Arriving in Kodiak... Finally

I slept well on the glorified bench at the airport. My flight today was on a twin turboprop DASH 8, which was a small plane, but was able to maneuver better and get under the clouds better to allow us to land this time.

Thanks to the Alaskan weather, it took me 36 hours to get to Kodiak. From what I hear, this delay is common. It certainly gives you more time to talk to random people. On my long flight yesterday, I sat next to a couple from Canton who knew about Mansfield because they had a son who had been in the Air National Guard there. I didn’t catch his name, but I believe they said he used to be an officer of some type. Then today I sat next to a man from Homer who was going to Kodiak as part of his lumber company. The main (nearly the only) kind of tree on Kodiak is the Sitka Spruce, which is a fairly decent lumber tree. By scanning the conversation on the plane, I’ve decided that all Alaskan’s do three things: fish, hunt, and fly planes.

Today I was invited to go on a foraging party/hike with some people from the hospital on nearby Near Island (no pun). Two girls were guiding us and introduced us to a dozen different plants that we could eat and several that we could not. It was a beautiful day as the rain had quit and the sun come out. I can’t believe I ate Sea Cabbage and sniffed a ‘Diaper Plant’. Our hike ended with a glorious walk along a rocky coastline, looking over the glassy ocean (seriously as calm as a freshwater lake) at the snow-capped mountain peaks on the back of the island. The sun came out today!

At 10:30 we had a party with some friends from the hospital. They came over and we watched fireworks over the bay at midnight (when it is almost starting to get dark). It was a good time, but I was tired, and subsequently slept better than I have in months.