This is what it looks like from the air

Months ago, my friend Judi and I went in together to bid on a "flightseeing" tour of our island on the Grumman Goose--and we won!  We wanted to wait till summer time and till after we were both back from our travels so started trying to arrange the trip in earnest in August.  This was complicated by the fact that Pen Air had decided to retire the Goose on September 1st so we were in a bit of a time crunch.  We were pulling our hair out by the time we finally got to go.  You don't know how many days we had it scheduled, only to be told "it's not a good day," "it's having mechanical work done," "the pilot says not today," and so on.  Some days I was literally calling back for an update every hour, only to be disappointed again. We were really beginning to wonder if this was going to happen or if we were just gonna lose our money.  I was getting awfully whiny, I have to admit.  BUT, finally, with no time to spare, we got to take our flight on August 29th.  It wasn't the best day, a little cloudy, but we didn't want to put it off any longer!   No worries, it was still amazingly awesome! 

Our crew of 8 people kept changing, too, based on who could go on which day.  The final group is shown above:  Rich, Judi and Michelle in front, Rob, Glenn, Paul and Vinnie.

 The Goose is a WWII era plane that has been used in the Aleutians for many years, mostly flying to and from some of the other islands along the chain.  Click here for a story by my coworker and KUCB News Director Alexandra.

 Getting instructions from our pilot, Steve. "There are four exits...."

 Rich in the co-pilot's seat

 We got to take off from the water--very cool!

Just a few more reasons why we love it out here!  Beautiful, isn't it?

 Landing on the water

 Coming in

Wow, that was fun!

Thanks, Steve!  Another experience of a lifetime!