Well, we finally arrived in Alaska! We first got to Anchorage around midnight on the 3rd. I had previously booked a hotel room for one night before we were able to check in to the hotel that the school paid for. We had someone from the hotel come and pick us up in really ghetto minivan...super scary already....then we get to our hotel....woah was it in the WRONG part of town. I wish I had taken pictures for everyone to understand how scary this place was...but I was just trying to keep one hand on Tucker and the other on our bags so no one jacked them. We would have gotten another hotel, but it was SO late by the time we got our bags and finally got to the hotel that we just decided to tough it out. Greg took first watch... We woke up that morning and got ready to go to church at the Anchorage C of C and checked out of the hotel!!! Woo Hoo! Called a cab to get to church and went to service....service was good...ended up meeting an old friend who went to Cascade College while I was at Columbia. It was good to see her, and she even offered us a place to stay during Christmas break! Super nice of her. But all the people at church were very nice and wished us well out in the bush...
We checked into our hotel that the school provided after getting a ride back in the church van. The hotel was so nice!! We dropped all 85 of our bags off at the hotel and went to work! We started off our shopping extravaganza at Wal-Mart. I went alone and Greg and Tucker stayed at the hotel to sleep. I didn't take any pictures because I was in beast-shopping mode. BUT, I will say I definitely spent A LOT of money. Shopping in Wal-Mart in Alaska is different because they have what is called a "bush" order spot in the back of the store. You can literally push your entire cart full of all your stuff to the back, fill out a piece of paper, put it in your cart and walk away. They pack it up and ship it for you, I love America..home of lazy humans. The next day we all went to Sam's club to buy our bulk stuff. Here's a few pics from that...

We left Anchorage the day after...not too many tourist things...but I did get a few pics of our plane rides...or should I say our "stick of gum" rides because the planes were SO small!!!!

Flight from Anchorage to St. Mary's. This flight had a bathroom!

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 Tucker cruising the aisles

 I thought it was cool that there was a girl pilot-- so we needed a picture with her!

 St. Mary's runway...looks like Portland!

 Tucker making friends with a lady who is going to Marshall with her husband who is a teacher. They are from around Highland, AR!!

 Tucker making more friends..

 Ok, here is the huge plane we rode on to Alakanuk...Mom was a little nervous.

 Here we all are! Almost to Alakanuk!

 Landed!

Safe and sound.