July 2014 and Alaska Trip Update

Six months down, six to go for the year of 2014.

I've been in Alaska for about a week now. I'm in Barrow for two weeks baby sitting my adorable nephew and then in Anchorage for a few days.

Barrow is the top of the US. It is the largest town on the North Slope of Alaska, 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle with a population of a little over 4,500. This week the weather has been alternating between sunny and raining with a temperature ranging from the upper 30's to the mid 40's (36 degrees as I write this right now). Barrow is a whaling town. Whaling is illegal but is still legal for natives. They stick very close to their historical methods by going out in small boats rather than large whaling boats. They whale in the spring and the fall. This past spring they caught 7 whales which is about average for a spring catch. They are allowed to catch up to 18 a year.

I am lucky this year that I happen to be here for Nalukataq which is several days of celebration for the spring catch. The most famous part of this celebration is the Blanket Toss. Everyone is welcome to jump, including visitors. One of Jonathan and Kim's native friends tried to get me up there but there is no way I'm doing that. I would come home with a broken leg for sure. In the below video, a guy is jumping with a bag of candy & tossing it in the air for the kids. It was so cute, like an Alaskan piñata.

Keep in mind that the video was taken at about 10:30pm. Yes, the sun is up 24 hrs a day right now. Luckily, the room they have me in has wonderful curtains that block out most of the light. The only hard part is getting the urge to go to bed when it is still sunny out. But, I've worked nights so it isn't that big of a deal for me.

My nephew is so adorable.

A time for laughter...

A time for weeping...

I'm trying to soak up all the cool air over these weeks. There is still a little ice left on the sea.

I've been away from Anthony for 7 days now and I'm, according to my phone, 3,396 miles away from him. We haven't been apart this long or this far since we met. We still have one more week to go apart from each other, then Anthony will come up to Anchorage when Kim & I go down to Anchorage. We'll get to see their new house and he'll get to meet his nephew.

Since we won't be back in Texas for part of the month, this month's menu will be a little abbreviated. I've moved some of last month's planed meals to this month's menu since several of them didn't get made last month.