Here's a Ritin Frum Old Bear for MAY/JUNE 1999

HERE'S A RITIN FRUM OLD BEAR

FOR MAY/JUNE 1999

Here's wat tyme it is in Dallus, Texus wear I live:

A RITIN FRUM OLD BEAR

for
MAY/JUNE 1999

Hi, evrybudy. This is Old Bear back frum my trip to Alaska. I culdn't find a song saying 'Home frum Alaska' so I jist used the North to Alaska song agin.
Things sure du get changed up. wen I rote 2 you last my man had sed we were going to a place kalled Soldotna and we would stay in a log cabin. But where we went was a town named Homer. Sew, now I'll tell u sumpn abowt wat we did in Homer and in sum other places in Alaska but furst I'll show you a pitcher of sumbudy I met on the ayrplane goin 2 Anchorage.

That's Jesse wearin the sun glasses and that's Renee holdin us. I forget wear they were goin travelin.

. Alaska is purty far frum Dallas here in Texus and it tuk us most all day 2 get there.
U kan C jist how far it is by lukin at the numbers in my log book that the airplayne drivers rite down 4 me. U kan C that it wus more than a thousand miles frum here 2 Salt Lake City and then almost 2000 more miles to get 2 Ankorage in Alaska. We flew on big Deltaa airplaynes that far but then we had 2 fly in a little Era airplane to Homer where we were goin 2 du sumpn kalled Elderhosteling. Here's a pitcher of me with the Era airplayne dryver.

Homer is a real little town on sumpn kalled the Kenai Peninsula south of Ankorage. It shure wus kold wen we got there and there wus still lots of snow on the ground and there was still ice on Beluga Lake so the airplaynes that don't have wheels couldn't fly. But we had a nice warm hotel room and my man and me brought gud warm clothes so it wus okay. One thing that surprised us the first night we were in Homer, Alaska wus that it wus still daylight reel late in the nitetime. We herd on the tv that there wus 17 hours of daylite and the nice man named Rob at the hotel sed there would be more hours of daylite later on. Alaska shure is a funny place. Rob sed they have darktime in the daytime in the winter.
Homer is sort of an oldtimey lookin town and everybudy wus wearin overalls and warm jackets but everyone sure wus frndly 2 us and wuld say hi wen we saw them. My man wus wearin a yellow tag with his name on it so everyone new we were with the Elderhostel peoples. There wus about 30 peples who cum to Homer frum all over the Unity States. Me and my man and Miss Fran frum San Antony and Mr. Fritz from Galveston were the only peples frum Texus.
There is a place in Homer called "the spit" and I thought that wus wear people had to go to spit but that wasn't it at all. It wus a long stickin out place wear there are lots of fishin boats and things 2 luk at. One thing happenin wen I wus there wus some childrun building little wooden boats. Here's a pitcher of me helping a boy build one of these.

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Miss Carol was the head Elderhostel lady at the kollege wear we had our lernin classes. She laughed a lot and lyked me reel gud and I lyked her reel gud 2. She had dun a lot of ritin things 2 send 2 everyone 2 tell us wear we shuld be at certun tymes and wat we would be duin. There were sum real smart peoples like Miss Janet who told us all about wat it wus lyke on Kachemak Bay before peoples cum to live there and how Homer got started and Miss Paula told us abowt native art and Mr. Derek told us all about Bears and Mr. Don told us all about hi tides and lo tides and give us all a book of tide tables to 2 keep 4 wen we needed to know when the tide wus cumin in or goin out. I sure wus disapointed that I didn't get 2 C a bear. But here's a pitcher of a moose that wus layin down by a busy road in Homer. I think we saw 2 or 3 mooses.

Goin 2 classes made me sleepy sumtymes but I didn't get sleepy on our feld trips. Those were reel fun. One wus a boat trip across Kalchemak Bay to Seldovia, an old timey town that wus started by the Russian peoples a long tyme ago and wus reel importunt until an earthquake shook down a lot of things.

Miss Susan tuk us on a long walk tellin abowt how the town got started and showin us lots of interestin things. We had lunch there sittin on sumbudy's porch eatin sandwiches and stuff that Miss Josie brought 4 us. Miss Josie was the leader person on all of our field trips. She sure is a nice lady and knows all abowt lots of things. Here's sum of us eatin our lunch in Seldovia.

We tuk 2 other field trips that were reel fun. One wus goin to a salt marsh with Miss Carmen and Mr. Conrad who knew all about the plants and things that lived in the salt water. It wus fun walkin in the squishy mud. U kan C in the pitcher that everyone wus wearin warm clothes.

The other fun trip wus ridin on the boat across Kalchemak Bay and then hikin a purty long way to a beach where we culd find all kinds of sea shells and starfish and funny things that live in the sand or in the water. It shure wus funny watchin peples get off the boat cus we had 2 climb down a ladder. My man fell down 2 tymes walkin on this beach lukin 4 funny seashore things. I stayed inside the lodge wear we were visitin eatin cookies with Miss Janet.

There wus a nyce lady frum Vera Cruz in Mexico named Miss Yuri who travels with two friends named Nacho & Paulina. Miss Yuri & Nacho & Paulina go 2 schools and tell little childrun all abowt nature. Here' a pitcher of me with Nacho & Paulina.

Another place we went wus to a little town named Nikolaevsk that wus started about 40 years ago by sum peoples who left Russia cus peples wouldn't let them go 2 church the way they thought was the right way sew are called the Old Believers. We visted in the skool where sum childrun grew up knowin Russian talk and sum childrun are lernin it. Here's a pitcher of the two girls who tuk me and my man and sum others on a 2er of the skool. Kesenia is on the right of us and Olivia is on the left. Both girls were in the fifth grade.

Then we listened to a man tell all abowt the history of the skool and how it started out as a little trailer 4 12 childrun and now is reel big with lots of students and teachers. Then we visited the church wear these peples go to pray and we heard a priest sing sumpn frum sumplayce kalled the sekund century. It shure wus a difrunt kind of church cus there were lots of things kalled Icons inside insted of statues.
This town of Nikolaevsk was pretty close to another town wear we had our dinner that night. Here's a pitcher showin a sign with the name of the town.

Another gud place in Homer we went 2 wus The Pratt Museum. They have lots of interesting things there but one of the funnest things wus a way peoples can look at birds on a long way away island called Gull Island cus they put a tv camera there and hooked it up to sort of a tv pitcher thing in the Museum. U kan push buttons and make the camera go all over. That shure wus smart 2 du sumpn like that. Later on we saw all the birds on Gull Island frum our boat.
My man didn't get gud pitchers of the town of Homer but here are two he tuk.

One is a pitcher of lots of fishin boats on Homer Spit. And the other one is a street in Homer that goes right down to the bay. Sum of the Elderhostel peples wuld walk down there every morning before breakfast. My man sed walking down there wuld be okay, but walking back wuld be purty hard sew we didn't get 2 du that.
After we left Homer we stayed 2 days in Ankorage that is a purty big town but we didn't see much of it cus my man had arranged 4 us 2 go on 2 tours. Both were fun but the first one wus a lot funner. We flew in an old timey ayrplayne called a DEE SEE THREE that wus the kind my man flew in once a long time ago. We got 2 C sum mountains with snow on them up reel close and Miss Kristina wus our stewardess and wore old timey stewardess clothes that made her luk reel purty and she give us champagne and coca-cola in a glass bottle and played purty music and the driver told us wear we were flyin and wat 2 luk out the big windows at. It sure wus fun. Here's sum pitchers of this DEE SEE THREE 2er.

The number two 2r was fun 2 but shure wus diffurnt. It wus another boat trip but 2 get on this boat we had to go all the way 2 a town named Seward. Miss Judith cum to get us in her van and we drove along a real purty road 2 Seward. Here's a place wear we stopped 2 take a pitcher.

The boat trip was for 6 hours in sumpn kalled Ressurection Bay and we were supposed to maybe C sum big whales but didn't see none at all. But we did get to see sum C otters and sum C lions and lots of funny lukin birds. But seein the scenery wus the best part of it... Here's sum of wat we saw on this boat trip.

The bestust thing we saw frum the boat was this big white thing that was named Holgate Glacier and our boat driver stopped for a while so we could hear it make noises and ice fall off of it and make loud noises when it hit the water. I thought a glacier was sort of like a big ice cube but my man sez no, that is an iceberg. Here's wat a glacier looks like.

Well, that's all the ritun rum I have. We had a good tyme in Alaska duin Elderhostel stuff but I shure wus glad to get back cus I had a sore foot frum all that walkin. Wore a hole right down through my stockins. Bye
Bye!

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