From Nome to Shishmaref!

On Friday, I boarded a small plane in Nome and headed up to Shishmaref.  Weather was beautiful...very few clouds and sunny.  The pilot was one I recognized from a previous trip.  There were three other people on the plane....one from the same training I was at and two other guys who, as it turned out, were headed to Shishmaref to do a vision screening for the villagers.  Their trip last week had been postponed due to the foggy weather.  Flying up here is totally dependent on the weather and plans can change rather quickly.

Anyway....as we're leaving the airport, I am doing my usual gawking out the window and I'm thinking, "We're not going up very high....we're fairly close to the ground....at least compared to what I have been seeing in all my previous flights."  I look ahead through the windshield and I see lots of big hills and mountains and I'm thinking, "Come on....aren't we suppose to be a little higher?"  The answer to that....nope!  Consequently, I had yet another awesome experience.  The pilot flew through the pass...between the mountains which had snow on the top....and close enough to the ground to see our shadow as we flew over the tundra.  It was so beautiful and nothing like I've ever seen before.  When we got closer to Shishmaref, it was neat to be able to see it so clearly and from a different perspective in relationship to the mainland and to the Chukchi Sea.  The tundra is starting to change to the autumn colors, too.  

After landing, I noticed a barge had arrived on the shoreline....delivering fuel.  Gas will be going up to over $7.00 a gallon up here soon.

My dear friends, the Webbs, invited me to supper as soon as I got home.  We had spaghetti topped off with a vanilla shake from the Snack Shack.  It was so good!  It's the first ice cream shake since July in Michigan, I think.  I suppose that's not all that long but it seems like it.  I know I sure enjoyed the fries in Nome!  Speaking of which, I ate at Subway in Nome and sat by a big picture window overlooking the Bering Sea.  The food was the same but the view from Nome's Subway....breathtaking.  The waves were only like 20-30 feet away.

Our school year in Shishmaref begins on Monday.  The "big" school will have kids but the ECE will have two workdays and kids arrive on Wednesday.  I'm truly looking forward to it.  As the poster in my room said..."Everyone is a Student, Everyone is a Teacher"....this year more so than before for me!  I'm learning so much.

As for learning so much, I wish my kids were here.....I got a new iPad2 today....and have very little idea on how to use it!  Oh, yes....speaking of my kids....I Skyped with my son, Daniel, earlier and that went well....so I am learning new things.  My thoughts go out to my daughter, Jessica, who called me two nights in a row because there was a bat in her house.  From over 3000 miles away, my advice was to keep the lights on and close the bedroom door....and call someone down there for help!  I did tell her there are no bats up here....grizzly and polar bears....but no bats!  No snakes either...but tons of flies....like the one that just landed on my computer screen.

Good night from the Land of the Midnight Sun!