Christmas (Dec. 19, 2010-Jan. 2, 2011)

We are halfway through the school year, finishing up our 2nd quarter on Dec. 17. On Dec. 19 we drove up to Anchorage, caught a red eye flight to Seattle and from there a early morning flight to St. Paul/Minneapolis. It was a total of 9 hours of traveling, not including lay overs and too much time spent in the airports. The more traveling you do, the more exhausting it becomes. The drive up to Anchorage was beautiful. We had a perfect day for driving. The sun was out and there was little to no wind. The trees going into the Kenai Mountains were covered in ice and snow, making for a gorgeous drive. On our way in and out of Sterling we first spotted a young moose, then a large cow moose, and then, a few miles further down the road, a bull moose. Although it's antlers weren't huge, it was fun to see because bull moose with antlers are rarely seen on the Peninsula. This was the first that we have seen since moving up here.

At the Anchorage airport, we had a very long wait. But while there we ran into two teaching couples from Nikiski (the town just north of Kenai)as well as a coworker from our school. So although we had a long wait, we had plenty of familiar faces to keep us company. At the airport in Seattle, while waiting for our next flight we had two Gustavus grads come up to us. Both recognized Jon, not me. I must be too old. One graduated in 2006 and the other in 2009. The one who graduated in 2009 is a teacher up in Barrow, Alaska. We had heard of him from professors at Gustavus and he had heard our names as well. It was nice to put a face with the name. He told us that from Nov. 19-Jan. 19 they do not see the sun at all.

When we arrived in Minnesota, our friend Donna picked us up from the airport and drove us out to Cokato to visit Myra, Wade, and Rita. That afternoon we cut down Myra's first Christmas tree. In addition to spending time in Cokato, we also were in Hastings visiting my grandparents, and in Hinckley visiting Jon's family. We were also fortunate to meet up with Becca, Nathan, Ella, and Aidan (our fast growing Godson!). It was great to see those that we were able to see. We just wish it had been enough time to see more people.

We got back to Alaska on Dec. 31 and drove down to Kenai on Jan. 1. Shortly after arriving home we decided to go on a walk down to the beach. We didn't make it very far. While walking we saw a cow moose laying down in the snow off to our left. The cow did not seem bothered by us so we continued on. Up ahead we spotted another cow moose laying down. This one however was a bit more concerned about us being there. She stood up and faced us. With that, we quickly turned around to ahead home. On our way back, we spotted three more moose, roaming and grazing. Five moose all within about an 1/8 of a mile. Alaska has definitely welcomed us back.

Happy New Year to All!