February Reflections

I think it’s safe to say that we survived our first Alaska winter. Every day now, we gain 4 more minutes of daylight and we have been using it to the fullest. It's light out when we head to work in the morning now and for quite some time after work. So February has been full of fun. The snow and rain decided to take a break and the sun blessed us with its presence for multiple days in a row now!

Jason took a trip to Anchorage for another map teach conference and I enjoyed a girl’s weekend at home. There was a medical fundraiser going on in town and my friend Jen and I enjoyed Indian Taco’s for the first time. They are delicious! It’s basically a taco, but with Indian Fried Bread as the shell. A must have when in Metlakatla for sure.

The next weekend was “Friendsgiving.” We got together with co-workers and friends at the school to watch a movie and celebrate Valentines Day. Jason and I cooked the turkey, since we had an extra one that the school gave us for Thanksgiving. Others brought side dishes and goodies to share. We watched “Shrek” and enjoyed company. It was a great time.

Besides that, we’ve been going on lots of walks and hikes. We found a great hike called Yellow Hill. It’s a short 40 minute hike, so we have plenty of time to do it right after school before it gets dark. And the view is AMAZING! You can see the whole town sitting on the edge of the ocean.

Last weekend (the same weekend as Friendsgiving) we also had a bake sale for student government - which I am the advisor for. We are raising funds for t-shirts and a trip to Kodiak for the the Spring conference. It was fun because Pep Club, which my friend Beth is the advisor for, had a spaghetti feed the same night to raise funds for regionals. And my friend Rachel came along to help and baked some very yummy treats. The sale was a huge success and we raised over $200!

With all these beautiful days we’ve had it’s easy to remember why we love it here so much. When the sun’s out our little island could easily be mistaken for a tropical paradise (just a little chillier). Just today we had a pod of orcas right outside our windows! Too bad they were too quick to get on camera - maybe next time.

We are getting excited for summer and looking forward to family and friends who want to come and visit us here on the island. We constantly talk about where we are going to take everyone and what we want to do while they are here. We’re excited for visitors!

Summer really is just around the corner. This year is flying by. We’ve got one week until Basketball regionals. If it’s anything like what we’ve heard, there will only be about 15 students in school that week . . . everyone else will be in Ketchikan for the ball games. Then we have spring break – already! After that we will be well into March, April will be a full month, but May is graduation and school is out! We hope everyone else is enjoying the school year and life as much as we are!

Miss & Love you all!

My First REAL South East Flight and other happenings . . .

Well, life’s been busy as usual.

We hit the ground running after winter break and it’s been non stop ever since!

Shortly after getting home we were hit with over a foot of snow. It was absolutely beautiful around here. And then, it froze. Temperatures were below zero, which from what we hear is very rare and hasn’t happened in years. We kept the water running and the house warm. I kept waiting for school to be canceled .

. . but the principal informed me that we don’t cancel school unless the pipes freeze!

The pipes didn’t freeze, but the ferry terminal did. It was already difficult because our normal ferry, the Lituya, was under maintenance and the Inter-Island-Ferry-System was providing only one run per-day (5 days a week). Well now there was nothing . . . for days! And because of high winds floatplanes were also on hold. Jason’s trip to Juneau with the robotics team for the state competition was cancelled, which was really a bummer because those kids just started their team this year and worked so hard to qualify for state. Basketball was also cancelled.

Thankfully (I can say that now) my trip to Anchorage for a “Building Student Success” Conference was still on. The flight however, was life-threatening. We were delayed in Ketchikan about 30 minutes due to weather. I didn’t think much of it, as it was snowing pretty hard. I was taking the “milk run” to Anchorage, which stops in Sitka and then Juneau before landing in Anchorage. Sitka is only a 35 minute and is usually quick and painless. Not this time. The landing was so shaky and bumpy from the wind we landed sideways on one back wheel. Thankfully it was dark, so I couldn’t see the scary landing which is on a very small strip of land surrounded by water. I’m sure if we could have seen it, one wing had to have been touching the water.

Ketchikan

Ketchikan

Sitka

So then as we were sitting on the ground they announced that we would be waiting for weather for another 30 minutes. The plane was shaking so bad, even on the ground, just from the wind. Finally they announced it would be longer and let us off the plane. I was sure we would be spending the night in Sitka and had made my peace with that – but we waited and had some pie – just in case the weather got better. Well, it did calm down and we rushed to get back on the plane. Although the flight was smooth I was so shaken up that my legs and hands were shaking uncontrollably. And even though the flight was smooth it was snowing so hard that the pilot had no visibility and had to do a touch-and-go landing in Juneau. Our short 20 minute flight from Sitka to Juneau ended up being over an hour after spending 40 minutes circling Juneau, waiting for visibility to land.

Junaeu to Anchorage was uneventful, although we got in 3 hours later than planned, I was thankful to be in one piece and on the ground. My co-workers, Jeannie and Beth, were with me. Jeannie grew up in Alaska and said that was the worst flight she had ever been on. Beth wasn’t phased and laughed it off.

We thought that would be the last of the chaos . . . but we were wrong. Friday night was the key-note speaker of our conference. During the first half hour of her speech (with over 1,000 people in the convention center of downtown Anchorage) there was a very loud BOOM! And dust/smoke was coming from the ceiling. Some people run out immediately. Others waited. The speaker kept going until it was too distracting and then repeated, “You can see the cracks in the ceiling?” Which is when Jeannie, Beth and I decided it was time to go. We waited around for a bit and the fire department showed up. The speaker started up again, but we decided it was time to call it a night. None of us was going to be able to comprehend anything after that so we left to the Bear Tooth Theater & Pub where we spent the rest of our evening trying to “calm our nerves.”

The next day we heard that they did cut the key-note short and evacuated the convention center, but the ceiling was not falling in. Something about hot air and the fire retardant was set off unnecessarily. The rest of the conference went well and we ended our night Sunday at the spa followed by Moose’s Tooth Pub with Jason’s family. Our flights the next morning were quick and smooth, and I was happy to be home!

Some pictures of my Anchorage Adventures:

This is Jeannie, Beth and I out Moose Hunting. . . despite our efforts, this is the only moose we saw:

I am starting to think that Moose are not real, but really that Alaskans are just so darn cold that they are imagining them - because I have yet to see the big fellas.

Now Jason is fixin’ to head out to Anchorage for another MapTeach Science Workshop – which has been in Fairbanks all the times before. Anchorage is a lot closer, so that will be nice for him. Then I will be headed back to Anchorage for the District Test Coordinator Training at the end of February.

Traveling is definitely interesting in Southeast Alaska! It is one thing that we never really thought about before moving here. It’s fun to be able to travel with work and see all of what Alaska has to offer. There really are a lot of professional development opportunities – which we appreciate. And until recently all of my travels have gone smooth! Hopefully this trip was an exception . . . it definitely made things interesting!

We are really looking forward to our spring break at the beginning of March. We made plans to fly to Juneau and stay at a bed and breakfast for 4 days, when we will then take the ferry back to Ketchikan and Metlakatla. We will get to see the inside passage of Alaska, which will be absolutely beautiful. Let’s just hope that I am able to get on that plane!