Anchorage

=Facts about Anchorage:= =Pictures of downtown Anchorage=
 * About 260,000 people in Anchorage, 686,000 in all of Alaska.
 * Igloo is a Native word for house
 * In the summer it is about 60-70 degrees F
 * In the winter is it about 10 to 20 below zero F
 * People live in wood houses, and apartments
 * In our class students are from: North Carolina, New Mexico, New York, Mississippi, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, California, Utah, Hawaii
 * They are also from other countries: Algeria, Philippines, Mexico, Puerto Rico, France, West Indies, China
 * We also have Native Americans: Tlingit, Yupik, both are tribes in Alaska, Blackfoot, Comanche- tribes in the "Lower 48", that is what we call the rest of the United States, we also call it the "Outside"
 * We have McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Subway
 * We have Nordstroms, JC Penneys, Target, Wal-Mart, Kohls, Fred Meyers
 * We are surrounded by mountains on three sides
 * We have moose on the playground all the time
 * We have bears in the Anchorage area, they come to get the salmon in the streams and creeks.
 * Students play American Football, soccer, baseball, basketball, dog showing, figure skating, hockey, swimming, softball, skiing, snowshoeing, sledding
 * We have indoor arenas and swimming pools, almost all the high school have swimming pools
 * We can swim outside in the summer but the lakes are cold
 * Many people fish and hunt
 * Many people buy their food at the store, we can get almost everything in the store from anywhere in the world!
 * Restaurants here: Korean, Thai, Japanese, Algerian, Indian, Italian, Greek, Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, American...
 * Alaska depends on fishing, oil and tourism
 * You have to fly to get to most places in Alaska
 * We are not attached to the rest of the USA, only to Canada
 * We are only about 2.5 miles from Russia, that is the distance between Big Diomede Island which belongs to Russia and Little Diomede Island which belongs to Alaska
 * We have one road going south out of Anchorage that ends in Homer. Then you can take a ferry further south.
 * We have one road going north. It takes about 7 hours to drive to Fairbanks, the next largest city.
 * You have to fly about an hour south from Anchorage to the capital, Juneau, you can't drive there.
 * Sunrise is about 5AM and Sunset is about 11PM right now.
 * The longest day, June 21: Sunrise is at 4:20AM and Sunset it 11:23PM. There is very little dark.
 * The shortest day, December 21: Sunrise is at 10:14AM and Sunset is at 3:41PM. We go to school in the dark and go home in the dark.
 * In the summer we don't see the stars and it does not get too dark out even in the middle of the night.