World Eskimo Olympics, North Pole, and FAMILY!!!

The nice thing about flying into Alaska in the summer from Palm Springs is the temperature drop--oh, was it fabulous. As we boarded the plane in Palm Springs, they gave the entire lecture of "do what you can to keep things cool in here." I landed in Fairbanks (after hitting San Francisco, then Seattle) to 72 degrees and beautiful. The Fairbankians (or whatever they call themselves) were complaining about the heat wave. I guess if your standard temperature for half the year is -40, you might complain about 72 degrees. My plane landed, I got off, got my luggage, and looked around. No family. I thought--maybe they're outside. No family. 15 minutes later, no family. Just then, Reagan left the building. Evidently, we missed each other by moments. We had dinner in the "northern most Denny's in the world" (pretty cool, eh?) and went to the World Eskimo Olympics.

My family knows me pretty well--I'm a rather anal-retentive sort of person; after all, I'm an accountant. Let's just say that the time schedule for the World Eskimo Olympics did not match my idea of "efficient" use of time. However, it was really cool. Thank goodness we missed the seal-skinning competition. I've included a picture of our favorite event--the one-leg Alaskan kick. It came from the days that the Eskimos would go whale hunting. When they needed extra people to help with the kill, they'd kick one foot high in the air to notify everyone to come out. Think the Karate Kid kick--the person has to kick off of one foot, with that same foot kick a ball approximately 9 feet in the air, and then land back on that foot. it was amazing. We also saw a dancing competition--the kids and DJ got into the free dance portion--it was very funny to see them doing the dances--Tre' loved it the most! DJ also helped in the toss--basically, 50 guys held a large stretched walrus skin "trampoline" and bounced someone in the air--like 20-30 feet in the air. He said the skin smelled.

I've also included pictures of the family that rescued the trekkers on the Dalton Highway. We went to church with them and then over to their house (which was built without plans, permits, etc.--true Alaskan spirits!) for dinner. We stayed in North Pole, AK, and so, of course, had to visit Santa's house. The girls pretended to be reindeer.