- Randy

Alaska Is...

      Alaska is so many things that your mind reels to try to come up with the words to describe it.  Beautiful, rugged, immense, awesome, inspiring—all of these capture part of it but really it’s the feeling that you get inside when you completely lose control of your lower jaw and as it drops down you slowly say, “Wow.” 
            It is also the place where I could take off my parent glasses and see my daughter as a leader and a friend.  Where I could watch her lead a group up a glacier so they all made it to the top and watch her help a friend in the last few miles of a 6.2 mile race and complete it without stopping.  Sometimes you see better without the glasses.

Final Reflections

            I wasn’t sure what to think about this trip to Alaska.  I love getting out hiking and camping, but these things are usually best done alone or in small groups.  Traveling in 10 vans with almost 80 people didn’t seem like the best way to see the great state of Alaska.
            I was so glad I came, though, because I was able to get to know so many great kids and others from Marshall, and I was able to go to places like Seaside Farm that I probably wouldn’t have done on my own.  I saw so many great sights, and learned so much about Alaskan culture both native and modern.  It was a truly great experience.