Our Crazy Site Visit to Sitka, AK

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for the Boardman family. Between site visits for jobs, the wrapping up of our internship here, preparing for some unknown destination to move to, it's been somewhat stressful. On Saturday, July 18th, the South East Alaska Health Consortium (SEARHC) flew Debbie and I out for a 2 day interview process( we were there for 3, traveling for 2). But, let me back up. My parents agreed to watch our 3 children while we went to this adventure. We haven't been without our kids for that long for 6 1/2 years... since we've had children. So we are sincerely grateful for the sacrifce of my parents to give us this opportunity to check if Sitka would be a viable option for our family... as well as get a long-overdue break from our darling kiddies! :)

We groggily wandered off our runway gate in Sitka at 12:30 am to find the Bishop and his wife waiting there! We had no idea we'd be welcomed so warmly at such an early hour. I'm sure we looked awful, but at the end of an 9 hour flight with 2 lay overs, we rightly didn't care. They led us to our hotel and we promised that we'd be there at church at 10 am... perhaps they showed up at the airport to make sure we'd attend our meeting! :)

We went to church and found it was made entirely of cedar, with a log cabin look, yet it was enormous. When you walk in, the air is filled with a crisp cedar smell, as if you opened a long forgotten cedar chest. It was amazing. It was a ward there and we were welcomed right away. After church, they had a potluck in our behalf and most of the ward members stayed afterwards to meet us and eat! Crazy huh? It was a bit overwhelming, yet quite touching.

We then went to check out the island of 8500 inhabitants, 14 miles of paved road. Our first stop was the Whale park nestled in a forest of cedars on the edge of a bay.















It had lookout gazebos with those built in binoculars. It truly is a rain forest here, and with over 100 inches of rain a year, it better be beautiful... we definitely weren't disappointed.














Here's a view of one of the bays with what looks like a glacier in the background with a waterfall.

We then went to a Totem Pole National Park. There are 11 totem poles gathered from all over Southeast Alaska. It was just amazing how huge and detailed they were!







































They also have huge slugs! I think they're banana slugs. I thought I might try one to see if these guys live up to their name, but Debbie didn't find it funny! :)














Our schedule for the rest of the week was interviews from 10 am to 4pm Monday and Tuesday which was quite intense for me. I mean, what can they ask me to fill 12 hours of interviews? Well, after the first day, the Bishop and his wife let us borrow two of their sea kayaks and we walked down to the ocean behind their house and kayaked around different islands in the large bay. We saw tons of bald eagles soaring overhead and two sea lions swimming about 50 yds from us!














Isn't she cute out there!














Tuesday morning I convinced Debbie to get up well before the interviews and go fly fishing with me for Salmon. I think she had some hope that she would catch something, perhaps purely because it was Alaska. I was chastised days before by my brother when I was admitted that I was wavering on whether to bring up the fly rods to fish. He thought it would be a visit wasted if we didn't go fishing! I'm glad he convinced me and so is Debbie! We walked down to one of the many inlets along the bay that was suggested to us by the fly shop owner. The owner said that we ought to be able to catch alot of Pink Salmon commonly called "Humpies" due to the humps they develop on their backs. They range between 3- 8 lbs. There were Salmon jumping everywhere! With our hope increasing with every expanding rings of fish splashes, Debbie started casting into the ocean as I started setting up my rod. It was only a few minutes before Debbie had a fish on. I had told her before she started casting how to cast out there and pull the line in, but we both realized that I hadn't told her how to fight a large fish! With Debbie screaming and her line screaming, it was only 10 seconds before her line snapped. I quickly gave her tips on fighting a large, powerful fish and off I went to set up my line, hurrying even faster with anticipation of hooking a large salmon!















Here's Debbie fighting her second Pink Salmon! She definitely got the technique down and landed it!



















I'm so proud of my little fisherwoman!




















I knew Debbie was having a good time when she said, and I quote, "maybe we can get up at 4 am before our 6 am flight tomorrow and catch some more before we leave!" For those of you who know Debbie might believe she must have been drugged to say that she would first of all get up that early, and second of all, for FISHING!
Here are some of the pics Debbie took of me with my pink salmon.











































Debbie ended up bringing in 3 and losing 4, and I brought in 7 and lost 5. It was a great couple of hours fishing on Jamestown Bay!!!

Well, just has fast as we had arrived, we were on a 9 hour ride back home. We went into this visit very warily due to already having attended a visit in Michigan. But, after this visit, which the help of the Spirit, we are now not sure where we might end up. We're now waiting for offers from these two places and then hopefully receiving divine help as to where He would want us to go. His will be done, though we would love to be near family! :) Either way, we enjoyed some quality time together, but we were excited to see our children again! We'll let you all know where we're going, so please keep us in your prayers!