Tues, June 17, 2008

Hi, this is Phyllis tonight.
We are still in Anchorage tonight. It was really kind of an uneventful day if you count sightseeing. We spent a while this morning securing rooms for the next four nights. This took quite a lot of time. After knowing that we had a room in Seward for tomorrow evening, we booked an 8 hour marine tour for Thursday. Maybe we will see some whales, otters, etc., but if the word gets out among the CRITTERS that we are coming, we may not .
We knew that there were people here in Anchorage that we knew ,so this was our day to make contact. First we called Gavin and Alecia Gardner. Gavin is stationed here at the Elmendorf Air Force Base. Alecia and the children met us for lunch. What a special family. Nehemia will be in first grade, Evelyn will be in kindergarden, and Lilian is probably about 1 1/2. Alecia took us on a tour of the Base, where she always sees wild life, and the word got out and there were none. We got to see Gavin briefly, since he was busy with an inspection.
Later me met Melody Paynter. Her parents used to be the youth pastors at the Nazarene Church in Osky. Melody is a nanny for a family here in Anchorage and does some stage management at some of the local theaters. We had dairy (aka ice cream) at a neat place downtown. It was good to visit with Melody and get caught up on her life.
The scenery here in Anchorage is spectatular, with mountains all around. The only problem is that it NEVER gets dark, at least until we are fast asleep. They will celebrate the solstice this weekend, which is the longest day of sunlight. By winter, the sun barely rises about the horizon. This has been a really good day and was nice to spend some down time. I'm sure there will be lots of exciting things to see tomorrow on the way to Seward.
Thanks for you continued prayers and we love to read YOUR comments, so keep them coming.