We were supposed to be in the air yesterday.

Instead, we are still here.

The fog has settled over St. Paul again, disrupting flights for weeks and keeping us, along with plenty of other people, from getting off (and onto) the island. We are very ready to reach the mainland and continue our journey to see our children, so I will admit that another cancelled flight was not exactly welcome news.

But there wasn’t much we could do about it.

So we took the hours we were supposed to spend traveling and went for a drive around the island instead.

And the island did not disappoint.

Along the north side, a harbor seal followed us from the water as we drove the road beside the coast. We watched puffins, cormorants, gulls, and more birds than I could possibly keep track of. Harlequin ducks gathered offshore in a raft, rising and falling together on the waves like they were surfing them.

The fog that has made it so difficult to leave also softened the entire landscape. Sea, sky, cliffs, birds, and tundra seemed to disappear into one another.

We are still anxious to go. We still have people we very much want to see and places we need to be.

But yesterday was a good reminder that being delayed is not quite the same thing as being stuck.

Sometimes the weather changes the plan.

And sometimes, when it does, there is still something beautiful waiting just down the road.