Back to Kangerlussuaq

Right as planned on Thursday, a Herc appeared in the skies above Summit Station, landed (in probably the worst weather we had the whole time I was there, which was still pretty decent weather), and most of our construction crew gave everyone else hugs goodbye and got on that plane.

When the cargo doors opened again a couple of hours later, it was a very different scene outside.

It felt disorienting but great to be back in Kangerlussuaq, the birds chirping, the breeze balmy, the landscape still epic, and the mosquitoes fierce.

We were a rag-tag crew, most heading to the grocery store for beer and cigarettes (not me, Grandma!) and not even making it back to our lodging before stopping to indulge. And like Wisconsinites who switch to shorts at the first sign of spring, the temps in the 50's and 60's felt so warm to us after Summit that you'd think we'd landed in Florida.

But we were still in Greenland, and there were the musk ox hides curing in the sun to prove it.

There were also some sweet Ice friends in town, like me working up north while Antarctica is hunkered down into winter. I was inconsistent with the pictures, but it was so wonderful to catch up with familiar faces.

I took a single sip of "Greenlandic coffee" (a concoction of booze with just a touch of coffee, topped by whipped cream) and that was enough for me.

And though most of my time in Kanger was spent lazing about, I did get to take a walk down to the river to watch it rushing under the bridge in a much more frantic fashion than it had been in early May.

After two nights acclimating to relative civilization with my Summit friends, most of them were checking in their luggage for the flight back to Copenhagen and then home to the States when I said some bittersweet goodbyes and instead climbed aboard a domestic flight bound for Ilulissat...

And took off into the foggy skies above the southeastern coast of Greenland.

The view was totally obscured for the whole flight, but what I got to see when I landed was pretty spectacular. So, get ready to explore some more of this mammoth island of the north....