Monday, June 21

Yes, I'm at Jesse's computer at his office. Yesterday, Jesse showed us Anchorage - boy, did he ever. He had us busy all day, but it was great and I think we're getting a feel for it - both the immense and amazing beauty and the not-so-pretty as well.

Let's see, we started by going to this park to see Mount McKinley from a distance. It was a perfectly clear day, which apparently doesn't happen much around here - so everyone said we'd better go see it right away. It was amazing - even from a distance. Then we went downtown Anchorage and just walked around. Busy, busy, busy. They keep their downtown very active, but beautiful as well - lots of flowers and plants and activities for peoples. All kinds of shopping. Then we had a reindeer sausage at a vendor (the one who makes his sausage out of almost all reindeer - the others apparently use pork as the main meat) - yum!!!!! It's like a bratwurst - a little sweet, but yet with a little spice on the tongue after you savor it. Delicious! Then on to "Flat-top" - a mountain outside of Anchorage where you overlook the whole town and are in the foothills kind of. It really gives you a feel for Anchorage and how it lies within the mountains. It was also beautiful. I could stay up there all day - except I'd like to have our binoculars along to see what's looking at me from the forest and other mountains. (I'm taking them from now on.) Had to make a Wal-Mart run and then Jesse took us to see a little town called Girdwood (which is on the way to Seward). It's one of the towns you would not even know was there (I bet 99% of all tourists drive right past it - we would have). What a fun, cute, eclectic little town that has two glaciers right outside their city limits. Beautiful and fun all in one package. And a gorgeous drive. The bay all along one side and straight up mountains on the other with water coming right over the mountain rock - and the mountains on the other side of the bay beautiful as well. Amazing!

Another picnic last evening - this time with the Parachute workers and the kids. Interesting. Duane and I agreed that you can just feel the energy draining from you as you're around those kids - they are very needy, hyper or introverted, talk too much or difficult to talk with and many of them just do not have much in the way of social skills. You can tell they absolutely thrive on the attention of the staff (and others), and they like the food, too. Then, a couple of homeless people see our picnic, and you can just see them waiting around the garbage for us to leave (or maybe when we're not looking), so they can dig around and see what they can find. Sad! It was good for us to see - now we have a tiny bit of an idea what Jesse has been doing and what he's been dealing with.

We were pooped - so headed back to Pastor Dave's and just sat in the quiet for a while. Many of us obviously take way too many blessings for granted. It's good for us all to ponder that once in a while.

We have many, many plans in the days we have with Jesse here in Anchorage - salmon fishing, ocean halibut fishing, eating here and there, Denali National Park, etc., etc. I'll try to keep you updated.

Thanks for checking and thanks for the prayers.

Gayle - BOTB