Day 1 - We embarked on our ambitious journey to our fellow noncontiguous state across the Pacific. When we landed after a non-eventful flight in the snowy Anchorage Airport, by snowy I mean that it was all over the runway and the dividers. It was absolutely beautiful, even at 10:30 at night.
Day 2 - We awoke to an amazing view of the mountains to the west (above). During Saturday we ventured out of the warmth of the hotel into the brisk 20° weather outside. Most of the day we rested.
Day 3 - This was the reason for the whole trip, it was time for our presentations. In the morning our 45 minute talk went very well with an amazing response from the audience. With some of the educators in the room so into what we are doing, that they took the opportunity to get our info, so that they may work with our class and school. Our second presentation was a three in one, Miki Tomita, Ms. Enriquez and I, and an Alaskan Native, Barbra Blake. I would like to congratulate Barbra for the fact that she, and five other Alaska Natives, have been chosen for the New Zealand leg of the World Wide Voyage. In my opinion, the second talk went better than the first. I'm not really sure why, maybe it was the feedback from the audience, but it went 10x as well as I expected it to. Then at 4:30 Nainoa Thompson gave a Keynote presentation about the relation between Hawaii and alaska through the abundant forests that are spread around the state of Alaska. After his informational presentation, we had a small reception while looking out to a remarkable sunset (below). It was needless to say a packed, fun and exciting day.
Day 4 - My dad and I had some free time, so we took the opportunity to explore a few blocks from our hotel. We had a pretty uneventful day until we went to the Alaska Native Heritage Museam. It was a snow covered lake side that showed the multiple types of houses that the natives lived in. Inside they had a intriguing array of ancient style kayaks.
Day 5 - The day that we left was pretty calm, excluding me losing my phone for about an hour, Mrs. Hendricks having to reschedule her ticket, and oh ya I almost forgot, Ms. Enriquez had a knife that I purchased as a memento in her bag and made it though TSA unscathed. As funny as it was to see her face when she had realized when we sat down to wait for our flight. This really makes me question the security at the airport, since I got my arm patted down for having a plastic watch on. Like seriously?
Aside from that, the trip was a 100% success. I can't wait to see what awaits the class of '14 in the future.
Special thanks to...
Mark Standley - the reason I even went to the conference. He was at Schools of the Future when we gave a very similar presentation, and invited us to present at A.S.T.E.