The Time Has Come

I am still in Alaska, loving it here.
Coming to some life changing decisions, thoughts and emotions.
I have always been open on this blog, this space has allowed me to vent, to say the silly, the pointless and the blunt; today was the most emotionally draining day I may have ever experienced in my short, messed up little life and because of it I am saying goodbye.
Goodbye to this space on the web.
I may be back, I may not; until then I take this next step in my life with faith because it is a step I do not want to take.
But I will.
I must.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart-
Love from Cold Bay,
Michelle

PS my trip has been great and if you are ever by the house I'd love to share it with you; if you get a chance to visit the Aleutians islands I highly suggest you do

Cold Bay At Last

I left home at 5am eastern time on Sunday morning and flew 5.5 hours to San Francisco.
A friend picked me up and we grabbed brunch at a local place in the city and then headed out for a 5 hour tour of the city of 14 hills.
Pacific Ocean,
the Castro,
Golden Gate Bridge,
the Mission,
murals, murals and more beautiful murals.
I bought sour dough bread, put my feet in the waters of the far west coast and drove down the crookedest street.

By the time we finished I felt like I had been in motion for most of my life. 3 days before leaving for this trip we had wrapped up our family vacation to Busch Gardens Tampa- home of the greatest roller coasters in Florida!!!

Arriving back in the San Francisco airport I cleverly made my way into the short security line, befriending some people who were suppose to be in that line, I did great at passing as part of their party.

Off again I went this time with Anchorage, Alaska on my mind.

Joanna picked me up and I just kept saying, 'It's so pretty", "Look at the mountain" and "I can't believe I'm here". The sun didn't set until well past my 11pm bedtime, 3am according to my east coast body; and I was wide awake at 5:15.

Monday consisted of some great geocaching, a visit to Hatcher's Pass and a nice walk around the quaint town of Palmer, AK.

Then, Tuesday morning I was headed back to Anchorage for my flight to Sand Point and on to Cold Bay!

Finally, I've been wanting to make this trek since my cousin moved here 5 years ago. The boarding process onto my Penn Air flight consisted of an id check, a tarmac walk and boarding a small Saab prop plane; similar to one I flew into Warsaw, Wisconsin in with my dad over 25 years ago. 2 seats on one side of the plane, 1 seat on the other- you now the type of plane where they ask your weight and take the weight of your carry on's.

The flight was cloudy so the views were somewhat blocked, landing in Sand Point was neat, the mountains falling into the sea are just beautiful no matter the level of clouds they reach up and hide in.

Cold Bay was even more exciting, my heat raced, my eyes teared up- I was finally going to get to spend some life time with my family in this Alaska bush town of 80 people.

I was greeted as I exited the plane with Shane on the other side of the fence and a truck pulling in honking it's horn- that's Molly I thought and sure enough it was! So different from the whistle blowing business of the Orlando airport.

Within and hour I had purchased an Alaska sport fishing license and 4 hours after stepping foot in Cold Bay I was out in a boat in the actual bay pulling up Tanner crab pots.

Yes! A bucket list item crossed off- I got to crab fish, I could hear the Deadliest Catch music playing in the back ground as I pulled the pot toward the boat and to the joy of my heart it was full of crab!
I caught my daily limit.


I saw some puffins, seagulls and landscape from the pages of National Geographic

We boiled crab in the town garage next door and enjoyed the fellowship of 10-15 of the locals as we tore into the best tasting, freshest crab I'd ever layed my taste buds into.

Then by 9pm I was snuggled in bed- looking forward to my first full night of sleep in 4 days.


I am working on getting my pictures uploaded, no Internet on my phone here- although I do have texting; so I hope to get those up for you to enjoy.


Until then the agenda for today is a walk to the store and Post Office.
I am here, finally and already looking into finding Steve and I jobs.

Cold hands, Warm heart, love 2 u all from Cold Bay-

Today thru Tuesday

Today I will start here:

then I will spend 6 hours here with Steve's cousin:
Then I will arrive here and stay for 48 hours with a long lost friend:
Then I will fly to this runway for a 25 minute layover:
Finally I will arrive at my destination, here:
You'll have to stay tuned for where all the "here's" are, or maybe you're good with photos, anyone have guesses as to where each stop is?

My Head is Still Spinning

We survived Busch Gardens,

we enjoyed the Montu,

Gwazi, Sheikra, the Scorpin, Kumba, Cheetah Hunt,

we rode the Sky Ride,

touched kangaroos,

saw Tigers pounce,

monkeys swing

and elephants dance;

we swan each night in our pool,

watched movies,

ate food

then we woke up and did it all again the next day.

Now here we all are-- in cartoon form.

I Turned the Car Around Today

With Detroit on my mind more and more I can't seem to get the picture of homelessness out of my mind.

I can't seem to get the picture of homelessness out of my face.

There is this one homeless guy who I owe $10 to, not because he asked but because I felt God telling me to give it to him but my fears held me back.

Then there's Buck the homeless guy we've been friends with for 4 years now.

But today.

Today I stopped for a homeless lady, actually turned the car around, pulled over and sat next to her on the side of the street.

Along with her "Anything helps" sign.

Kind of weird and humbling sitting there- "who is driving by, do they know me, if they don't what do they think of me, will the stuff over in my car get stolen..."

my mind was all over the place, but then I focused in on her.

We shook hands.

Her name was Colorado,

I had to ask and dig for a real name because I thought that was more polite than asking for her gender.

Seems like homeless women can fit 1 of three roles on the streets,

#1: they are a girlfriend to somebody else on the street,

#2: they are "all girl" and have the goods to sell for it or

#3: they try their best to blend in and by blending that usually means being more non-gender.

She fit the third.

After awhile of talking she said she had to go, she had to get back to work; which meant "get out of here lady".

Then I did what I do all the time in Detroit but rarely do here in my own backyard: I asked how I could pray for her, if I could pray for her. She was receptive for me to pray for her away on my own for whatever I felt like; afterall she said, "All prayers are heard"

I left it like that.

The I asked what else I could do with no money in my pocket-

"a small coffee", she asked- "I'm falling asleep over here"

I was persistent about food and she finally also asked for a fish sandwich from McD's.

When I showed back up she was surprised I came back.
We chatted some more, I got some info on other practical ways I could help her and I was on my way.

I drove away,

my heart hurting, my mind playing the time over in my head-

she had wreaked of booze,

she was nodding off,

her sign torn and battered as if it had survived a crab season on the Bering Sea;

but her eyes,

her eyes were the eyes of a human soul,

a women longing for love,

for a friend,

for more than what she was currently doing each day.

For Jesus,

she was is starving for Jesus, the real one, the Healer- oh that is my prayer for Colorado that she would meet the Healer face to face and be forever changed.

So what about you- is there anyone less fortunate you need to stop and say hi to?

Any homeless person you see on a regular basis?

Go ahead, introduce yourself, lend a hand.

Matthew 25:35

New American Standard Bible

For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;

Another Round

Another round of pictures.

Vaughan is such a good dad, I couldn't help but sneak a peak this morning as he was getting her changed and dressed.

Then later that morning here she is with mom.
Doing some serious teething on Papou's finger.
The last night of youth several students dressed up, here was Justin's outfit.
I saw that a local geocache had been missing and then replaced-- I was excited to be the FTF (first to find) on the new cache.
Oh and Justin got his hair cut.

Before:
After:
My cousin came into town for a day and we went to the Farmer's Market with my nana, here she was in her trademark long sleeve and hat.
My brother-in-law and sister-in-law came into town with their new little one, he is 3 weeks older than Illana.
So that's the latest form the iPhone picture roll.

I'm going to try to blog a little more over these next couple of busy weeks.