Hello from Macy and Heather!

     So today was our first day of scheduled Alaskan activity after taking yesterday to recover from our traveling day. We woke up late and headed to the beach to see some of the beautiful mountains and ocean inlets that surround Anchor Point where we are staying. Some of the students even opted to put their bare feet in the freezing Alaskan waters! We spent a lot of time taking pictures and were even able to see a young bald eagle perched on the rocks along the shore. We were very lucky to have clear skies but we had our first confrontation with the cold Alaska winds! We were grateful for our hats and gloves! After getting our fill of the scenery, we headed back to the cabins to make lunch.
     After lunch we all got a little restless and decided to stage some goofy photos for friends and family back home! We all dressed in what warm weather attire we had packed along with boots, hats, and gloves. We headed outside to take some pictures of us playing volleyball! When we got to the volleyball court we were happy to see how much snow there was! We knew the snow would make the photos even more enjoyable. We took a lot of pictures and videos of the group playing volleyball before the cold and wet snow drove us back inside. The picture of the day captures how much fun we had taking these photos and definitely captures a wonderful memory that will last us all a lifetime.
      After our volleyball excursion, we headed back to the cabins to change back into our warm clothes. It was time for gold sluicing!! John and his son along with a couple friends brought us buckets of soil, coal, and bedrock from the beach. They taught us how to clean the debris and sift out the larger rocks and silt. After removing the larger stones, we then ran the rest of the silt through a sluice! All of our hard work was rewarded when we started to see real gold flecks that had been isolated through the sluice! I'm glad that we were actually able to find the gold in the native Alaskan fashion! It was also great to meet the people of the area and hear a lot of stories about the way of life n Alaska. Everyone had great stories to tell! We also were able to buy some homemade fireweed jam made by a local woman in the area! It was cool to buy something that can only be made in Alaska!
     When sluicing was over, John and his friends treated us to a backyard barbecue! We had hamburgers and hot dogs and they were even considerate enough to provide veggie burgers for the vegetarians in our group! We are very lucky to have such wonderful people looking out for us during our stay. After dinner we spent the rest of the evening preparing for our long journey to Seward tomorrow!