The history of St. John the Evangelist written by the choir director’s husband.

 At Easter dinner, we discussed Father Payton's attendence at James' baptism so I thought I would post this article also.

I recently came across this article about Bracewell stadiuum and asked Mark to post it. 

On our way home we paused today in this forested park in eastern Ohio.  We savor our last day out before arriving and beginning many, many chores.  You may remember that we left home in mid-February.  Now, in mid-July, we return.  We bring back many memories that will be treasured. 

Five days on the ferry. Very peaceful.  We sat or stood watching the sea slide by.  Sometimes it was very narrow about us and above were mountains, some yet with snow.  here and there a glacier.  Humpback whales spouted nearby every day.  Dolphins, the streaky ones that look like miniature killer whales broke the surface too, sometimes following us.  We experienced a sundown, our first in a couple of months.  And, a sunrise.  How pleasant.  The trees grew larger each day.  Waterfalls streamed from vertical walls. 

I write from an RV park near the now ghost town of Portage.  Typical of many Alaskan towns it coalesced about a native village near where gold was discovered.  There was not much gold and then given that there was not much other reason for it to exist, it disappeared.  And so the forest returns.

We’re finishing our last day in the Denali region.  We’ve enjoyed it all.  Watching glaciers pouring from the Alaska Range, a moose with calf in the parking lot, alpine tundra in bloom, the gaudy green of Alaska forest and tundra in June, and even a few mosquitoes.  This afternoon we topped it off with a tour flight to the edge of the summit of Mt. Denali (Mt. McKinley, the Big One, etc.)  The glaciers flowing off of the big one are very big ones. 

Saturday (June 17) afternoon in Palmer and I am taking a break during this day of chores.  We arrived safely last evening at the Anchorage Airport after our five days in Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.  We may now say we have visited the Aleutian Islands.   Dutch Harbor is a beautiful place with rather awful weather.  At the time of our arrival, however, the weather was pleasant, and the view when landing was spectacular.  The plane turned in from the sea between two ranges of mountains and descended over the blue bay.  Waterfalls rained off the green cliffs. 

We’re back for a day after jumps to Gambell and Nome.  Jumps through space and climate.  We met our tour group in an airport hotel at Anchorage.  After a night on a wide bed we flew to rural Nome via Alaska Airlines and then on to Gambel via Bering Air.  There we walked off the plane and on into town finding views of Red-necked Stint and Lesser Sand Plover in the “airport lagoons.  Along the way we began to experience the wonderful round gravel that makes up the bar that underlies the town of Gambell.  It refuses to compact and is displaced underfoo

We have returned from Valdez where we enjoyed several fine days of touring with Alex.  Our arrival found the harbor town beneath a layer of clouds that shrouded the peaks that wrap all around.