Bethel!

My dad, mom and I were very excited to be back in Alaska again.  We spent two weeks in Bethel and a couple of days in Anchorage.  Last Sunday in Anchorage, we wanted to take one of the day or half-day cruises to see wildlife and glaciers.  But none of them had started yet, so we rented a car so that we could drive around and sight-see.  Even though it was cloudy, windy and rainy, we got to see many beautiful views of the mountains. During the whole ride, we saw four moose, two bald eagles, and a mountain goat in the wild.
The three of us went to an outdoor wildlife center where they rescue hurt animals and those in danger of extinction.  It was a very convenient place to visit. You could stay in your car the whole time to view the animals, or you could go out and walk around. It was very exciting to be a couple feet away from moose, bison, and bears. We also got to see a bald eagle. It was sad to watch it because it only had one wing, so when it tried to fly, it fell down. :(

We also went to an aquatic sea life center in Seward (about two and a half hours away from Anchorage). They had sea lions, puffins, fish, octopus, seals, and a lot more.  The museum had interesting facts on different kinds of salmon, the Bering Strait, changes in fishing, sea anemones, and a ton more. One of the male sea lions on exhibit was gigantic! It was about 8 feet long, and it weighed around 1200 pounds.

Now here are some facts about Bethel and Alaska in general.
- Right now the daylight increases five and a half minutes everyday in Bethel until the summer solstice when the sun never sets.
- It's also interesting, because the sun there rises in the northeast and sets in the southeast.
- Because there are so many small airplanes in Alaska, many of the roads are used as runways. 
- In places in Anchorage, an earthquake made the ground sink down. Since the ground was lowered, salt water from the sea came up, and killed all the trees. But the interesting part is that instead of knocking the trees over, the salt from the water preserved the trees dead.  Now many different types of birds nest in those trees.
- We learned that "hello" in the Yupik language is "cama-i" and "what's up" is "waqaa."