Hey Tribe,
How was that title rhyme?! It's true though, we did travel up to the Arctic Circle to the village of Kotzebue for several days: we saw some wonderful Alaskan landscape and made some wonderful Alaskan friends.
We were deployed there for a search mission and were honored to be able to assist in bringing the family and community some closure. I will not write about the mission, but I would like to share our travel experience, because it has been a memorable trip and I am very proud of my Fly girl.
This was Fly's first time flying in cabin and she was an excellent travel companion. Airline travel spacing meant we had an entire row to ourselves: Fly took advantage by stretching full out on the floor to better look up and down the aisle; she also put her front paws on my lap so she could look out the window. Do you think she wondered why I rudely didn't roll the window down for her?
Kotzebue is picturesquely situated along the ocean's shore and the first day we were there we enjoyed lovely sunrise/sunset pink coloring across the ice. On the second and third days we saw herds of caribou crossing the Sound, but I was too busy to get photos of them.
"Windy" is the primary word that has always come to mind when I hear the name 'Kotzebue' and I was not misguided: it is indeed a very windy place and endures countless blizzards during the winter months - one of which we experienced first hand, though it mercifully began to dissipate as we ventured out for the day.
The Kotzebue fire station hosted us during our stay and the entire crew was welcoming and made us feel right at home after we worked so hard each day.
New smells abounded in the garage, including 3 caribou that a crew member pulled in to butcher while we were there. Fly loved exploring our home away from home.
There was a funny moment one evening at the fire station: Fly had been looking out the window while standing on a table (agility dog that she is) when she turned around and noticed a mannequin baby - as a lover of small humans, she had to go investigate and gave baby a kiss to cheer him.
In the mornings, before most of the village was active and rapping around on snowmachines, we would go for walks on the lake.
The cold is pervasive above the Arctic Circle, especially if you enjoy running and rolling in the snow, but it makes the air so crisp and clear.
Sunrises are completely worth bundling up and getting outside for a lake wander - especially since they don't occur until around 10am! It's wondrous how the colors could be so pink in one direction and so yellow in the other direction. Fly didn't care, she was more interested in digging for the fish that were buried under the snow - the ice fishers forgot some of their catch.
The sunset on the hour and a half flight home was equally glorious. It was a fitting end to our Kotzebue deployment. I hope to one day return to Kotz for pleasure, so we can fully explore the area and see more of the beautiful scenery and people.
No comments:
Post a Comment