Day 2 Of The Spring Festival

Good afternoon Minnesota, my name is Justin Helget and it's my turn to write the blog today. Today was a very busy and cold day here in Barrow, Alaska. We began the morning by going to Pepe's for pancakes, eggs, and bacon. The food there was amazing and the best part of all it was FREE, so that made the meal even better :). Once again, our Barrow father took us to all of the different events and shows happening around the town.
After breakfast at Pepe's we all packed in to the vehicle and went to the Heritage Canter. While at the Heritage Center we walked around and looked at all the arts and crafts that were for sale and also had the chance to walk through the library. The girls went crazy during this time because they were selling books for a dollar or 50 cents. Meanwhile, Travis and I continued to explore the other parts of the Heritage Canter. Once, the girls were done shopping for books we took a tour of the museum, which is part of the Heritage Center. Steve lead the attack through the museum and did an amazing job of explaining all of the different photos and artifacts. I think it is safe to say that all of us enjoyed the tour of the museum a lot. While there we were able to see photos from previous whaling adventures, read stories, and see how they live their culture. My favorite parts of the museum were listening to all of Steve's stories about past whaling trips that he has been on or listening to him share his knowledge on each of the photographs. My favorite artifact had to be the "Death Pill", which is a pill made out of baleen. The baleen is cut into a long strip and pointed at both ends. It is then folded up into a little square. Then it is socked in water and tied loosely together. Once the "Death Pill" is tied and ready they stick it into a piece of meat. Then they place these death pills in different locations on the Arctic Ocean for the wolves or bears to eat. Once the animal eats the meat, which contains the death pill, and starts breaking it down in their system the string will come undone and the baleen will open up/unfold and kill the animal (Steve said this whole process of eating the meat and dieing only takes a couple of minutes). They used these death pills to kill the wolves and the bears that were roaming the area.
After the Heritage Center we went and toured the high school, which by the way is very nice. They have an indoor pool, great weight room/workout center, and the gym is amazing. However, we didn't get a chance to tour the entire school because we had a parade to attend. The parade took place outside, hard to believe with how cold it is, and it lasted for about 15 minutes. During this time the vehicles in the parade were tossing candy left and right. There were about 10-15 different floats/vehicles in the parade and all of them had to throw out at least three pounds of candy. All of the kids attending were in heaven and I even overheard Molly commenting on how much she wishes she could be out there gathering candy like the rest of the children.
Once the parade was over it was time to head back to NARL for lunch and the speaker/movie. The speaker and movie took place in the Arctic Research Center at NARL. The movie we watched was titled: 'Aliens of the Deep.' The movie was showing comparisons between life below the surface of earth (deepest parts of the ocean) to Jupiter's second largest moon, Europa. Dr. Kevin Hand, believes that an ocean does exist on Europa and this movie is helping support that theory. Overall, I thought the movie was very interesting and provided a lot of great insight and possible evidence. If you have any more questions about the movie feel free to email Rachel Anderson any questions because I am 100 percent sure that she understood the movie and speaker better then I did. Thanks Rachel!!
After the movie and speaker Steve took us back to college for the evening.
As of right now I am pretty sure I am the only one up, but I am not for sure, except for Travis because we have to share a room. Travis is definitely sleeping in his bed next to me. He is taking a little tiger snooze and possible dreaming of Halle Berry in her Cat-women suit. I know that Molly is definitely sleeping because the last 2 days she has been saying (more so crying) about how sore she was from the basketball game on Friday at the school. However, the word on the Barrow street is that she played very well and hung right in there with the boys. I even think she scored a couple of points.... Nice work MALL COP! Rachel and Alyssa might be sleeping or they are reading the books that they bought at the Heritage center... they were really excited about them.
Well that sums up our day here at the top of the world. Thanks again to all of our followers, we really appreciate your support and thoughts while here in Barrow. All of us are having a great time and are looking forward to the Spring Festival tomorrow (snow machine races and other events). Thanks again and remember if you having any questions about the movie or speaker feel free to email Rachel or post it on the blog. Thanks Rachel!!

Yours Truly, Justin Helget