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- Fern and Ayla checking me into my flight
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- Happy Camden wearing his newly signed hat and t shirt from the crew at Era Air
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- airport code for Unalakleet
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- cemetery and hills at sunset
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- flying out, beautfiul sunset
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- if you watch “Flying Wild Alaska” this might mean something to you, if you don’t, this is Jim and Fern the couple that run Era Air in Unalakleet and are on the TV show with their daughters.
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- sunset on the Bering Sea
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- a picture of a poster 🙂
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- where is Unalakleet you ask?
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- Esther is 81 and has over 80 grandchildren. I loved meeting her and realized I know her grandson Fred as he was one of my first students at UAS in Sitka in 1996!
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- I live just NE of the W in Barrow… it took a flight to Anchorage then another flight to Unalakleet to get here. Total flying hours about 3.5!
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- in the midwest we have mud rooms before entering a home, here in AK we have Arctic Entries to buffer the cold from the living area of a home.
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- the glow of the sunset over the Bering Sea
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- lovely ladies
I didn’t make it to Unalakleet (YOO-nuh-luh-kleet) on the day I was supposed to because they had too much fog for a plane to land, but I did make it in the next day around noon. Bering Strait School District has 15 sites and people from each site flew to UNK for the training I was leading. The communities in this school district are:
- St. Michael
- Elim
- Brevig Mission
- Diomede
- Gambell
- Savoonga
- Teller
- Koyuk
- Golovin
- Shaktoolik
- Shishmaref
- Stebbins
- Unalakleet
- Wales
- White Mountain
Unalakleet is located on the Bering Sea, about 150 miles South of Nome. Unalakleet has both Athabascan and Inupiat Natives that call the area home. In the 1830’s Russian American Company built a trading post in Unalakleet, and they still have amazing artistic items to buy.
I felt welcomed from the minute I landed and loved both my days there. I walked from the school to dinner at “Peace on Earth Pizza” in -10 and it was as cold as you might think. After dinner we were driven to our hotel where I ended up spending about 4 hours sitting with many of the ladies in my training and talking about life in their villages. I felt blessed to listen to them telling stories of life in the years past. Esther an 81 year old grandmother of over 80 grand children warmed my heart. Ironically I know on of her grand kids, Fred, whom I met my first year at the University in Sitka, 1996! Small world.
I learned how TB took most of the individuals in Wales, and how they buried individuals on the other side of Tin Mountain. I learned how many of the women met their husbands, how they birthed children (and sadly lost some), how they lived off the land and how they loved to sit around and talk, much like we were doing that night. I felt blessed to be involved in the evening.
On Wed. I continued training with the group and finally prepared to catch my flight back to Anchorage ~ this is when the excitement began! I was flying on ERA Air and for anyone that might watch “Flying Wild Alaska” you know that the Tweto Family run the airline there in Unalakleet. My friend Kristie’s son Camden LOVES this show and family and I was able to meet 3 of the family members and have them sign a hat and t-shirt for him, as well as deliver a letter he wrote to them. I was almost as excited as he was.
As I flew out, the sun was setting on the Bering Sea and I am already looking forward to a return trip to this region next year!
timistravels 