: http://www.furrondy.net/   Alas, we missed the outhouse races, which happened yesterday.

Also, yesterday was the start of the Jr. Iditarod which is for teenage mushers.  It is a 2-day event; they start from Knik Lake and end at Willow Lake.  Check it out: https://jriditarod.com/

Also, I mentioned that Anchorage is in a different time zone.  Below is a picture of the various time zones of the United States.  If it is 10:30 in the morning in Connecticut (the yellow states), it is 9:30 in the red states, 8:30 in the green states, 7:30 in the blue states and 6:30 a.m. in Alaska (pink).

We arrived!!
We've spent the entire day flying (and, boy are my arms tired!) but we finally arrived in Anchorage!  It is about 20 degrees out but really clear and beautiful.  From our window at the hotel we can see a park where there are sled dogs running in a circle - I wonder if they're giving rides?  We'll check that out tomorrow.
A few people have asked how far Alaska is from Connecticut.  If you click the link below, I created an animated trip so you can see where I am.

https://www.pictramap.com/app/view?p=192227
(it takes a few seconds to load)

Here are a few pics from the day:

Woof Waldo boarding flight

Arriving in Anchorage

 View from hotel

Mushers in park 

 Tomorrow - we explore the city!  Thanks everyone!

Welcome to my blog!
I'm very excited to share my Alaskan adventures with all of you!  I will be posting pictures, comments, questions, links, and videos every day while I'm in Anchorage.  Some of my adventures will include:
- Finding a good spot to see the Northern Lights!
- Taking a field trip to sled dog kennel!
- Meeting the mushers at a banquet!
- Attending the Ceremonial start of the Iditarod!
- Meeting many other teachers from all over the U.S and learning new ways to use the Iditarod in class!

Wow - it's going to be a full week!  Feel free to comment on my posts and ask questions; I'll do my best to answer everyone as quickly as I can.

Note: The time in Anchorage is 4 hours earlier than here in Connecticut; so when you start school at 9:00, it will only be 5:00 a.m. for me!

Let the fun begin!!

Mrs. Redfern