Who brought this Bear to church?

I decided to go to church today at Berean Baptist Church (mostly because it reminded me of the one in Mansfield). I really enjoyed the friendly congregation as well as the service. I met a guy named Dale who works at the coast guard station and is pretty close to my age. We went to Subway (all other restaurants were closed) and then he helped me pick up my bicycle. He was a passionate brother in Christ who offered to help me whenever I needed it. Something interesting about Alaska is that in Wal-Mart people routinely bring their dogs inside and don’t use a leash. There were dogs just roaming around in Subway. Alaskans love their dogs. 80% of the vehicles you see are both 4-wheel drive and have at least one dog in the back.

In the afternoon my host family took me to the south side of the island to see a place called Fossil Beach. The island is very large, so it took an hour to get there. The scenery is gorgeous, much akin to Ireland, with large mountains wrapped in grass that looks like green felt, and spruce trees popping up in clusters here and there. Did I mention it rains almost every day in Kodiak? 80 inches of precipitation a year at that.Thankfully most of the time it is just drizzling. There are no ticks or spiders here though. Fossil beach is cool because there is a set of cliffs that drop fossils daily into the pools below. I found what could be some fossilized sea shells as well as this funny shaped pod. The rock faces along the beach are huge and cool to look at, but since it was raining pretty hard I didn’t bring my camera. Upon returning we had soup and played cribbage and pinochle.

Eagles are very common here. This photo is of a group of Golden and Bald Eagles that I saw at a beach. Just by looking out the window at the shipyard I can see these birds almost any time I want.