Week of June 7th – Alaska

Let me first start by saying that Sarah Palin will not only not be invited to our Alaskan salute but this will be the last time I will mention her in this blog.

I was hoping to save “The Last Frontier” celebration until we could plan an Alaskan cruise but, unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for the near future and who knows what next year’s blog will bring. The magnificent landscapes, fascinating people and folk lore and inspirational native crafts have for some time drawn me to this outer US territory.

Several years ago, my husband and I saw an exhibit of the intricate and illustrative jewelry of a native Alaskan Denise Wallace and her husband Samuel. Their jewelry images were inspired by the people, animals and culture of Alaska. The delicate, yet powerful, mini sculptures are difficult to describe but if you have an interest in fascinating folk jewelry I encourage you to look up their work. At the time we saw the exhibit I wasn’t in the position to invest in a piece of their jewelry so I settled for a beautiful Book “Arctic Transformations: The Jewelry of Denise and Samuel Wallace” with wonderful photos of a wide range of their craft. I recently priced out a couple of their pieces and, guess what, still not ready for that investment.

However, thinking that the native art of Alaska is an important part of their culture I did find a piece online, officially “Made in Alaska”, so I could properly honor the culture.

Now we all know that oil is an important natural resource of Alaska but being several weeks into the BP disaster in the Gulf I decided to skirt around that subject.

Luckily most of America’s salmon, crab, halibut and herring come from Alaska so there was plenty of material for a proper feast. Smoked salmon and Alaskan king crab legs, what more do you need? Well booze, but that’s another subject to avoid in regards to Alaska.

My son went to an elementary school whose mascot was the Wilson Wolves. Like most grammar schools an integral element of any fund raising event was the sale of a stuffed animal in the form of the school’s mascot. Well, apparently wolves were in short supply but with huskies, we’re good. Needless to say we amassed enough of these blue eyed beauties to put together our own Iditarod team.

So with the table decorated with vases of Forget-Me-Not’s (Alaska’s state flower) and a stuffed sled team and the classic Johnny Horton tunes, “Springtime in Alaska” and “North to Alaska” playing in the background, we sat down to our feast of smoked salmon and Alaskan king crab legs. We raised our icy shots of vodka from Alaska’s (Sarah’s – I lied) neighbor across the Bering Strait and toasted our fine state to the North.

By the way, we capped our meal with a disastrous attempt at a Baked Alaska.

Color in the “Last Frontier” with native whale imagery and head back down to the lower 48 to the “Hoosier State” - Indiana. 31 down – 21 to go.