MANO - the beginning and end

13 years ago I landed in Anchorage - a young and niave 22 year old, and within a week I was shipped out to the Manokinak River for my first real job as a field biologist. Now, after a 7 year hiatus, I found my way back out to work there again the last few weeks. I didn't plan it that way - to make that my last stop before moving to WA next week, it just happened that way. Sometimes things just work out right I guess.

I've now spent my 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, and... 35th birthday on the YK Delta. That place, more than a childhood in Maine even, has become a huge part of my identity, and holds an even larger bigger part of my heart.

It was nice to get back out there. But it just wasn't the same to be out there without the old cast of characters... DDM, JAS, CRE, ETC.... I would have given anything for one of Ellie's infamous solstice birthday cakes - even if it was made of cardboard! Fond memories...