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-
