Attempt #2 to get to Noorvik

"You missed your flight" is not the phrase you want to hear after waking up at 4:30am and rushing to the airport, but those were the words coming from the Alaska Air agent's mouth. Luckily I was able to fly standby on my original flight with Mollia, my luggage however had to take the next flight. Serves me right for waiting until midnight the night before to start packing. -Ha!
The flight to Anchorage was gorgeous as the sun rose over the low clouds. In Anchorage Mollia's Ma woke early so she could chat with us during our few hour layover which made for a wonderful start to our trip. So many stories; I could have stayed to listen for hours. Flying into Nome on Alaska Air was comfy; we got the whole row to ourselves and great views of the sea ice and the Iditarod trail as we touched down. We watched as forklifts unloaded and reloaded the Combi we were flying in with packs full of supplies for Kotzebue.

When we learned Kotz was fogged in we took the opportunity to try out 'Nome's Best Coffee' at the nearby cafe. An hour or so later, fog had cleared and we were preparing to pass through security in Nome when the power went out and the security and ticket scanners with it, but eventually we were on our way to Kotz!

Running across the parking lot to Bering Air we found we just missed our 4:00 flight to Noorvik which had apparently left early that day despite the fog. This was good news though because it gave us time to enjoy the local fare. She was the best salesman in that once she noticed you eyeing her pastries she would just happen to start eating the delicious frosted frybread in front of you until you couldn't stand it anymore. You had to buy one...or four. We also apparently looked trustworthy enough for someone to give us their six month old baby. The question " Can you take my child to Noorvik with you?" caught me off guard as I stared in disbelief at the young father.....while Mollia ignored my stunned look and politely agreed to do so. So there we are in the Bering airport in Kotz with frosted frybread and a new baby. What a day. The baby was great as we approached the Cessna outside. It was wrapped in its brown bear snowsuit and was smiling big. The pilot dropped the stairs down for us and the four of us crunched into the four seats packed next to the supplies heading to the Morris trading company in Noorvik.

As we took off the plane shuttered and the windows frosted as we lifted trading the view of the white treeless ground for solid white fog. I stared up front at the pilots navigation screen and watched as we followed the river east towards Noorvik. As we approached the village a few moose or caribou could be spotted as we dropped from the fog. I was quite nervous at this point that we might be stuck with this baby for the week, or until the father was able to sno-go over from Kotz, but luckily a lady met us on a fourwheeler and tucked the little guy in her bear lined parka and rode away. We unloaded the plane into a nice man's pickup who offered to take us to the school.

At the school we were shown to our classroom where we would be staying for the week. Before crashing for the night we took a stroll up the hill to the old village and found the two grocery stores. By chance we came across the principal who was very welcoming, as was the rest of the people we came across. It was a great end to a very long day.