We left Stebbins this morning where I had a record day on Saturday when I did 36 eye exams in one day. I was pretty worn out after that. We are now in St. Michaels staying in the old school. We are set up in the gym. We will just sleep on matresses on the floor in some of the old classrooms. I rode in the back of a pickup truck between Stebbins and St. Michaels this morning with all our gear. It's August, but it was still really cold. It was also raining a little which didn't help. It was a nice ride though with part of it along the coast of Norton Sound. On Wednesday we will head to our last village, Unalakleet for two days then I will head back to civilization.

Alaska....Again

So here I am back in Alaska again. I flew into anchorage after one night in Seattle and checked in with Penair airlines for a flight to Unalakleet and then had a flight scheduled from Unalakleet to Koyuk. We arrived in Unalakleet and they unloaded all the baggage onto a wooden pallet and everyone dug through the pile next to the plane to find their bags. Our bags and a few other peoples were not there. We went into the terminal and were told that they didn't have room for all the bags and ours got bumped. They said "don't worry they will probably come in on tomorrows flight". This was a problem since we were supposed to fly to a different village, also all of our clothes and sleeping gear were not there. Our next flight was with Frontier so we headed over there and told them our bags were still in Anchorage at Penair. They said they would call and send someone over to pick them up and they could be flown in on the afternoon Frontier flight, but we would have to pay freight charges (about $300) We said go for it. So we wandered around Unalakleet all day. I walked down by the river and watched the fisherman heading out. I also watched a native hanging a bunch of fish strips up to dry. We wandered back over to Frontier later that day when the afternoon flight came in and they took us to the back and there were half our bags only! So we still couldn't move on to Koyuk. This was one whole day wasted. We eventually got our bags the next day and made it to Koyuk, then on to Elim which right by some very nice ocean cliffs. I took some time and walked along the cliffs and got soaked in the process. Now we are in a village called Stebbins and I am just sitting around waiting for people to come in for eye exams. The building we are in has fast wireless internet, but no running water and the bathroom is a honeybucket with a toilet seat on it. Only in Alaska.

This weekend for the 4th of July we drove up to Idaho to visit my parents. We stayed in their camp trailer. Jeremy and Jaxson thought that was pretty fun. We went to the parade in Soda Springs and the boys collected a huge amount of candy. Later we went fishing at Alexander reservoir and we caught a bunch of small perch. That night we shot off our own fireworks on the deck of my parent's house. Today we drove up into the mountains and went fossil hunting. We actually found a few good specimens. The real drama started when we got home and found a tick on Jeremy. He really freaked out and says he will never go outside again.

I got back from Alaska this morning after flying all night. It is VERY good to be home. I hadn't seen Alison and the boys for almost 4 weeks, so it was great to have today to just hang out at home. The weekend prior to this last Alaska trip I went to Seattle to see the sights. I just thought I would share some pics of the trip.

Alaska Eye Care

Eye care in remote Alaskan villages is interesting. I just saw a 13 year old girl for her first eye exam. She couldn't even see the the big "E" on the chart. Her first pair of glasses will be a real "eye opener" for her. Yesterday I found a full thickness macular hole in a woman which is a hole in the retina right over the central seeing part of the retina. I explained to her that she needed to see a specialist in Anchorage. She said that maybe sometime in August or September she could go to Anchorage. I had to explain for quite a while that this was not something to wait several months for. I also had a lady yesterday with advanced glaucoma. She was not using her glaucoma medication because she needed to go to the clinic in Bethel for a new prescription. I explained to her that she needed to make this a priority as she could go blind from glaucoma. I also had a man yesterday with dense cataracts in each eye. He will also need to fly to Anchorage for surgery. It is much harder for the villagers to get care for health problems. They can't just drive to the doctor. They have to take a bush plane to Bethel which will usually stop at a few villages along the way, then a jet from Bethel to Anchorage. They usually will also have to stay overnight in Anchorage before returning home, so it is a lot of time and expense just to go see a doctor. They are usually very happy that we travel out to their village.

Kotlik

Today I am in Kotlik, Alaska which is located on the Yukon river. This is a boardwalk village so there are no roads, just boardwalks running through the village. Everyone walks, bikes or rides 4 wheelers on the boardwalks. There are no cars in the entire village. This time of year there are tons of huge mosquitoes so walking outside is pretty rough. The salmon run is going on right now so much of the village is out fishing, so things are a little slow as far as doing eye exams. We are set up in the school so I have internet, but the boilers are turned off in the school so no heat or warm water. Yesterday I took a walk along the river on a boardwalk. There are small boats lining the shore and lots of fish hanging to dry behind houses. It stays light here almost all the time so the kids stay up really late playing outside. I usually go to bed by midnight and there are always lots of young kids still outside running around. We had to charter a flight in the morning to our next stop, Mountain Village. The flight is about 20 minutes, but cost $750 since it is a charter. Food at the little grocery stores here is also very expensive. Yesterday my one bag of groceries cost $77. We have already been in Alakunuk and Emmonak on this trip, which are also along the Yukon. In Emmonak we stayed in the Emmonak "hotel" It is an old two story building with the bingo hall and city offices on the first floor and some really dirty rooms on the upper floors. We paid $105 dollars a night for the rooms. I talked to one villager who told me he remembers this building being built when he was a child in the 70's. He said it was the only two story building in town and he thought it was "the biggest building in the world".

St George trip

We took a really fun trip to St. George this past weekend with my family. We rented a house with a pool and did some 4 wheeling, mountain biking, and went to Bryce Canyon.

Alaska

I recently took a two week trip to Alaska to provide eyecare in the native villages in the Alaska bush. I traveled to 5 villages including Barrow, which is the farthest north town in the United States. It was a very interesting trip. We would fly in small planes and land on dirt runways and set up clinic in the village. We visited a couple of villages that did not even have running water. No showers, and I was introduced to the "honey bucket", also long nights on the floor with my thermarest mattress and sleeping bag. It was fun to be within the Arctic Circle in the summertime because it was as light as day all night long. Check out the video of a plane we were in landing on a dirt runway.

Colorado Springs Trip

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to the Pikes Peak area in Colorado Springs for a reunion of Alison's family. We drove to the top of Pikes Peak, went to the garden of the Gods, visited cliff dwellings and lots of other things. We stayed in a little cabin in Manitou Springs and the boys loved swimming in the pool each day. On the drive home we went through Aspen which was a beautiful drive through lots of tall mountains. We stopped at one vista where you could see six peaks at once that were all over 14,ooo feet. The Colorado Springs area has a lot of of things to see and do which makes for a fun road trip.

Cruisin!

Alison and I went on our first cruise this summer for our ten year wedding anniversary. We left from Los Angeles and went down to Mexico. We ate way too much, but had a good time.

Jeremy and Jaxson caught there first fish this weekend! Jeremy caught a nice carp and jaxson caught a little tiny perch! They both wanted to take the fish home as pets.

Mountain Biking

I've recently found a new hobby in mountain biking. I mostly have gone to Moab with friends to hit all the famous trails there. It's been a lot of fun to experience new trails each time. One trail was uphill for seven miles which was a beast but we saw dinosour footprints in the stone along some cliffs and hiked up to some high cliffs that overlooked Arches National Park. The ride down was awesome and we flew down the trail for seven miles!

Backyard Patio

My official summer project was to put in a patio in the backyard. It turned out surprisingly well as Alison and I did all the work. Check out the before and after pics. Now we will have to have everyone over for a BBQ!

Jumping on the Bandwagon

So, I have a bunch of friends that have all started blogs. It's actually pretty cool to see the posts and keep up with them a little better. So, now It's my turn. Check back for updates!