Moose roast, polar plunge, fish heads, walking on glaciers and more!

Top of the morning to you all!!! Yesterday was an amazing day! We landed in Alaska around midnight and were met by our team leaders Cassandra and Joan. En route to the church where we would be staying they have us the information about the plans for tomorrow morning. We would need to be up by 6am, and then pack up all of our stuff (air mattresses and bedding included) and be out of the church by 6:45 so that the church members could come on and set up for their Sunday services. Upon arrival at the church we were shown to a little room where Diana and I were told the two empty beds were. We opened the door and someone is sleep talking "mom I wish that I could go to..." Awesome. We fumbled in the dark for the two empty beds and tried to go to sleep. I was a bit disoriented walking into a dark room, not knowing how many people were in there and who they were. I think my evolutionary instincts kicked in and I had a hard time falling asleep. At 5:54 Cassandra storms into our room, flings on the lights, sings "good morning" and closes the door. Uh... I still had 6 minutes to sleep yo! I got to meet my roommates... Christina and Michelle (the talker). We rushed around packing stuff up and I tried to dig through my suitcase for all the things we would need for the day (we wouldn't be allowed to return to the church until after 5pm. We left and went to the habitat affiliate for breakfast. The hosts (the people who live here in town) are Leslie and Bob. Leslie is SUPER organized and really passionate about her work. They quit their jobs as teachers 20 years ago and went to work for HFH (Habitat). Their job was to SET UP all the global affiliates that I have had the pleasure to visit! They really were the ground breakers for HFH international. Wow. Bob spent the day with us and man is he an adventurer! He told us all kind of stories about the 4 months he kayaked around Alaska and how he worked for two years teaching Russian Orthodox people in the Alaskan wilderness. You name it, this man has done it. 

We took the day to get to know a bit more about Alaska and do some touring. We started at a place wherewe learned about bears and what to do WHEN we encounter them. Yep, you read that right... Not IF we encounter them but WHEN. Gulp. Here's the basic gist... Black bears=try to look big and powerful until they back down. Brown bears= start praying and try to give them a wide berth. Black bear attacks you=fight back (uh... Not sure how that works). Brown bear=curl into a ball on the ground and pray that he only gnaws through your butt. Uh, got it. I think. Unfortunately I've never seen a bear in person though and apparently brown bear cubs looks similar to the black bears (which are smaller). Fingers crossed that I just don't need to use the info. We saw a pretty waterfall and then went and had sack lunches by the water/inlet. Anchorage is on an inlet between the mainland and the Kenai peninsula. During high tide/low tide the water level can change up to 30 feet!! Yikes!! This rise and fall happens twice a day. When the tide is out it almost looks like you can walk (or drive) across the muck to get to the Kenai peninsula. Bob assured us that this is NOT possible. The muck is like quicksand and will suck you in. If it doesn't suck you in, the rising tide will kill ya since you can't move. He told us that happened last year to a newlywed couple on their honeymoon. Only one made it out :( 

After lunch we drove further south to Portage lake. It's a glacial lake and the glacier is still up above it. Bob shared with us some information about salmon in the river that connects with the lake and we even saw one come up to the surface. He was saying that the amount of salmon is so dense that you can literally walk into the river at certain times and get bumped around constantly by them swimming past you. Bob had asked us to bring out swimsuits with us for the day and we changed into them. It was time for our polar plunge!!  Eek!!! The water was this beautiful ice blue color. ICE!! On the count of three about half of us ran full speed into the lake. Holy guacamole batman was that water cold! The first sensation feels like pins and needles all over your skin. The next moment your brain kicks in and says "get me the hell out of here!" I swam hurriedly back to shore and ran up to grab a towel.

After a few frozen moments your skin suddenly feels like it's on fire. It's warm and tingly. Kinda nice actually. Bob then informed us that this is one of the "warmer lakes" where they do the polar Plunge. A balmy 41 degrees. 

After the plunge we continued further south and parked at a trailhead. We hiked about 1.5 miles and ended up at the most amazing glacier!! We were able to climb on it, feel it's coolness and see two caves with crevasses. Really cool. Literally! 

We started heading back to the hotel but there was an accident on the road. And when there is only one road, and only one lane, you're in for a long wait. 

When we got back to the church we were met with many of the church members (they had prepared our dinner for us). They were very sweet and wanted to know all about us. I was pretty exhausted as I'd only slept about. 3hrs the night before and we'd had a busy day. I did my best to be entertaining ;) 

Some of the foods were local delicacies so OF COURSE I had to try them!!! Moose roast and Smoked salmon fish head!! The moose roast was good, not really my thing though. The fish head was unbelievable!! It was SO good!!!! It takes like smoked salmon but a thousand times better. Only a few team members tried it and the guy who brought it came over (impressed!) and talked with Diana and I for awhile. 

An early night to bed and up early this morning to head to the worksite. I'll try to write more tomorrow about our work days ;) have a good night!