Well we made it back home to Willmar just shy of 11:00 pm Tuesday night. We arrived in Minneapolis right on time at 7:25 and got our luggage and off to Willmar. We were met by Lisa, Chad, Gail, Sue, Mike, Jen, Chris, and Grant. The kids were just as glad to see their parents as the parents were to see there kids.
Monday was our last full day in Alaska and we kind of winded down. We slept in since no one was interested in driving to far from Chugiak. So we ventured off to Wasilla and ate at the Red Robin, the burgers are so big there the kids pretty much left in a food coma. We then did some final souvenir shopping and picked up just a couple of things for remainder of the trip. We then ventured over for some ice cream. Just as the man in Whittier said it was delicious.
On our way back we stopped in Eklunta at a Russian Orthodox historical site. St. Nicholas Orthodox Church was set up in the mid 1800's by the Russian Railroad Workers. The mingled then with the local Athabascan tribe and formed a village an a church. The original log cabin was there from that time as well as the new church that was built by Athabascan Chief Mike Alex. There was service there that evening at 5:00 to commemorate St.Herman of Alaska's canonization of being named a saint. Each year around August 7th people make a pilgrimage to Kodiak Island to honor this day. Also, all the Russian Orthodox churches celebrate this. We were able to have our own tour guide who actually grew up in New Ulm tell us all about this. He also introduced us to Father Mike who was getting ready to conduct the service and asked many questions from the kids about the Russian Orthodox faith. We then toured the cemetery where they bury their dead in Spirit Houses. Each Spirit House is painted with a theme to represent the family. So when you go through you can easily identify each family.
After we departed, Laura took us to Eklunta Lake Park. It is located back in the mountain range and has very pretty and peaceful lake which we all spent some time together as a group.
We then went back to the church and had dinner as a group, packed up for tomorrow and watched a movie as a group and off to bed.
We got up and ate breakfast and cleaned up behind us and off to Anchorage Airport.
It was a great trip with great people and we created a lifetime of memories and hopefully we made some connections that also will last a lifetime. I felt truly blessed to be a part of this mission trip.
I hope you have enjoyed these updates as much as I have writing them.
No comments:
Post a Comment