Northwest Campus

Pati, Mario and Andrew have been trying for the past couple of days to travel across the state to go skiing with the locals in Brevig Mission, on the Bering Sea coast.  They're participating in the Skiku program, volunteering their time to teach schoolchildren in small rural Alaska villages how to ski.

Problem is, Mt. Pavlof has been erupting and spewing a cloud of volcanic ash from its location on the end of the Alaska Peninsula all across the state, cancelling most flights to western Alaska. (I myself had been planning to travel to Dillingham in Bristol Bay this week but unlike our three friends, I have the luxury of being able to tell my clients I'll just wait until the volcano calms down and try again in a couple weeks.) Our three UAAers have made several fruitless trips to the Anchorage International Airport this week. But this afternoon, they finally made it out of Anchorage, to Nome. Tomorrow morning, they plan to take a short flight northwest from Nome to Brevig Mission.  From the pictures I received this evening, it looks like they're hitting all the must-see attractions.

I've spent many an evening in this place myself, and nothing good ever came of it.