Happy Birthday Ruta

Today is my mom's birthday.  To commemorate this momentous event here are a few pictures from our time in Anchorage last week before the rest of the fam came up.  On Wednesday, grandma, mom and I started off the day with a trip to flattop.  We didn't actually hike the mountain, a noted dangerous hike with rock climbing at the top (Neil, Banjo and I did this last Friday).  Instead we toured around a little loop that has a look out over the city.  We also saw a mama and baby moose on our way up.

After flattop we went to the Native Cultural Center.  It was a really interesting museum.  When you walk in they had this gathering place where we listened to a story teller, watched some kids demonstrate events for the Native cultural olympics.  Games included: kicking a little stuffed seal hanging in the air while still keeping one hand on the ground.  In another game you had to see how far you could jump from a kneeling position.  Later that night I tried demonstrating the games, but they were a lot harder than they looked.  Apparently the games were created during the winter months for people to keep entertained and to keep in shape for hunting once the snow melted.  We also saw traditional dances from Southeast Alaska.  Then we toured these replica houses from all of the different groups.  Did you know that igloos aren't actually made of solid ice?  They're actually built with wood and grass.  They appear to be made of snow, because of all the snow that accumulates on them during the winter.  The houses have a really small entry to protect people from the polar bears.  For the purposes of the display they had a larger enterance, but they offered to let anyone who wanted to tray and exit the igloo the traditional way.  (Grandma tried, and quickly learned that it was a tunnel the whole way.  My mom had to pick up her other leg and push it through, because it wasn't moving.)

We learned more about the Alaska Native cultures the next day when we went to the museum of art and history.  Did you know that they would save their urine (because of its high concentration of amonia) and use it as a cleanser?

We also got a tour of the Alaska crime lab from Neil.  My mom knew a bunch of the key phrases, because of her extensive CSI watching.