Lunar Eclipse

At 1:50am, I am in a deep sleep... The ringing of the telephone wakes me up and I think, who would be calling me at this hour? I pick up the phone and it is my mom on the other end of the line. Living so far from my family, I have a moment of panic thinking what happened? My mom immediately says, go look out your window, there is a lunar eclipse. I look out my bedroom window, but I don't see anything except the cross on top of Old Saint Joe's Church. Mom says, look out to the west. I stand there thinking, with my 2am brain, which way is west? After a moment it registers, I have been looking west. So, I proceed to go outside and look up and around west, north, and east. Still no luck... I go back into the apartment thinking, we should be able to see the same moon, where is it? I decide to walk to my front window, and there it is! South over the Bering Sea. And look... it is a lunar eclipse! For the educational side of things, a lunar eclipse happens when the earth gets directly between the sun and the moon, blocking the light that normally reflects off the moon. Me, who always forgets to have my camera out, actually thinks I should try and take a picture. I lay the telephone down and pick up the camera. I get a lovely view of the eclipse in the viewfinder. However, when I click for the picture to take, it doesn't turn out. I think, I hope the photographer for the Nome Nugget is up with a camera... With this spectacular sight occurring, my mind wanders back to August 1999, Romania. I was there, with Habitat for Humanity, and had the opportunity to experience a total solar eclipse. We were standing on the side of a mountain, surrounded by nothing. I remember seeing darkness, almost as a line, coming towards us very quickly. Then, being engulfed in total and complete darkness. This darkness lasted for a few minutes, then light began to come towards us. Thus far, the solar eclipse is one of the most beautiful, spectacular, awesome, and unbelievable experiences of my life. It is indescribable. Now the time has come for me to take one more peek out my window before heading back to bed for some sleep before morning. Good night and may each of you feel as blessed as I do right now, here in this moment, in this time...

Cripple Creek

Friday afternoon and evening was so fun! I went with some friends out to the Gold Mining Camp at Cripple Creek. We took ATV's and a Ranger and drove out west beach to get there. It is approximately 12 miles there and takes about an hour if you keep moving. On the way, we took our time, stopping several times. To get to the camp, we had to drive through a creek. I wasn't paying too close attention on the way in and I looked down and my feet were completely under water! Luckily I had on waterproof hiking boots, so my feet stayed dry. Upon arrival at the camp, there were still a few people out mining for gold. We talked with them for awhile before heading to the buildings. We had dinner of salad, spaghetti, garlic bread, and cake with the different miners. The miners pay to come out there and pan for gold. Everything is provided for them and they get to keep what gold they find. Also, there is a machine there that pans for gold, whatever gold it gets during the week is put together and then there is a draw for the gold, one lucky miner will win it all! A lot of people come up from the lower 48 to try their luck. After dinner, everyone gathered for entertainment and singing. We stayed until about 10pm, then we started back to Nome. The creek was deeper to drive through on the way back out. On the way back, one of the 4-wheelers got sucked into some soft sand and water. Luckily it was able to be pulled out and then it started right up. A good time was had by all! There is a very good article and photos in last weeks Nome Nugget about Cripple Creek.

Day at Salmon Lake

Yesterday was a great day! I went with my friends, Kim and Corey, their four children, and Corey's parents, to Salmon Lake, which is approximately 30 miles outside of Nome. They put out the net to catch some salmon (Red's). It is the end of the run for the red's. Did catch several of them though. Corey is going to smoke them, that should be very good! Can't wait to try them out. Also went driving further up the road, almost to mile 70! Saw lots of musk oxen. Then, on the drive back we saw three baby fox and their mother. They were playing in the road when we first saw them. We drove up to them very slowly. They finally went off the road and into the willows. Then, one little baby peeked out of the brush and came back out on the road right next to my truck. It looked at us for a bit, then turned and went back into the brush. Experiences like this is what makes me love rural Alaska so much! It was a wonderful day!