Pregled posta

Marketing

August 7, 2005. Barrow visitor's center.

When we arrived at the Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport in Barrow, I was reminded of how the airports used to be on Maui when we were growing up. Tiny, non-airconditioned, no luggage carousels. Rustic and haphazard. I was quick to suspect that this was the way this Alaskan trip was going to be - kind of like old outer-island Hawaii. An outpost with no hard and fast schedule, subject to changes in weather, personnel, geography, etc.

Unfortunately, after arriving, we found out that Alaska Airlines had misplaced my mother's bag with her medicine. All wheeled carry-ons were taken at the airplane stairs, so mom was told to leave the bag with airport personnel. However, they forgot to tag it and thus it was left behind in Anchorage. That caused a flurry of stress/activity for my father but Alaska Air located the bag and promised to send it on the next flight up where it would be delivered to the hotel.

So we turned our attention to the tour we'd booked. The Top of the World Tundra Tour representative was supposed to meet us but no one appeared. After the locals left for home/were picked up by relatives, and the people departing on the return flight to Anchorage were gone, it was obvious that there was a group of us waiting for the same tour. Eventually, a van and a bus pulled up. The van took our bags to the hotel and we all boarded the bus. And off we went, with our driver/tour guide, Ira.

Turns out, Ira was stuck as our guide because the tour company hadn't scheduled our tour (and there were roughly 20-25 people on the tour) at all. He was the relief driver/guide. Poor guy. He was a good ol' boy - not particularly knowledgable on Barrow history but he knew his way around and told us what he knew.

At first, I was kind of sad that we didn't get a good guide, but then I remembered, much of Alaska - especially the areas we were visiting this time - was not particularly tourist-savvy. So it really didn't matter. This was a true Alaska experience, not a pre-fab tour!

040611-N-6713R-052 Gulf of Alaska (Jun. 11, 2004) - On the flight deck aboard USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), Gunner's Mates from Weapons Department G-1 division perform a 21gun salute on the ceremonial 5-inch guns to honor former President Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. President passed away recently after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Stennis and embarked Carrier Air Wing Fourteen (CVW-14) are currently at sea participating in Exercise Northern Edge, part of a scheduled deployment. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Andre Rhoden (RELEASED)