A little bit about Kodiak

Sorry it's taken me awhile to do another blog... I'm sure you all have been anxiously anticipating my next post. I wanted to familiarize everyone with Kodiak a little better. Below is a pic of the island. I live near the town Kodiak.The red line by Chiniak Bay is all the road system for the whole island (key words being whole island). So there's hardly any roads as you can see, about 40 miles worth. Then the orange dotted line that takes up 2/3 of the island is the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. It's about 1.9 million acres with only a few cabins on it that can only be accessed via boat or plane. That is the only way to access the other towns on the island as well. So the Refuge mainly consists of animals and wilderness, but it's there for the purpose to protect the animals and their habitats.



The town of Kodiak is pretty much a fishing/coast guard town. It has a good mix of people with a rugged atmosphere. It actually has the friendly small town feel to it and everyone is super nice. It has a rich Alutiiq and Russian-Orthodox history.There was also a navy base here in World War II which they have now turned into Fort Abercrombrie State Park, which is gorgeous. Kodiak is a beautiful town surrounded by the massive ocean and mountains. Here are some of the pics I've taken so far:

 This below shows the first cruise ship of the season in the water there, it's from the Holland America Cruise Line. Kodiak actually doesn't get too many cruise ships though, only like 15-20 a year.

 You can see a little bit of Kodiak on the left there.

This pic is taken from the harbor and shows a nearby little island.

Last week I finished up my training... yay! It went really well though. The Refuge had everything super scheduled for us interns and I learned so much! We had guess speakers, hikes, tours, bear training, a boat ride and so much more. I feel like I'm a Kodiak Island expert so if you have a question, let me know. So one of the places we were able to visit was Ft. Abercrombie State Park, which I mentioned earlier was a fort in WWII. It is a wonderful park with great trails and it's gorgeous with all the moss covered spruce trees and the ocean. Here are some pics and that's Liz with me...

Gorgeous, isn't it? I also have some pics from our boat ride. This was the first time I've ever ridden out on the ocean and let's say I don't have my sea legs yet. Lol.

 Okay so we saw a boat on fire while on our ride and the firemen were working to put it out. It was kinda crazy... turns out it was from welding they were doing on the boat.

Well I have a lot more pics and a lot more to talk about but I don't want by blog to take 8 hours to look at so I'll make another one soon. Oh and just to clarify, the pics when it's all nice and sunny out is not what it's normally like. I pretty much haven't seen the sun in 2 weeks... but this weekend I will!!!! (I'm excited). This weekend is also Crab Festival which is a pretty big deal here. There's obvious crab and fair type food, a parade, rides, and other fun activities. Everyone have a great rest of the week and remember to pray for the tornado victims & families! Thanks for reading! =)