Native Heritage Center and Arctic Thunder

This weekend we decided to stay around Anchorage and visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center (#13 on our list). The center includes an inside area with artifacts, art and traditional clothing on display as well as a stage for certain events and performances. Outside is a nice walking path with sample native houses from the different groups set up. The houses are all real, true-to-life size and are representative of the following group; Athabascan, Tlingit/Haida, Yup'ik, Aleut and Inupiat. Once you go inside each of the houses, there is a person there who talks to you about the different ways of life for that group of natives. This picture is of one of the houses. Outside, you can see the jawbones of a whale. You can tell that the people who lived in this type of house also depended on ocean animals and lived close to the water.
World Eskimo Olympics is a competition made up of many different traditional games that used to be played for physical fitness. The people would play these games in order to stay physically fit during the long, cold, winter months. The game pictured below is the high kick.
Next on the agenda for the weekend was Arctic Thunder Air Show that is held once every two years at the Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson (Army and Air Force). This is the program booklet that was given out at the event. This event is #112 on our list of Alaskan things to do. The air show is put on to increase awareness of the Army and Navy within the community. There was no lack of recruiters on hand for those interested in enlisting.

This plane was the first part of the show that we saw. If you look closely at the picture, you can see a stunt person doing tricks on the top of the airplane while it is flying. Actually, it is a stunt woman!These next planes were the Canadian Snowbirds. They are the show force for Canada.

This plane is called a Harrier. It is able to float up above the ground. It is also able to turn sideways in midair and also land and take-off straight up and down. This plane was very loud and we had to cover our ears when it was flying overhead. There were many small children there with nothing as far as ear protection goes. Not too good!



Next, was a live demonstration and explanation of a bombing and troops being put in and taken out of a hot zone. This was interesting to see the tactical side of the military. This plane is an F-14. It can fly very fast and quietly, so it is called a stealth jet.

This next plane is an F-22 Raptor. It is also a stealth fighter jet.

Next was the Blue Angels show. First was this plane, nicknamed Fat Albert. This plane is used for transporting people and cargo that go along with the Blue Angels. Here are the Blue Angels. They are part of the U.S. Navy and is the Flight Demonstration Team. There are 6 planes in the fleet. Some of the pilots are from Georgia, which I thought was pretty cool! The planes are F18 Hornets. It was amazing to watch the planes fly and how they must communicate with each other in a certain way in order to remain safe. These planes are also very loud!


After the Blue Angels show, Steven and I got our picture inside this plane which is used by the Alaska Air National Guard for search and rescue operations.




They also let us take a picture inside the cockpit! All in all it was a fun and busy weekend!

Rebekah