I arrived in Juneau a bit delirious. After a good sleep, I woke up on Wednesday and took a bush plane to Gustavus, Alaska. This town has about 400 people, with 60 kids in the school k-12. There are a few paved roads now, but still my house is still on a dirt/gravel road. This is where I grew up and where the family home is. My parents were working all day and none of the other siblings were there yet, so I went myself to Gustavus and had a sunny day in the true beauty of Alaska. I saw mountain goats and black bear on the flight there. I kayaked in my parent's single kayak, I went to the beach/dock, I saw friends and enjoyed the quiet of the forest--I mean absolute stillness and quiet where all you hear is sounds of the forest and nothing else. It really was great! That night Aaron (who was still working at the Glacier Bay National Park for another day before ending) and I hung out, talked and had yummy pizza at my friend's restaurant (the only one in GST).
After a night of darkness, with stars all over, and just the sounds of the wilderness around, I got up and rode a bike all over town in the rain. The gray skies made the fall colors and the evergreens stand out and the rain brought out the smell of wild cranberry bushes---it was fantastic! I saw a bald eagle on the dock road and listened to its call...one of my favorite sounds in the world. OK OK =-) I won't go on and on anymore, but I will say that I flew back to Juneau refreshed and rejuvinated....and my lungs felt cleaned out from Cairo's pollution:)
Back in JNU: Andy and Heather and little Bryant, Alan and Lisa and little Logan, Amber, Angela and Evan had all arrived and we got to spend the rest of the time (thursday through Sunday) hanging out, laughing, teasing Aaron and each other and just plain having a blast. Amber and I went running through the glacier trails with Uncle Mike, we all ate lunch with the wedding party and saw a whale right outside the window and we got to go on a boat to pull crab pots, then I got to eat said crab less than 1 hour later:)
The wedding was in the observatory of the Mendenhall Glacier and in spite of the rain and gray skies, we got some amazing pictures and saw our "little" brother get married to a girl he really loves:)
As I said, I could go on and on, but I will stop now and just put on the few pictures I have of flying into Gustavus and my time there. I hope Andy and Alan put up some pictures of the wedding because my camera ran out of batteries and even my back-up batteries were dead!
One more thing: when I grew up in GST we had church in our living room. Now there is an actual church house in good ol' GST! Amazing....really.
6 comments:
Very cool. I didn't realize you were from Alaska, or I forgot. From Nancy's mom.
I so totally want to go there! Sounds like an amazing place. Glad you got to go.
So I stalked you and hunted you down. This post makes me extremely envious. And I think I just might move to Alaska by myself. :) FUN BLOG!!!
Sounds heavenly! My word...I flew to Seattle the weekend before. I'd have peed my pants seeing you on the plane!
We loved seeing you Amiee. It was an awesome weekend.
How fun to see pics of where you moved to all those years ago. I remember one time you sent me pictures in a letter. I think I still have them in an album somewhere. And how incredibly awesome that there is a meetinghouse there now!
Post a Comment