Alaska : Week 1

Willie, Owen, and I finally made it to Alaska!

Seems like we have been dreaming about and planning this trip forever.

It feels good to be here.
We  will be here for 8 weeks for Willie's internship for school.

We almost didn't make it here when we hoped to. We only had 2 flights. The first was delayed due to weather. Which shortened our layover for the second flight to about 15 minutes. But when we landed there wasn't anyone available to drive the jet bridge to the plane so we couldn't get off. Our next flight was the last one of the night to go to Alaska. Thankfully they held the plane for us while we ran through the airport on what ended up being a 4 minute layover. 

I cant remember the last time I ran that hard.
(I thought I was going to barf )

To sweeten the deal, we were both wearing backpacks, holding huge winter coats, and pushing Owen in a stroller.

Icing on the cake??

The moment we landed, I really had to go to the bathroom but I knew we didn't have any time. So I was going to just hold it until we were on our next flight...

but apparently my bladder isn't as strong as I thought. 

When we finally reached the gate (huffing and puffing) and sat down on the plane I realized I had peed my pants when I was running!!!

This is the point in the story where I try to excuse myself by announcing to everyone for the first time on the internet, that in my defense I am 3 months pregnant :)

Anyway, by the time we landed I was pretty much dry and just glad that we made our flight and didn't have to sleep in the airport.

That was one week ago.

We arrived in Anchorage at 1am Tuesday the 8th.
We spent the night at a hotel and left Tuesday afternoon for Kenai.

This is what greeted us at the Anchorage airport


When we got to the airport, the check in process was more  like a buss station than an airport. (except that they weighed EVERYTHING ... including us)

We gave them our bags, and they gave us 2 plastic boarding passes.

That was it.
No security checks or anything.
We waited at a ground floor gate, and then I saw our airplane...

Definitely the smallest airplane I've flown in yet.

Our pilot was our flight attendant. 

After everyone was on (all 5 of us) he pulled the door closed and pointed out where the fire extinguisher was and the emergency exit as he made his way to the front. And that was it. It was the shortest safety debriefing ever. 

And we were off.

The nice thing about the small plane is that it doesn't fly very high,

so we were able to see the pretty scenery below the whole time.

The picture doesn't do it justice.
 In the one above, just past the water it looks like a line of clouds but it's actually a huge ring of mountains, with a really huge one popping up on the far left beside the edge of the window.
(and the window was a little dirty)

This first week (for me) has been spent getting acquainted with the staff at Arctic Barnabas, and getting familiar with the area.

Each day Willie goes into the office and gets to see what their ministry is all about.

This week we will be preparing for a 3 week visit to one of the bush churches Arctic Barnabas supports. This is kind of a big deal, and an adventure I'm looking forward to. We leave this Monday coming up.

The biggest job I have for this week is packing our stuff up again, as well as planning and purchasing all of our food for the whole time we are in Galina. We will have to fly it in with us when we go.


We look forward to sharing more about the internship as it unfolds.


Oh! Wait!! Did I mention I saw a Moose for the first time in my life! They are all over the place out here. I think we're up to 10 since Saturday! I'll have to get a picture :)