So I leave Diomede something like a month ago, maybe three and a half weeks, and between then and now there was so much. Lots of great things, like flying and big old boats. There were downers, too, but thankfully there were a lot more ups then downs. For now I’m happy. Well no ‘happy’ isn’t the right word, it’s more like content or glad, to be back on the island. It’s beautiful here.

So there is this pizza place in Nome. Well, to put it better: the pizza place in Nome. And the wall decorations are these giant 5′ pizzas, cut out of plywood and handpainted in any way: pepperoni, combo, veggie, et cetera. On one wall there is the ‘current’ pizza, and all are welcome to Sharpie their names, thoughts, and drawings. When the current pizza is full it is placed somewhere else in the restaurant. And the other day in Nome, while I was enjoying my pizza and beverage, I saw what was the best* thing of this whirlwind three and a half weeks. It was written on the ’97 pizza, if I remember correctly.

*Just in case you don’t know, Nome not only was a gold rush town back in the day, it is still a major center for gold mining–and more specifically, many of the people who live in Nome during the summer are one-man or two-man gold mining operations. They work incredibly hard, like the old miners of the tales, and they make a lot of money.