I hear about Chuck E. Cheese and the beautiful bracelet as I fly on Alaska Airlines toward Barrow; Barrow at -43, windchill -68

This is Allie, and the person that she is looking at with the big smile is me. She is telling me how she got to go to Chuck E. Cheese and that is where her mother, Monica, bought her the bracelet on her left wrist.

"And Chuck E. was there!" she told me.

She got a big kick out of it when I showed her this picture on my camera. It also got the interest of her mother, Monica, who takes pictures for the Air Guard out of Fairbanks.

Fairbanks is where they were headed, after a short trip to Anchorage. They have been in Alaska but a short time, having come from Maryland. Compared to their Maryland home, they find Fairbanks a bit sparse when it comes to shopping and dining activities and so they enjoyed their trip to Anchorage.

Monica is enchanted with the beauty of Alaska. Before coming here, she had thought that she would ultimately like to settle in Washington state, where she lived for a time, but seeing how beautiful Alaska is, she feels she must reconsider.

As for the miserable posture, this happened after we got half way to Fairbanks and then the pilot announced that the deicing system had malfunctioned and so we had to go back to Anchorage to get it fixed.

 

Once we returned to Anchorage, they told us it would take a few minutes to get the problem diagnosed and fixed, so naturally it took an hour or more. Of course, we had to stay on the plane and I was very hungry, as I had eaten nothing since my breakfast oatmeal.

Once, this would not have been so bad, because Alaska Airlines would have fed me a decent meal on the flight between Fairbanks and Barrow, but those days are gone.

Yet, we finally landed in Fairbanks. Allie and Monica got off the plane and other passengers boarded. One thing about flying by jet in Alaska that is different than Outside is that you always know several of the other passengers that you see. Sometimes, you know most of the other passengers.

That's Rachel to left, and Vera in the middle, from Anaktuvuk Pass, headed to Barrow to dance at Kivgiq. Vera told me the name of her tot, but I forgot. 

And this is Georgianna, who actually boarded in Anchorage in this seat. However, when the stewardess helped Allie to her seat and showed her mother where she had to sit, Georgianna felt bad, did not wish to separate mother and daughter, and so traded seats with Monica.

Once we got to Fairbanks, she returned to her assigned seat.

Her son, Steve, is a friend of mine and has taken me murre egg picking on the cliffs of Cape Thompson and he took me on other good adventures as well, from seal and duck and goose hunting to fishing.

Some of our adventures are recounted in my book, Gift of the Whale.

Georgianna is hugged by her friend, Sophie, of Kotzebue, who just boarded the plane and is headed toward her seat.

The fellow smiling at the tot is from Greenland. The tot and his dad have origins in Samoa and China, but now live in Barrow. Barrow, the coldest city in North America, has a substantial Polynesian community. 

The kid sees the light and reaches for it.

Inside the Alaska Airlines terminal at the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Memorial Airport in Barrow. Rogers and Post were killed in an airplane crash 12 miles soutwest of here.

The wait for luggage in Barrow always seems interminable. They do not put baggage out until the outgoing flight is fully boarded and roaring down the runway.

So you have to sit and wait for your bags for a full hour, at least.

 

This is Rex Nashookpuk, who did not come to Barrow by plane, but by snowmachine, from the village of Wainwright, just about 100 miles down the coast. The temperature was in the - 40's, the windchill about -70, but actually a whole lot more from the seat of Nashookpuk's speeding snowmachine.

Rex also came to dance at Kivgiq.

These are the buses and van used to take tourists touring about the local area come summer.

The ukpeagvik Presbyterian Church. Not so long ago, it was dark all day long in Barrow. After the sun went down November 18, it did not rise again until January 22. The days are still very short, but getting longer and soon the sun will be up all day long - from May 10 to August 2.

This is Anna, who lives on the east coast of Greenland. Anna came to dance at Kivgiq.

This bus will carry dancers from the many villages who have come to Barrow to dance at Kivgiq. 

Comments

[Suzy (=^..^=)]

Your book, Gift of the whale, was a gift to me by my DH on one of his trips to Barrow. He thought the children and I would enjoy the photographs, which we did, but I loved the stories and the people and the lifestyle and the sense of community you conveyed so beautifully. The kids boy scout troop wants to visit Barrow during whaling season, and maybe/hopefully be able to witness the gift of the whale to the community first hand. It is one of their goals.

[Bill]

Thank you, Suzy. And good luck to those boy scouts. If they succeed, it will be an adventure.

[Kelly Mitchell]

I love it, Anna from Greenland has no mittens on and it makes my hands cold down here in sunny Southeast! Beautiful pictures, thanks for broadening my view of Alaska.