Sunday, August 21, 2016 - Nome, Alaska

Nome, the name itself excites us for it is the gateway to the Bering Sea, the Bering Straights and ultimately the Northwest Passage.  There is no port in Nome so our ship anchored off shore and we rode the tenders in.  Today in Nome we had one of the teachers for our guide who moved to Nome from Chicago 4 years ago.  We also had a young Inupiat Native woman who was quite musical and sang for us.  We visited a dog musher named Nils Hahn who has raced in the Iditarod 4 times.  We visited a museum of Native art and artifacts and watched a slide show put on by one of the rangers, showing the area surrounding Nome.  We saw a small herd of 11 musk-ox outside of town which was quite a thrill for us. We also did a little gold panning, and a group of women wearing beautiful fur-ruffed kuspuks  (eskimo dresses) posed for pictures. Having been to Nome before we opted not to stay in town after the tour.