bird's eye view

"There is no one like the God of Jeshurun,
who rides on the heavens to help you
and on the clouds in his majesty."

Deuteronomy 33:26

One of my favorite parts (as if there's a non favorite part) of serving in Alaska is the "getting there" part. The flight to AK is so cool! The sun has never set on a flight I've taken to Anchorage. This is a good thing because the closer you get to landing, the better the scenery below you is to behold.
Only one out of three flights has it been too cloudy to take in the snow covered mountains and glacier blue ice as we flew over them. I love how you can be looking at the clouds and see one off in the distance that doesn't quite look right...only to realize that "pointed" cloud is actually a snow capped mountain. The first sighting of a "pointed cloud" still brings out the kid in me. I know what's coming next and I sit up and watch out the window until my neck gets a kink in it and I have to rest a moment...all the while hoping I won't miss anything while I'm looking away. :)

As the clouds break, this scene opens up below with mountains grandeur, glaciers magnificent, and snow abundant. I've seen no other view quite like it.
On my flight I had a Native American couple in the two seats beside me. We chatted off and on throughout the trip. In our conversation it came out that this was only the second time she had been out of the state of Alaska. I'm only guessing, but I would say she was mid 50's...this means she is averaging a trip to the lower 48 once every 25 years or so. That's something, isn't it? It's not an uncommon thing, though, for truly Native Alaskans anyway. I learned that there are villagers that never leave their village, not even for a flight into another village or city in Alaska. That blows my mind.

As we landed, the gentleman was looking out the window and pointing out different mountains and points of interest. I smiled to myself as some of the names rang a bell with me and I knew of what he was referring. It was nice landing to sunshine, big time!
They both seemed very happy to be back...the woman looked at me and sighed, "It's good to see the mountains again."
I couldn't agree more.