PetitFrereArmada
Explorer
The highlight of my trip to Whittier today was meeting Brenda.
Brenda is one of the oldest residents of Whittier. I pulled up and stopped to take pictures of the famous "city under one roof" when Brenda approached. e from nowhere and said hi, what are you doing? I told her I was visiting and wanted to take pictures of the building. And before I realized it, Brenda and I had spent 1 hour talking and laughing, and I was giving her lessons on how to fly my drone, and she was flying it and jumping with joy and laughter.
Brenda told me a lot. She told me she is one of the oldest residents there and owns a lot of the unsold land in Whittier. She has a sho downtown that sells crafts. She moved to Whittier in 1980 and has never left.
She is the first white person to own a reindeer in Whittier and the only person who owns one currently. She we.t and cut some grass and ket me feed the reindeer and take pictures with it and videos with it. She asked me if I wanted to go inside its cage and feed and pet it. But my shoes would be ruined in the mud so I did not do that.
As much as she told me about herself, she made sure to ask me a lot about me. She was very intrigued too about my own history and background and my story of driving from Texas to Alaska and back for vacation. She just could not process that. She was fascinated that I had time to do that.
She took me into the building and showed me around and I trounced. e to the lady who works at the post office. Then I needed to use the restroom.and the public ones were locked a d she had to take me to her office in that building to let me use the restroom. After that, she showed me into another room in her office to show me a leg bone of a mammoth that is over 100 years or did she say 10,000 years old. Also, tusk of a mammoth 🦣 which was also 10,000 years old. Then she tok me into another room where she showed me where she makes the things she sells in her store. I never went to her store in downtown Whittier.
We went outside, and I told her it was time to fly my drone. I flew the drone and showed her the screen, and she was fascinated at the angles I could take of the buildings even without seeing my drone. She asked me if I had to go to school to learn how to fly this. I said no. It is very easy to fly and you can fly it too. She said no way. I landed the drone and gave her the controls, and instructed her on what to do. I had that old lady jumping as she flew my drone. She was ecstatic. She got too excited that she was flying backward towards her truck, and I stopped her. She immediately handed over the controls back to me and said that it was a lot of fun and that she did not want to crash my drone. I told her it would be my fault if she crashed it.
By this time, I realized it was over 1 hour since she came over to inquire about who I was and what I was doing. She said she better be going now, and I said I have a tip for her. Lol, I did not have cash but luckily had some money in the car that I almost forgot about. So I got the money and tried to slip it in her hand. She said there was no way she was going to take any money from me. She said she just enjoyed talking with me and getting to know new things and flying my drone. I said it was just a gift from me to her. She said no way. That is too much money, and she was just having a conversation and not needing any money from me. I pleaded with her to take it. She said no. She just had a good time talking with me. I said Brenda, you have a shop downtown, and I would love to support your business by going down to the shop to buy a souvenir to take home with me. I am not very good at buying souvenirs and keeping. So, can you please take this money as if I paid this money at your store to buy a souvenir to take home to Texas with me? That seemed to help a lot as she finally took the money. I thanked her a lot. I was really happy as I waved her goodbye and left to go downtown to look at other things.
Hodge Building. Brenda told me 80% of Whittier residents live in here
Front of the building
Back of the building
Top of the building. My drone was very high up in some serious foggy weather
The Buckner Building. I have seen many YouTube videos about Whittier, but none of the videos ever mentioned this abandoned huge "city" of a building
Brenda is one of the oldest residents of Whittier. I pulled up and stopped to take pictures of the famous "city under one roof" when Brenda approached. e from nowhere and said hi, what are you doing? I told her I was visiting and wanted to take pictures of the building. And before I realized it, Brenda and I had spent 1 hour talking and laughing, and I was giving her lessons on how to fly my drone, and she was flying it and jumping with joy and laughter.
Brenda told me a lot. She told me she is one of the oldest residents there and owns a lot of the unsold land in Whittier. She has a sho downtown that sells crafts. She moved to Whittier in 1980 and has never left.
She is the first white person to own a reindeer in Whittier and the only person who owns one currently. She we.t and cut some grass and ket me feed the reindeer and take pictures with it and videos with it. She asked me if I wanted to go inside its cage and feed and pet it. But my shoes would be ruined in the mud so I did not do that.
As much as she told me about herself, she made sure to ask me a lot about me. She was very intrigued too about my own history and background and my story of driving from Texas to Alaska and back for vacation. She just could not process that. She was fascinated that I had time to do that.
She took me into the building and showed me around and I trounced. e to the lady who works at the post office. Then I needed to use the restroom.and the public ones were locked a d she had to take me to her office in that building to let me use the restroom. After that, she showed me into another room in her office to show me a leg bone of a mammoth that is over 100 years or did she say 10,000 years old. Also, tusk of a mammoth 🦣 which was also 10,000 years old. Then she tok me into another room where she showed me where she makes the things she sells in her store. I never went to her store in downtown Whittier.
We went outside, and I told her it was time to fly my drone. I flew the drone and showed her the screen, and she was fascinated at the angles I could take of the buildings even without seeing my drone. She asked me if I had to go to school to learn how to fly this. I said no. It is very easy to fly and you can fly it too. She said no way. I landed the drone and gave her the controls, and instructed her on what to do. I had that old lady jumping as she flew my drone. She was ecstatic. She got too excited that she was flying backward towards her truck, and I stopped her. She immediately handed over the controls back to me and said that it was a lot of fun and that she did not want to crash my drone. I told her it would be my fault if she crashed it.
By this time, I realized it was over 1 hour since she came over to inquire about who I was and what I was doing. She said she better be going now, and I said I have a tip for her. Lol, I did not have cash but luckily had some money in the car that I almost forgot about. So I got the money and tried to slip it in her hand. She said there was no way she was going to take any money from me. She said she just enjoyed talking with me and getting to know new things and flying my drone. I said it was just a gift from me to her. She said no way. That is too much money, and she was just having a conversation and not needing any money from me. I pleaded with her to take it. She said no. She just had a good time talking with me. I said Brenda, you have a shop downtown, and I would love to support your business by going down to the shop to buy a souvenir to take home with me. I am not very good at buying souvenirs and keeping. So, can you please take this money as if I paid this money at your store to buy a souvenir to take home to Texas with me? That seemed to help a lot as she finally took the money. I thanked her a lot. I was really happy as I waved her goodbye and left to go downtown to look at other things.
Hodge Building. Brenda told me 80% of Whittier residents live in here
Front of the building
Back of the building
Top of the building. My drone was very high up in some serious foggy weather
The Buckner Building. I have seen many YouTube videos about Whittier, but none of the videos ever mentioned this abandoned huge "city" of a building
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