Walking with the Grizzlies...

Since moving to Alaska, I have had severely mixed feelings about seeing bears here.  I wanted to see them in their natural habitat, but I was deathly afraid of seeing them in their natural habitat.  Shortly after we moved here, John went out one morning and there were 2 grizzly cubs and mama bear snacking on flowers and berries in the yard beside our apartment – but I was already at work.  Several months later, a 2 year old black bear cub wandered around on our deck; he actually spent several months in and around our neighborhood, and I did get a quick snapshot of him on our deck, through our kitchen window.  But that wasn’t a grizzly…

And then we moved to Kodiak, the home of the famed Kodiak Grizzly Bear.  Reports of brown bear sightings were pretty common; in fact, an aggressive grizzly was shot and killed just a few houses down from our rental right before we moved in.  Several friends spotted them around town once in a while; one wandered around the clinic parking lot just before I arrived at work one morning.  Just a couple weeks before Jade & Trip moved off island, she and I were working in her basement when neighbors posted and texted about a bear in the neighborhood.  We went running outside, but he was long gone; he had walked just about 50 feet away from us, but I never laid eyes on him.  I didn’t see any of these bears.

So then it was up to me… LOL.  I booked a bear viewing tour with a local family-owned company; I was quite nervous as this particular flight would be in a float plane.  Not only were we going to see Grizzly Bears, but we were going up in a plane that takes off and lands IN WATER – a LITTLE plane…. In water…. I was so nervous about the event that I could hardly sleep Sunday night.  I finally fell asleep around midnight and awoke 2-3 times after falling asleep.  We awoke and readied ourselves; we drank our coffee and waited for them to pick us up at our house.  Amanda was a great driver; she greeted us and seemed so at ease – I wondered if she had been on this trip.  As she chatted with us, she revealed that she had indeed taken the tour out when she first started working for the company.  Well, she came back and was doing just fine; I wondered about our day.

After picking up other customers at a local hotel, we headed for Trident Basin, where the plane docks and their little office building is located.  They fitted us with waders, and again, my mind jumped ahead into our day.  Why do we need waders? Just how deep will we wade?  Will the bottom be slick and high risk for a fall?  I’m not only worried about me, but John does NOT need to fall just days prior to leaving the island for a 5,000+ mile journey.  And then….. the fear haunts me again: just how close will we be to these bears? Friends have told me that they walked around on the beach WITH the bears; how close will they get to us? Bear mauling stories hit the news and are quite melodramatic when they occur.  I am NOT interested in making the news this way.  My heart is pounding and my brain is on massive alert. 

the float plane awaits

just as we take off, looking over the island

John acts as co-pilot.... I was SO jealous!

I'm in the back, all set up and ready to fly...

After being fitted for the waders, we make our way down the dock where the float plane sits in the OCEAN.  Nice and neat.  Floats seem to be in fine working order, as the plane sits nice and steady next to the pier.  There are 6 seats and 5 passengers, so John gets chosen to sit up front with Roland, the pilot; the other ladies are seated in the middle, and I am left to sit beside Jo, the guide, in the rear of the plane.  Oh my, now John and I are separated; if the plane breaks up, he’s in front and I’m in back. Oh dear Lord, please don’t let anything like that happen.  Everyone gets seated, buckled, and then we are instructed in the use of our headsets.  The pilot cranks her up and we start moving out into open water.  My insides are in KNOTS as we leave the water and take to the air.  Ah, that take-off was amazingly calm and easy.  Am I feeling better? I’m not sure at this point.  The pilot and guide offer tons of little tidbits of info about bears, Kodiak, the ocean animals, the land animals here in Kodiak, and we really enjoyed the chatter.  One of our flight-mates is from Italy and only speaks Italian; she has an interpreter with her and so, much of our conversation is paused to allow for translation.  The pilot and guide spot eagle, deer and goats on Kodiak hills and once over water, we saw some sea otters and fin whales.  We flew very close to the ground; it sometimes seemed as if we could reach out the window and touch the mountains.  My heart is racing; I don’t know whether to be nervous and afraid or just plain excited.  We learned that most of the animals living on Kodiak Island aren’t native at all, but were brought over from the mainland at various times throughout history. 

Experts believe the Kodiak bears actually came over during a period of time when some of the nearby ocean waters were frozen solid and once thawed, they couldn’t get off the island.  From this handful of grizzlies, came today’s entire Kodiak bear population.

As the guide continues to regale us with all sorts of historical stories, my mind is racing ahead to landing; just how deep is the water there? How far off the beach will we be?  Will there be bears hanging around waiting on us?  My heart pounds with excitement and fear, yet the pilot and guide seem so comfortable – and this conflict in my emotions baffles me.

Finally, we approach our landing site on Katmai at Hallo Bay.  I can no longer tell if it’s my heartbeat or the vibrations of the plane’s engines causing my insides to churn.  And John is all the way up in front of the plane… so I cannot reach his hand for reassurance.  We fly over the meadows just off the beach; we spot several brown bears, glistening in the sunlight.   Oh my goodness, there are loads of bears.  Just where in the heck are we gonna land? And will these bears like or not like us invading their territory?  The pilot circles around the meadows and beach and approaches out landing zone – out in Hallo Bay.  The plane descends rather quickly and skims across the water as easily as a knife slices through butter.  It really is a very smooth landing; my heart is still racing because NOW, we have to get out of the plane.  There is no dock, no pier, nowhere to hold the plane still.  First the pilot and guide exit the plane.  I’m frantically looking down into the water, searching for rocks, land, mud, ANYTHING solid on which to plan my feet.  But to no avail; there is nothing visible through the muddy water.  I’m quite unnerved that we have to blindly leave the boat with no way to know what’s underneath the murky ocean water.  I look around and see that we are about 100 yards or so from the actual beach; how does Jo know it’s safe to and disembark here? What’s gonna happen if I slip and fall getting out of the plane? My brain is telling me that these people know what they are doing, but my heart is still racing and afraid they might be wrong.

approaching Hallo Bay

We've landed in the bay

we are now walking to the beach from the bay

view of the Hallo Glacier on Katmai

the first mama bear and cubs we see on the beach

we are in the ocean water; Roland is our pilot and unbeknownst to us, he's preparing to take off...

Because I’m in the back seat, I’m the last person off and boy, am I glad! Everyone else is walking around in the knee-high water just fine and no one’s fallen yet.  Hope I’m not the one!  As I gingerly climb down from the seat, my foot lands on a spiked ladder, and then onto the pontoon floats.  I then kneel and step into the murky ocean water, feet landing on a rocky bottom.  Water comes up to my knees and I can tell through the waders that the water is ice cold.  John grabs my hand and we begin walking toward the beach.  Roland bids us farewell and says he will be back after while; Jo explains that he has groceries to deliver to homes nearby.  The plane cranks up and takes off; my heart leaps as I realize he is gone – really gone.  Fears once again jump – what if he crashes? What if we need him for a medical emergency? Our only ride out of here just left.

Jo points toward the beach and begins to show us three sets of sows with cubs leaving the woods/meadows and coming out onto the beach with us.  Oh my.  Oh my.   Um, this is not good.  From our left, there appears to be a huge mama bear with 3 large cubs; from our right is a mama bear with 2 cubs, and directly in front of us is another mama with 2 cubs.  We begin walking directly toward the bears on our right.  They start moving across in front of us and so we start zig-zagging toward them.  Then, she turns and heads further right, going back from where they came.  We change course and head directly toward the mid-point of the 2 remaining families.  We approach cautiously, and Jo keeps reminding us to stay close and keep a tight grouping to appear as 1 large creature to the bears.  We try; but we have a variety of health abilities and not all of us keep up easily.  However, I feel like I’m stuck like glue to Jo’s back.  Gradually, we make our way up onto the sandy beach and out of the ocean water.  I’m really glad to be out of the water; it’s cold and I’m worried about someone slipping. 

As we approach the beach, we walk a few steps and stop; we photograph the bears and watch them in awe.  They are only yards away and seem to be going about their business normally.  They’ve giving us no attention whatsoever.  There are other wheeled planes stationed on the beach where other tourists have landed and are making their way back into the meadows and woods.  The mama and 3 cubs entertain us for about an hour or so; 2 of them tussle and play wrestle.  The remaining lone cub wanders around, exploring, sniffing the beach for clams, running and playing; every once in a while, mama bear makes a huffing sound and the cub comes back closer to mom.  At one point, one of the cubs found an empty water bottle on the beach; mama bear did not approve of him playing with that bottle!  She made a popping sound with her jaw and when the cub did not immediately respond to her instructions, she charged at him.  The cub immediately ran away from mama bear, and we laughed!

It was then that I realized I wasn’t afraid anymore; laughter had eased all our tensions and fears.  We remained vigilant and alert throughout the rest of our adventure, but we were no longer scared.  After watching this family of 4 bears for a while, we made our way up over the berm where driftwood lay scattered all around; grasses and flower grew up and over many of the logs and even trash on the upper part of the beach.  We spotted a large sow without a cub as she was being stalked by a massive male grizzly.  As Jo explained the typical stalking behavior of the bears, it was striking how they did exactly what she said they would do, walked around just like she said.  We then advanced on around the meadows where we found a large group of brown bears.  Some were just lying on the ground in small groups or even singly; one sow with her 2 cubs was walking near us – about 50 yards away. And suddenly, she stopped walking, laid down and the cubs began to nurse – right there in front of us.  It was such a special and amazing moment.  We sat down on a log and whispered among ourselves and took loads of photos.  I wondered just how many people ever get to see God’s creation like this?

cousin bears playing

mama bear in front and 2.5 year old cub following

one of their pawprints

one of the bear prints and my foot.... nearly the same size; I think this is one of the cubs' prints

digging for clams

the bears were not so sure about this funny machine on the beach....

bears are behind us... we had so much fun!

How many people get to see grizzlies nursing their young in their own habitat?

After hanging around for a while, we made our way back to the beach, where Roland and the plane were waiting.  Somehow, sometime, he had flown back in from his delivery.  He was just hanging out holding the plane in place, waiting for us.  We hiked back out into the cold ocean water and climbed aboard without incident.  This time, John and I were in the middle seats together; they handed us lunch plates and we began to chow down.  Flying back across Shelikof Strait, we saw more otters and whales; both of the whales were blowing, so Roland circled around for us to get a good look.  It was totally amazing!

This trip was a once-in-a-lifetime trip – totally amazing.  I will always remember this day and many of the quirky details of this day.  We hope you’ve enjoyed your virtual bear tour! 

Prepping to Leave Kodiak Island, Alaska

We have been packing, selling, and getting our rented house ready for its new owners.  Kitchen cabinets are empty, closets are empty, and the walls are bare.  Suitcases are packed up, memories carefully wrapped and protected and packaged for the 5,000 mile journey.  We loaded up our minimal possessions yesterday into our Ford truck and still have a little bit of room.  LOL

While we are thrilled to be heading to the Omaha area and spending lots more time with our daughter & her family, we are still saddened to say goodbye to this place.  Kodiak Island is an amazing place; it's beauty and scenery are 2nd to none, except to maybe a few other places here in Alaska.  The water, the waves, the wildlife.... all come together on this remote island to form beautiful landscapes that we'll treasure & remember for years. One of my childhood dreams was to visit Alaska; while studying social studies at Woodland Hills Baptist Academy, I can recall textbook photos and assigned readings about this place.  I'd never heard of tundra or Eskimos - I wanted to see this place; I wanted to know about the people that chose to live here.  I remember hearing the controversy surrounding the Alaskan pipeline - I didn't comprehend its need or impact, but I wanted to see it.  I learned about the Alaska Marine Highway and couldn't grasp how a highway could be over water.  Childhood perceptions seem kind of funny now that we've lived here, met native Alaskans (who do NOT appreciate the term Eskimo), and traveled the Marine Highway System -- it's a ferry system! LOL

We also have met some amazing people here on this little "rock" whom we will miss terribly.  From Coasties who have become family, to co-workers, I say farewell, yet am grateful to Facebook and technology so we can remain in touch.  And just maybe, one day we'll run across each other again somewhere...

Most of all, we already miss the babies; yesterday, was kind of emotional - nearly every Saturday, they came over to spend the night; we played in the hot tub, popped popcorn, made s'mores, watched movies, played cards, laughed, giggled, tickled, and enjoyed many special adventures.  But yesterday, our little house on this rock was empty of laughter and smiles.  We finished emptying rooms of things and found more emotional memories with each effort. I found myself just walking through a room now and then, listening for the laughter, hearing "MiMi" or "Poppy" being called out.  I heard faint echos of little bare feet on Sunday morning as they awakened and came sneaking down the hallway to see if it was time to get up.  I heard Emma Kate run through the house saying "hot tub hot tub hot tub" - probably one of her first phrases we could actually understand... She and the others LOVED the hot tub and we created tons of memories in that thing; even all winter long, we climbed in it and sang songs, told Bible stories, and just had fun.  

 Mill Bay Beach, Kodiak, Island, Alaska

Today is Sunday, and we only have a few days left here.  I'm reminiscing and emotionally beginning to experience closure to our life here.  I'm having a very hard time finding all the right words; amazing and awesome don't even come close to describing the life we've enjoyed here.  We know without a doubt, God put us here; it's been proven over and over again.  It's been rough a few times; from managing 2 households while Jade had EK in Anchorage for medical appts and Trip was off on the boat, to groceries not making it to the island on schedule, we've learned a lot of lessons that we'll carry with us.  We've learned to love people more; to appreciate people more.  We've learned that material possessions are not important - people are important.  We've learned that living far away from family is HARD and emotionally upsetting.  We've learned that family isn't always by blood.  We've learned to enjoy the simple things in life - spending time with one another is the single most important priority.  

And it is with THAT mentality that we are preparing to emotionally and physically leave Kodiak.  It's time to leave; we plan to make a lot of new memories and spend some time with some other very special friends along the way.  Be prepared for loads of photos both here on the blog and on FB; we'll try not to duplicate them all, but we have friends and adventures along our journey that we'd like to share with you.  It's time to leave, but it's also time to enter a new adventure with another set of grandkids; we can't wait to get to Omaha and make loads of new memories with Rai & Slade.  We hope you'll enjoy the story of our adventures.

We can't wait to see these precious babies in about 4 weeks!!! Hope they don't mind sharing their basement with MiMi & Poppy for a few weeks....LOL

Life In Kodiak - the Summary

Well, it’s been a long while since we updated the blog.  I figure I should get y’all caught up with life in Kodiak.  We moved over to the island last April, and it’s been non-stop with the 4 grands since we docked.  We arrived on the ferry on April 25, last spring, and Jade and I had pedicure appointments THAT day.  We spent the spring and summer enjoying the stunning Kodiak sunshine while getting settled in a wonderful rental house that actually found us.  We bought a slightly damaged dining room table and set out to refinish it.  Using a variety of paints and techniques, we repainted the tabletop and the benchtop and have received tons of compliments from everyone.  Jade came over and helped me hang LOADS of photos and our beloved Terry Redlin prints; she was determined to get them all placed “just right” and boy, it was fun getting it all done. 

Not long after we landed here, Jade & the kids make a trip back home to visit her family; we sure did miss them but the kids talked about that trip all year!  They love hanging out with ALL of the family, and they’ve stored many memories of their fun adventures.  But while they were gone, we enjoyed learning our way around Kodiak and Sig (their Doberman) kept us company.  One thing Jade learned, though, is “never leave MiMi in your own house anywhere around your birthday.”  We conjured up a massive surprise birthday party and surprised her upon her arrival home.  My big concern?  I was really afraid the next door neighbor would see me hauling off Jade’s pretty serving platters and send her a message that I was stealing her dishes.  LOL  TRULY, I was worried she would get wind of the surprise somehow. But she did not…. She walked in to loads of fun and surprises.  The kids LOVED yelling surprise to her. And bless his heart; Trip had totally forgotten it was about to happen.  She was on the phone with him when she walked in and couldn’t get words across.  Friends made the surprise unforgettable; I will treasure my kids’ military friendships forever!   

But then time to start school… so then we fashioned a somewhat flexible plan.  The kids had school through the week, and MiMi had to work Tuesday – Friday… soooo, they planned to spend most Saturday nights at our house.  We had loads of fun, movie nights, reading books, playing pretend, building forts, learning to play football, roasting marshmallows, and even a last weekend shebang – camping outside in the back yard.  The usual routine wa ‘s to play, craft, color, read, most of the Saturday afternoon along with outdoor play with neighborhood friends; they loved to jump on the trampoline (left by our landlord) and would often go to the end of the cul-de-sac to play on a buoy swing.  Many suppers were consumed on the back deck, even in the rain.  If no precipitation was falling, we usually jumped in the hot tub and played, before supper, showered, watched movies with popcorn and/or ice cream, then hit the sack for the night.   It didn’t take many weeks for the kids to expect the “routine” ice cream from Poppy, or occasional popped popcorn during movie nights.  So that became the norm…. school during the week and weekend fun at our place.  And then….. Christmas came….

Sarah, Kyle, Railyn & Slade came up for 10 days to celebrate an Alaskan Christmas.  We had such fun and made some terrific memories.  But of course, no trip would be the same without Mr. GI Bugg’s visit. So, as most of us played and celebrated, 1 of us at a time took turns sleeping the day away.  We enjoyed “kid wine” in cute little plastic wine glasses; we built a snowman; we made 50 sandwiches for the homeless shelter here in Kodiak; we finished craft items to help us celebrate; each child had their very own disposable camera for taking their own photos – that I STILL need to put into a Shutterfly book…. Oh well, we created tons of laughter, danced til we dropped, and hugged on kiddos for days!  We spent the winter equinox together – the darkest and longest of our Alaskan days – and enjoyed the kids’ smiles to warm our hearts!

Then, we found out that the duty extension the Trip had been told he could have – oh my…. My heart is sad – we found out the USCG would NOT allow the extension because of special medical needs for Emma Kate; she has some pretty serious food allergies and other health problems that require frequent specialist visits that are NOT available here on the island.  SOooooo, this news really rocked our world; we had moved to Kodiak, planning to be here 2-3 years and now that was changing.  At first, we really thought that we would go ahead and stay here, but that idea began to take a stressful toll oh my emotions.  So, we made the decision to leave “the Rock” as well.  But, where would we go?  We had been planning to be here for a while longer, so the “next place” hadn’t really been explored.  After much prayer and discussion, along with some job hunting, we decided to move near Sarah.  After all, we’d spent 1 year with Adam & Kimberlee within 30 minutes, then a year with Trip/Jade 15 minutes away; shouldn’t it be Sarah & Kyle’s turn now? 

Once this decision was made, we had to get busy selling off our belongings; it’s a bit difficult to get items here and so we had NO desire to take many things with us out.  Poppy had bought a cool fishing boat last summer; we had a 4 wheeler & plow and other household possessions we had to sell.  Selling the boat was harder than I thought it would be; I only went out in it a couple times, but it sure was fun and relaxing! I learned to drive this 4 wheeler so I could plow our driveway in Kenai the 2 years we lived there, so getting rid of it also hurt my feelings a little.  But once again, my life’s mantra echoed in my mind, “relationships are more important than things” and I kept repeating it…. As we sold off dishes, frames, fabrics, sewing machines, threads, the refinished dining table, towels, and bed, we began to reminisce of the fun and memories we’d made here.  We KNEW we’d been here for the right time, the right reasons, and the right purpose.  We’d kept the big kids when Emma Kate had appointments in Anchorage, we kept them when Trip was unexpectedly hospitalized with massive complications following a simple knee surgery; we were here to help in a myriad of ways and we enjoyed every minute.  The memories we carry with us as we prepare to leave here are so very special and we treasure them deeply. 

We sometimes talk about “what if” and we have no idea how things would have worked out if we hadn’t been here – and they would have… the military families that our kids meet are amazing people! They become such close-knit “family” and truly do love and care for one another, as if they ARE blood-kin – because they are.  They are knitted together with the bonds of families who are able to choose their members, glued together by the distance of other family members, and welded together by the Red, White, & Blue!

All our belongings have been sold; our clothes are in suitcases.  We are shopping for a Class A RV and a lot for full-time living in the Bellevue/Plattsmouth area South of Omaha, near Sarah & her family.  We have said goodbye to half the kids here; and yes, we miss them terribly.  But we are getting really excited for new adventures yet to come.  Follow along on our journey to see how it goes.