See you tomorrow!

We are sitting at Baja Taco eating our last meal in Cordova. Our last work day went well, we finished everything we wanted to accomplish. After some iffy weather eleven of us went 'flight seeing' on a float plane wednesday afternoon, which was unbelievable. We worked late, and Sarah G threw together our leftover eggs, cheese, and salmon and made everyone delicious fritattas. We packed up and got ready for our fishing day. The girls went out around midnight last night to experience mid-night light which was beautiful and surreal and cold so we took a couple pictures and ran inside. Today, our fun day, was rainy and cold. Sara M, Sarah G, Alice, Cameron, and Sarah E got up at 6:30am to take one last early morning walk down to the harbor. Sam, Ian, Skyler, Chelsea, Cameron, and Jean went hailibut fishing, and Jean, Skyler, and Cameron caught fish! Joy took Tony, Sara M, and Lauren fly fishing, but no one caught anything. Alice, Andrew, Sarah G, and Sarah E decided the weather was too gross to be on the water and spent the day quietly, taking walks, cleaning, doing last minute errands and last minute work at St. Georges. We got hot chocolate as a treat. I think everyone enjoyed themselves in their various ways. We are now all packed, all our stuff is in the cars, and we are finished with everything we are going to finish. Barbara, Neva, and Joy held a little ceromony for us, and gave us beautiful wooden crosses and t-shirts to say thank you. As if we need a thank you, we are so lucky to get to come here, and experience this beautiful place, we were happy to help. Everyone here is Cordova has been so nice to us, and it really is indescribably beautiful, my only regret is that we couldn't stay longer. Our flight to anchorage is at 8, and after dinner we head to the airport. Tonight we are staying at a hostel in Anchorage, and tomorrow we fly home. We get on the plane home around noon, and get home on flight 476 due in at 8:15pm at the humphrey terminal. We are all exhausted, Sam appears to be napping on the table next to me, and as excited as we are to see our families, we are all sorry to leave.

Which is exactly how it should be.

Wednesday

Greetings everyone! Today is our last day of work, although we will be breaking into two groups this afternoon to do some flight seeing (sight seeing in a float plane).

We are working hard and hoping to get as much done as possible for this amazing St. George's community. One of the parishioners gave us the fixings for salmon chili. Tony and his team made an awesome dinner for us and we included our new friends - Neva, Barbara and Joy. Barbara is the priest at St. George's, and Joy and Neva are the Senior Warden and Junior Warden.

Tomorrow we are fishing. Some of us will fish for halibut, some will fly fish, and some will canoe. It has been nice to be in one place for a few days. Tomorrow we will leave for the Cordova airport around 6:30pm. We will arrive in Anchorage at about 9:00pm. We take off for MSP around 12:00pm, and you know the rest. We should be in around 8:15pm. Can't wait to see everyone.

Your kids have been awesome! Working hard without much complaining. They see how what they are doing is making a huge impact in the lives of others. They continue to follow Jesus' command to take up your cross daily and follow him. They have also begun to understand how the other mission trips have been preparation for this one. I am truly blessed to be here in community with them, working with them, and learning from them. Thank you for the gift of your children.

Peace,
Jean

Pictures Thus Far:

The kids at the airport waiting for our vans the first day. Between our 5 hour flight and our 5 hour drive. Can't you just see their enthusiasm?

Andrew, Cameron, Sam, Sarah G, Skler, and Sara M enjoying Denali and making me nervous by standing too close to the edge of the cliff.

The group starts on our hike.

Andrew was excited to reach the river.

The group that made it to the bottom. We were celebrating then, but it was making it back up that was hardest.

BooBoo

Ian, Lauren, Sam, Cameron, and the big snow covered mountain behind them to the left is Mckinley.

Tony and our bus.


Sorry for the long delay. There is one place with internet here in Cordova, a taco place based out of a converted bus, which only works when its clear. Today is clear and beautiful and sunny for the first time since we arrived, so I will be posting as much as possible while I drink my bus-taco-mocha. Its delicious Yesterday was our first work day, and once again our kids managed to amaze me. They power washed the Red Dragon, washed all the windows inside and out by hand, painted the trim on the entry way and then did another coat, scraped the entire north side of St. Georges to prep for paining, washed the trim, painted the basement, gue-be-goned the stairs to prep for painting, and raked the yard of all the excess stuff. In one day. I can't say enough good things about our kids. We all ate an unbelievable amount of pasta for dinner. We are all still getting along, no big blow ups, or tears. Today is another work day, and we are planning our 'adventure activities' for our last day here in Cordova - thursday. I'll tell you about it when its certain. The girls moved over to the Catholic church around the corner, which has two bathrooms, and we are all settled into our new surroundings. In fact all 7 of us girls overslept this morning til around 8 and Tony had to call and wake us! Tony made us amazing salmon and cream cheese omlets yesterday for breakfast. Ian found a dead bald eagle, and a Spades craze has swept our group. Unfortnately Alice is sick today, and she is feeling guilty she isn't working, and we are missing her. Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow. The kids aren't here to help me update so thats its for now, but here are many pictures of our trip so far. Hopefully we will be able to update more tomorrow.


Childes Glacier

The whole group at the glacier. We were so so cold.

Cordova

Teen Chaos.

6/21 posted on 6/24

6/21

Friday was another travel day. We woke up ate breakfast and headed back on the road to Anchorage. The teenagers and I were dropped off at the airport while Tony and Jean returned the cars. The plane to Cordova was under an hour long, we had all just taken our ipods out when we were told to put them away for landing. The Cordova airport was teeny, they pushed steps up to our plane, and the airport was one room with ‘security’ being a doorway and baggage claim being a hole in the wall they pushed luggage through one at a time. We were greeted by the warden, Joy, and junior warden, Neva, from St. Georges and with one little complication. There had been a mix-up with the vans that were rented to get us from the airport – 13 miles out of town – to town. Fortunately, Cordova is small enough that everyone knows everyone, and the wardens chatted and hitched us rides with a variety of townspeople who happened to be at the airport anyhow, including the Baptist minister. We arrived at the Red Dragon Hospitality house to be greeted by Barbara, a retired Episcopal priest who is leading St. Georges. The Red Dragon is the oldest building standing in Cordova, built in 1908, it was standing 11 years before the church was built and its original purpose was a ‘safe’ place for the railroad workers to get away from the saloons. The Red Dragon is a one room cabin, with a loft over the kitchen. It’s extremely basic, but I love it. The boys are sleeping up in the loft, and there has been much giggling over the rickety ladder. St. Georges is right next door to the Red Dragon, and it is a beautiful old church. Everything is wet, and lush and growing, and there are lots of slugs and crows and climbing trees in the yard Cordova is an ‘arctic tropic’ or a ‘sub arctic rainforest’, so everything is extremely green and damp chill in the air. The whole ambience is very romantic, in a very gothic, Alaskan-fishing village kind of way. The youth groups from St. Christopher’s and St. Georges made us dinner, possibly the best pasta I’ve ever had. It was nice to see some familiar faces. Their joint group has been here for a week, but fortunately left us a lot of work to do. Last night they went for a night hike after dinner but we instead came back to the Red Dragon and went straight to bed, we were all exhausted. Despite the cramped quarters we all slept soundly. We had a leisurely morning, Sarah G, Cameron G, Tony, and Sarah E all took early morning walks down to the harbor (which is around the corner and one street down). It’s unbelievably beautiful. Everyone keeps joking that the surroundings are so beautiful we’ve all become professional photographers, because every 2 feet is something beautiful and it’s impossible to take a bad picture. At 9:30 we were picked up in a blue van that smelled suspiciously of gasoline and drove out to Childes Glacier to worship with the 30 person congregation of St. Georges. The glacier was, you guessed it, indescribably beautiful, and bitterly cold. Alice says it was the color of a frozen chlorinated pool, and Sarah G points out that in a way we have no idea how big it really was, because the size and space here is so vast, our perception was that the glacier was just a couple of hundred of yards away, but in reality it was the length of4 football fields away. The glacier was ‘calving’ when we were there which sounded like thunder followed by large chunks of ice falling off. Afterwards the congregation grilled us hot dogs, salmon, and halibut, which we ate shivering around a fire in the shadow of the glacier. Afterwards we drove over the ‘million dollar bridge’ with a chorus of screams. Then we had a driving tour of the surrounding area, and saw seven bald eagles in the trees right above our heads on the side of the road. Then free time, where cards were played, 34 slugs were caught, and dinner plans we made. The Red Dragon has a speaker which connects to our ipods so we’ve all been taking turns sharing our music. Jeans team is making macaroni and cheese for dinner, and we are all excited to start work tomorrow at 9:30.

Notes from the Teens:

Sarah G and Cameron and everyone else wish Eva a very very happy 14th birthday. Lauren is surviving the spiders. Alice’s wants to tell her parents she wants to make sure they bring her sister to the airport to pick her up; she wants to be greeted by her whole family. Alice, Ian, and Skyler want credit for catching all those slugs. Sam loves his parents and wants them to know he has gone through 4 cameras already. Tony misses his girls and promises Emma he isn’t embarrassing her (he’s not, he’s been really great, we’re really lucky he is here. Thanks for lending him to us!). Chelsea is marvelous and fixed Jeans computer after I messed it up. Jean loved the pick-up from the airport – the taste of this close-knit community life.

Everyone is missing our pets, and want all our family at home to give them extra scratches.

*None of our cell phones are working, and the only internet in town is at a little taco place so we won’t be very reachable the next couple of days. If you need to reach someone the number for St. Georges is in the packet. We are all safe and happy and will update more soon*

Denali

We arrived at Denali around 8:30am for a 9am shuttle to Eielson Visitor Centor. Our bus driver, Marilyn, had 30 years of experience and a dry sense of humor. She warned us that there was 'the big 4' we had to see before we left. Moose, Caribou, Doll Sheep, and Bears. If we were lucky we might see foxes, and there were wolves in the area too, but they are shy. Before we even got into 'the wild' we had seen a mouse and a caribou. It was a clear day and we could see Mckinley most of the day. According to Marilyn this is only the third time this year it was visible. Sarah E spotted a fox den, and a wolf getting a drink in the river. Tony spotted the first bear, a mother and a cub. We also saw so many caribou we stopped getting excited when we passed one, and snow hares, and arctic ground squirels. We saw doll sheep, but only at a distance. At the Eielson visitor centor we got off the bus and decided to take a short hike down to the river. Jean, Chelsea, and Alice turned back at a steep gravel incline, but 10 of us forged on, and let us tell you, distance can be very deciving in great open spaces. While on the river, we saw a bull moose at the top of the ridge above us. We all survived with only minor injuries (a backpack was dropped into the river but nothing was damaged, various scraps and bruises, and a few sunburns) We caught the 3:15 bus back, and within moments the teeniest little black and red fox ran down the hill next to our bus. We were so exicted, we hardly noticed when we pulled up behind another bus. We looked idley out the window to see what they were looking at, and there was a bear. Feet from the road. He was amazing. Jean named him 'BooBoo' Unbelievable. We watched him for 10 minutes and could have watched him for hours. We were all exhausted, and the ride back was uneventful. Lots of naps. We got back to the visitor centor around 6:30, and left with our pennies all spent around 7. We went out to dinner at a local pizza place, which Sara M described with satisfaciton as 'very unfake'. We have an hour of free time now before bed. Alice, Andrew, and Sam are playing cards next to me, I don't know what game but the point seems to be poking Sam's sunburn and making him shriek loudly. Some of the kids are exploring the stream next to the hostel, some are taking showers, and Cameron has been buried under a pile of pillows on the couch for the last half hour. We continued to be happily exhausted and it was so worth it.

Notes from the kids:
Sam has used 3 disposable cameras. Alice wants to point out she and Andrew are BFF, Chelsea says Denali National Park is a must see. Extremely awesome and cool. Sarah G is sore from falling so much on that 'short hike'. Lauren wants it mentioned that she couragously dove into the river to save the backpack that nearly drown. She was very brave. Tony doesn't have anything to share. Andrew lost his ipod for using it without permission. Sarah E (me) is having trouble uploading pictures and is giving up for the night. Hopefully tomorrow.

Our First Night

By the end of our long day yesterday we were all so tired none of us had anything witty to say. The drive from Anchorage to Denali was magical, it started out just a highway with northern forests on either side, which in our dazed minds felt like we could of been in any great nothern forest. And then, seemingly out of no where there were these big unbelievabley beautiful mountains. And then we were in them, and what do you know, we saw a moose! We really are in Alaska!

After having survived our first night of 21 hours of daylight(Sunrise 3am, sunset 12:47am), I can honestly say we were all weirded out by falling asleep at 10pm with it still bright out, but we were all so tired I don't think anyone had any trouble falling asleep. In our cabin we threw a blanket over our windows to keep out the extra light. Its 7am now, Tonys group is preparing breakfast, and my group has packed lunches for the hike today. Our first full day in Alaska. I can't wait!

Denali

Hey guys! Skyler's first time on a plane - that he can remember. We managed to come through the first day. 5 hours on the plane, 5 hours in Anchorage, 4.5 hours in the car to Denali. We still like each other! Everyone is great, despite being tired. We saw a Moose!!! The mountains are beautiful - Sarah Gemlo's camera almost died - too many pictures of the mountains. How many pictures of mountains do you need? Sarah loves mountains! Cameron says "hi". Alice says the showers are too small. Lots of mosquitos in Denali! Almost 9pm and I am still wearing sunglasses - weird! I have been up for almost 24 hours. We are taking showers now - then going to bed. Waking up at 6:30am to get ready for another drive - to Denali National Park. I wonder if we will see any bears? We'll post again tomorrow.

Jean

Wait - Lauren is trying to think of something witty to say - having trouble....thinking.....still thinking....I love you! Try again tomorrow Lauren - after you have had some sleep. She's off to the shower. Good night.

We're Here!

We are here! The ride was long and boring, but we are here safe and sound. All of your children are great! They are very excited - ready to start our adventure.

We are sitting at the Peanut Farm waiting to eat. Then we will stop for groceries and head to Denali. Not quite sure how to get there, but we will figure it out. Unfortunately my cell phone is not working, but Sarah's and Tony's phones are - check the schedule for their numbers.

"Does it seem like we are in Alaska?" I asked. I think it will take a while before we feel like we are actually in this amazing state. We will post again tonight when we arrive in Denali.

Peace,
Jean

T-1

We head onwards and upwards tomorrow at 8am, after having met at the airport at the unreasonable hour of 6am. Today has been filled with last minute planning, trying to figure out how to pack for camping as well as for 9 days away from home, and how to fit all that stuff into carryable bags. I, being the procrastinator that I am, have just begun my personal packing. Inspite of last minutes chaos, I am not at all worried about the trip. It will be perfect.




Tomorrow is a travel day, 5 hours and 15 minutes on a plane and approximately 5 hours in a car. As well as grocery shopping. Next time you hear from us, we will be in the shadow of Denali.

June 9, 2008

Final preparations are being made - we have 10 days until our departure to Alaska for a 9 day mission trip. We will begin our trip exploring Denali National Park. On Saturday, June 21 we will fly to Cordova to be greeted by the St. Christopher's mission team with a solstice celebration. On Sunday we will worship with St. George's Episcopal church at a local glacier. Our work starts on Monday. Stay tuned for more!