Settled Back in Anchorage

It's been a long time since we've put anything on our blog, between spending 5 weeks on the East Coast and then catching up when we got back to Alaska!  Our posts may be out of order as I find the pictures and remember what we've been doing!  Most recently, I flew to Detroit for my niece's wedding over Labor Day Weekend, and Brian flew to Galena, AK to assist other volunteers in rebuilding houses for people who were displaced from flooding of the Yukon back in late winter.  In Detroit, I got to see a lot of family, which was very fun, and I'm so glad that I was there for a great wedding with a wonderful young couple . . . I found it very heartening to witness them beginning their life together.

Meanwhile, Brian was being mistaken for a plumber (in the absence of a real one) and problem-solving getting running water, working sewage, etc. back in Galena with church volunteers, FEMA people, and seeing what life is like on the Yukon in a village of about 500 people.  He particularly liked the flight from Fairbanks to Galena on a small plane where he could look right up the aisle and see what the pilot was looking at!  He enjoyed it enough that he'd like to go back!  These two pictures are of the "FEMA tents" and the plane from Fairbanks - notice the "baggage claim" in the foreground!

This is a "typical house" in Galena - some have plumbing, others don't - this one is still waiting for the plumbing to be repaired.  Waste is pumped into a holding tank and then pumped out by a truck periodically.  Nothings buried, because it's permafrost.  Everything comes in by a weekly barge (for 6 months of the year) or by plane, but the planes are small - anything big has to come by barge up the Yukon.

Just before we went on our separate ways, Jessica came from Santa Monica and visited for a week.  It was a busy week, and we didn't get to do much with her, but we did spend one whole day on our boat, picking up our last shrimp of the season and enjoying the views of glaciers, mountains, and the beautiful waters of Prince William Sound.