Day 7 Of Our Alaska Adventure, March 22nd

When we woke up today to take Mom to the conference center we were surprised that it was snowing.  

And snowing A LOT.  

When we looked out the window at the conference center we couldn't even see the water or the mountains.  

My Mom gave a presentation called "Be The Change".  She talked about listening to your students and letting them be creative.  She was AWESOME.  I was so proud she was my Mom.

Afterwards a lot of people talked to Mom.  I met her friend Katie from Fairbanks. She was a teacher librarian too. 

I also met Susan Ballard. She is the president of the American Association of School Librarians.  She is from New Hampshire and is very fun. She had to get ice cleats to wear on her shoes too so she didn't fall. We are going to visit Susan and her husband and her two parrots when we go to Boston this summer with Mom.  

One of the best things of the day was sledding down the giant hill at the elementary school.  

A teacher told us that people in big snow equipment come in and make the sledding hill for the kids to sled down at recess time.  They all have sleds.  

 It was a big hill and I loved sledding down it over and over.

My Dad tried to surf down the hill but he fell.  I laughed and laughed. 

When Mom was done we went back to Hermon Hutchens Elementary School in Valdez. I couldn't wait to see what their school was like. It was their spring break so I wouldn't see kids. I wish I did. 

Right when we walked in their was a big bear made out of wood. 

The hallways looked like any elementary school....they were bright and had art work but then I looked down at the lockers and guess what was on the top....

a MOUNTAIN GOAT!  This is not something you would see in our school at Van Meter.  

 Next up was their library!  I loved the cool green chairs they had.  I played my iPad in them.

This is the teacher librarian in Valdez.  His name is John Wellcome.  Mom liked meeting him and they talked about all of the cool things they do with the kids and reading. 

But there was something even more different about this library than any other I have ever seen.  

On the ceiling and all around on the book shelves there were.....

animals from Valdez and Alaska that were stuffed!  A lot of the birds that were found and stuffed were on a giant mobile that even moved around the library.  I would love to see that every day and learn about all of the different animals and birds.  

 They even had a whale skeleton. It was a beluga which are found in the water near Valdez.

We wondered how they had a eagle but John told us that all of the animals were found already dead.  The old librarian who use to be there at the school stuffed them all. 

Mom loved looking at all of the fun ideas they had around the library.

 They had great spaces for all of their books.

 I would love to stay and read longer. I hope we come back some day.

When we came back outside it had snowed a bunch more. 

 My job was to get the snow off of the windows.  It was so fun.

I also loved coming back to the hotel and relaxing with Mom and Dad.  We watched it snow outside.

At night we picked up Susan at the conference and went to Off The Hook at the Valdez Harbor Hotel for dinner.  Mom had wanted to get crab legs on the whole trip and finally did.  They were HUGE.  

Susan got me this tiny little journal at the conference. I had fun drawing pictures of castles during dinner.  I kept them in the journal. 

When we finished dinner we drove around town a little to see all of the snow piling up.  WOW...It was really getting deep.

We could barely see our hotel.  

One really cool thing about our hotel was a dog named Pono. Pono is an Alaskan Malamute.  We knew that the owner of the dog was there when Pono was.  His name was Jerry and I liked him a lot.  He was my favorite Alaska person and reminded me of my Uncle Mike.  Jerry took me outside to see Pono and pet him.

 Susan, Dad, and Mom came out to see Pono too.  Pono means "Do the right thing" in Hawaiian.

 I had fun at the hotel at night.  I played foosball and played Minecraft on my iPad.

I also really really like Carol from Fairbanks.  She is a teacher librarian too.  Mom talked to her and the other librarians once on Skype.  A few weeks later Carol's Mom came and saw her at Van Meter.  It was so fun to meet her and SUPER fun to meet Carol in Alaska.  We are going to go visit her and Katie someday.

When we came back to our room, I was surprised to look out the window again and see how much it had snowed today.  

Make sure you look at the snow on the roofs of the trucks and the hotel roof.  I will show how much it changed over the next few days.