Chris and Sheila left this morning after a week of fun here. Sheila is the sister of my late friend from grad school, Jimmy, who made me feel most welcome among his family during my 2 years in Mississippi. Chris was Jimmy’s best friend growing up.
Dropped them off at the airport shortly after 3 am for their 5 am Delta flight to Seattle. Wheeled in their fish box and it was dialed in at the maximum 50 lbs on the nose, which was not surprising given the week they’d had.
Every day was exceptional for them.
- We took a ride with Larry to Tenakee and back and saw humpback whales bubblenet feeding.
- We caught 13 coho salmon in a day, then saw orcas on the way home.
- We took a ride to Haines with Larry and Roy showed them around town and we saw the cranky sea lions hauled out on the way home.
- We caught a pile of crab and overnighted at our cabin eating all the crab we could for dinner, then picked the rest.
- They took some walks and drives around town, and saw a sow black bear with cubs, went up the tram and climbed further up Mount Roberts, and they loved the whale statue park.
Yesterday, we drove out the road and stopped at the Shrine of St Therese, and they did some praying in the church, walked around the stations of the cross, and then Sheila walked around the labyrinth. Chris explained to me what a Columbarium is. On the way home, we were running low on electric for the car, and luckily Sara was also in the same area, so I plugged my car in at a station, jumped in with her and we all went over to Zarelda’s to order take out, then I took her car to get ice for fishing from Chris, dropped it back at my car, and when I returned to pick them up they came out with food in hand. I added leftover salmon to my vegetarian curry and it was excellent.
We learned a lot about the Methodist Church from these two ministers, and interesting to hear about their different congregations in Mississippi and their daughter’s in Atlanta. Also how long term a “mission” can be, as they spent 10 years at a site just helping to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, and now are headed back to see what the situation is with Ida, that passed through their area when they were here.