Virtual Tour of Dillingham

Some people wanted a tour of Dillingham, and while I cannot (yet) upload a video of a tour, I can take a few pictures. So here you go, in no particular order : 

Views of the Middle / High School

The University of Alaska, Fairbanks - Bristol Bay Campus

Dillingham's only bank, and one of two national brands here.

NAPA, of course, being the other. 

The local hardware store. Look close and you will see the
McCain / Palin sign by the main entrance.

Two views looking down the main drag. 

The Dillingham Post Office, aka Alaska's version of Facebook.

The Dillingham Library and Sam Fox Museum

The Public Safety / DMV / Jail building. 

The Public hockey rink. Face it, what town is complete
without one of these?

Neqleq Variety Store. Think of it as
Dalton Humphrey's Everything Store. 

The Public Used Vehicle Lot, on the grounds of the
Public Hockey Rink. Makes sense to me.

Bristol Express. The town's one and only convenience store.
Because two blocks away is just too far to walk to get to a
grocery store. 

Dillingham's Fire Department

AC. One of two grocery stores. 

N & N. The other grocery store. 

The Muddy Rudder. I know you are thinking it's a hell
of a name for a bar. And you would be wrong.
This is a restaurant. 

Arctic Chiropractic.

City Hall

Dillingham Hotel

The Dillingham Nursing Home

The Dillingham Water Tower. We hope to be able to afford
the top of it some day. ;-)

The... not city, not county Courthouse

Another view of the Dillingham Schools Middle /
High School

Low tide. During high tide add about 20 feet of water to this.

Last, but not least, the Thai Inn. Where the menu consists
exclusively of the finest Mexican cuisine. Yep. A Thai
restaurant that serves only Mexican. I don't make the rules,
folks, I just do the reporting of them.

To your left of the main building is where our apartment is.
We should be moving in Saturday.

Picture-Pa-Looza V

We had a couple of free hours, so we decided to run up to Lake Aleknagik. As you can see by the link, Aleknagik is a Yupik word meaning "wrong way home". I have to say, however, what a way to go :

And that is just one of the many smaller lakes surrounding Aleknagik proper. Screw Minnesota. THIS is the land of lakes. Now THIS is a lake : 

Oh. My. God. What beauty thou hast wrought here. The camera can scarcely do it justice. But then the quasi-religious experience was shattered by man :

That. 

Was. 

AWESOME !! 

I have never seen a float plane land before. This one was here to grab supplies to take to a hunting party, staying God-knows-where around here. Just when I was almost fully in the throes of an aviation geek-gasm, the smaller of the two took off :

OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod!!!! 

That was so freaking cool ! The only possible way for that to have been any better was for it to have been a P-51D Mustang on floats. Ok, but just so you know : yes, the water was even more of a deep, rich blue than in the pictures. It was pure liquid indigo. Once you got to the shoreline, you could see the bottom a good 100 feet or more out. I have no doubt you could probably see to the bottom a good piece out in those planes.

Ok, Santa : Change of plans. Screw Apple. One boat, about 40 HP motor and a trailer if you please.

This will give you an idea of where we were.
It will give you an idea of the size of Wood-Tikchik, too.

Sadly, some people are as stupid with bears as
they are walking around the mall. 

I don't know what it is, but it sure looked weird.

I can't wait for another sunny day to run up to Lake Aleknagik again. That was so much pure, undistilled awesome it was beyond belief.