Revelry.....Live Action

Diversionary Post

Senor loves swimming!

You thought this story was over...

So did I. But as it turns out, it really is like Pirates of the Carribean 3. Just when you think it's over, there's another surprise ending!

We turned on the radio's local news program as we were sitting down to dinner this evening, and....

Um...you know that goose we were talking about? Remember the wind issue?

I guess I have a better understanding of why they were so cautious.

Looks like Dawson won't get to ride this goose anytime soon.....



P.S. Yes, that is the same exact plane we were on. It just looks different upside down.

P.P.S. Don't tell my parents.

P.P.P.S. Let's focus on the no injuries part....

Father's Day Mission 2007 - Part 4: Fog in the Pass

This is beginning to feel like POTC3. Will it ever end?

That's about how I was feeling in Akutan too. The next morning, we woke up to beautiful sun and blue sky weather. I was encouraged! I went for the first update....."doubt it." What? It turns out a north wind was prevailing. The plane doesn't land when it's a north wind. This may seem silly, until you learn that the last time it tried to land in a north wind, it skidded over to the edge of the mountain and lost a pontoon. So, they instituted a new policy of not landing with a north wind. It was currently about 9:00 AM. Next update at 11:00....."doubt it. But update at 1:00." It's 1:00, "doubt it. But update at 2:30." It's 3:oo (I tried to hold out a bit)....."doubt it. But update at 4:30." Hmmm....it's 4:30. "Yep, they cancelled. Try again tomorrow. Update at 9:00."

I've been stranded by weather before, but never with sun and blue sky around, so I had to document it.



The following morning, I woke up again to some beautiful looking blue sky. I had learned how to spot the dreaded north wind, and we were looking good...In fact, the water looked almost like glass. Optimistically, I headed for the update. The agent was enjoying a morning cup of coffee at the local restaurant. I started off positive, "Beautiful day, eh?" "Yeah, beautiful. Update at 11:00." "Not today, either?" I pondered hesitantly. "Doubt it....fog in the pass." Fog in the pass??

Now, the way the update happens in small towns like these, is that somebody (either the agent or the store or the public safety officer) calls for the update and then it spreads like wildfire throughout the town. By this time, as you can imagine, the whole town knew who I was and that I was waiting for a plane. So as I would walk through the town, each person would stop me and our conversation would be something to the effect of...."Beautiful day!" "Yeah, beautiful! Fog in the pass, huh..." Over and over....Fog in the pass, Fog in the pass...what the heck does fog in the pass mean?

Reportedly, the pilot has to always be able to see the water in case the plane needs to land, so when there is low lying fog, they can't fly over it. At least that's the explanation I got from one person.

What should we do? Probably shouldn't hang around the store too long!


Actually, I don't think that rule applies when you have a cute smiling baby in tow, because we were quite welcomed at the store. But we mostly enjoyed ourselves on the playground while we waited for the fog in the pass to clear.

Let's just hope the fog in the pass doesn't clear and then the north wind kicks up. Or maybe the clouds return to Akutan....or perhaps it gets foggy in Dutch. The combination of factors that have to align for that plane to make it is incredible.

I had just about given up hope for the day at 4:00 when there was just one more update and the bad weather was starting to return to Akutan...when lo and behold.....

A goose!



I'm not sure it was worth a 4 day wait, but if you ever have the chance to ride in a goose, it's pretty darn cool. You're up on the cement and then taxi down into the water with a definite sinking feeling as the plane submerges into the water. Then a taxi across the water with the pontoons dragging and kicking up water...even Boo was looking out the window with a big smile and pointing at the water.

On a side note, this erratic service into Akutan is only expected to continue for about another year. The gooses are near retirement age (WWII was a while ago afterall) and there are plans to build an airstrip on a neighboring island and then use a hovercraft to ferry passengers over to the airstrip. We thought this seemed like an awful lot of money and work when we first heard about it, but on second thought....it just might be a good idea!

On a second side note, another good thing that came out of this trip was the basic re-affirmation of our packing light philosophy, even with a baby. We were gone for 5 days with only one small backpack between the three of us, and we survived just fine. Of course, on day 4 I did have to buy some $20 diapers, but it was still quite successful, even without the indispensable items on this packing checklist. You may wonder how one would even get out the door with all those items! Although an inflatable baby bath tub will probably never make it on our packing list, I think I will bring a spare pair of underwear next time....

Father's Day Mission 2007- Part 3: Or, Whatever Happened to the No Child Left Behind Act?

So I guess it probably comes as no surprise, that the infamous Grumman Goose didn't make a landing on Akutan on Sunday.....morning or evening. Alas. In fact, come to find out, the good old goose is cancelled on more than just the rare occasion. About a month ago, it didn't land for 12 days! The average is somewhere in the 4-7 day range, but you never can tell. If we had only known! We booked another night at the Bayview plaza and called our dads for Father's Day.

The next morning, the wind was howling and the sky was gray. We knew that if the plane hadn't come the day before (when it actually seemed pretty nice to us), that we were surely sunk for today. The agent (the local person who has a 4-wheeler, helps load and unload the plane, and reports the weather to Dutch), took one look at the weather and, a man of few words, said, "doubt it." We went for some more consolation bacon and eggs at the restaurant. The girl there told us that sometimes you can hop on a Trident fishing boat. We called over to Trident, however, and they said there were no boats heading that way today. Alas again.

So Dawson called into work and we entertained ourselves walking around town, checking out the museum, etc. It was just about 4:00 as we were headed back to the hotel when the VPSO came running out of his office and informed us there was a boat, headed to Dutch, leaving in 45 minutes. "Quick, grab your stuff!"

So we ran over as fast as we could. "You might get sea-sick," Dawson said under his breath as we were running over. I hadn't really thought about that. The ferry was so big and smooth. I started getting a little nervous.

When we got to the fish plant, I went immediately to the company store for some Dramamine. I had the first pill popped in my mouth and was chewing it up and trying to get another pill from the package, when I walked out to the group and saw a surprised look on the plant manager's face. "A baby? I didn't know there was a baby." He called down to the boat captain, "Um, the 2 people who are going to Dutch are actually 3 people, one's a baby." He explained to us that he has a child and he's taken him on that trip a few times. The kid was fine at 9 months and 15 months and then on his most recent trip at near 2 years old, there was so much projectile vomit and tears that he promised his wife they would never take him again. So he said we'd probably be OK, but he'd leave it up to the boat captain. The captain called back on the radio....not excited about Baby on Board. We went down to talk to the captain, and it was again a no-go. The weather was supposed to be choppy and he wasn't even excited about taking a girl, but he would take a strong looking fellow like Dawson.

A quick decision was made, and Dawson jumped on board. After all, he earns the bacon in this family and many a hearing was scheduled for the next day. Alas. A tummy full of Dramamine and no boat ride. It was only then that it occured to me that maybe breast-feeding mothers shouldn't OD on Dramamine...

The Columbia sailed away. According to Dawson, his ride was straight out of the rough seas of the Deadliest Catch. 6 hours of lurching waves coming from all directions (up, down, side, you name it). In retrospect, I think I'm very happy the captain wouldn't allow us on board!







How will Boo and I entertaing ourselves all on our lonesome in Akutan, you might ask. We didn't have any toys, but luckily we can always count on some of Boo's favorite stand-bys for entertainment...mmmm....garbage....

Father's Day Mission 2007 - Part 2: Akutan!

Akutan Island. A small island in the Aleutian chain accessible only by boat or floatplane and home to 89 villagers and 1200 fish processors from all over the world...what an unusual combination!


As you'll see from the wooden map, it also has an unusual shape and the village is located at the end of the long, skinny bay, protected from the wild waters of the ocean and surrounded on all sides by steep mountains.

As we approached the island, the buzz on the ferry started talking about the hillside being on fire! The ferry had passed the island on it's way into Dutch at around 4 am that morning and the passengers, smelling smoke from their warm, cozy beds, begin stumbling out of their rooms to see what was going on. Word spread quickly....the volcano had erupted! Then a few smarter people started wondering, does volcano smoke smell like woodsmoke? Alas, no exciting volcano eruption...just a grassfire probably started by irresponsible smoking kids playing with firecrackers (geez....who would ever do something like that!?). But it did spread fast and luckily the VPSO (that's Village Public Safety Officer) and his crew were able to stop it from coming to the village.


When we stepped off the boat, we felt immediately at home. It was nice to get back to a small boardwalk village reimniscent of the YK Delta villages (well, except with mountains!). Here's the Bayview Plaza hotel, run by the Akutan Native Corp. You, too, can stay here for a mere $90 per night! It even has a mini-kitchenette stocked with entertaining coffee mugs and Lady Grey tea.

And of course, we love the cruisers and the little "can't grow" pups!


Of course, it is a little fancier than the Delta villages we are used to....streetlights?!?

The village is home to 2 churches. The traditional Russian Orthodox Church sits in the city center. Church services are held about once a month when a travelling minister is able to make it out.

The CEO of the Trident fish plant paid for The Safe Harbor Church to be built about 10 years ago.
Yes, this looks like quite a large church, eh? I had the chance to talk to the pastor and his wife. It is attended by just one person from the village and Trident workers make up the rest of the parish. All religion aside, this is my kind of church.

I mean, where else can you play pingpong and basketball during church???

The island has a school for the local kids which is dangerously close to closure. A school in Alaska has to have 10 kids to stay open. They currently only have about 6 and it is slated to close after the next school year. Such a crazy world. It's not like they can just take a longer morning bus ride and go to school in the neighboring town. So the choice will be home school or boarding school or going to live with relatives or moving off the island. Not exactly easy choices, especially in a small isolated village with a high rate of alcoholism. The pastor's wife actually has been the school teacher for the past 4 years, but she's having a baby in October and is no longer going to be teaching. I believe the school is desperately looking for a new teacher, and ideally one with a few kids, to boost the numbers.



There's also a library, with a mini-museum and a post office. We like to take post office pics for Dawson's mom.
Yes, those are bars on the windows. What valuable commodoties do you think sit behind those bars??

Safety first when it comes to Folgers and non-dairy creamer.

And, of course, there's a local store. Yes, that's 99 cent Fritos going for a whopping $3.00!

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of the Trident facility. We tried hard to get a tour of the plant, but were ultimately unsuccessful. It's quite a place though. Trident is a vertical-organization (not sure if that's the exact correct term). But basically, they own everything in all phases of production. From the fishing boats to their own power plant, they own it all. Workers come from all over the world to work insane hours for minimum wage and save up lots of cash due to the fact that room and board is included and there is nothing to spend your money on! I really love the FAQ section for potential new Trident workers. Do you want to be a fish processor? Well, do you want to work in a physically demanding, cold, wet, and repetitive work environment where the weather can be expected to be "miserable" most of the time, you have no guaranteed hours yet will probably work 12-18 hour days, and you get to live in cramped facilities with a common toilet and erratic mail delivery? Mmm, sounds great. Of course, you get room and board....the rooms are bunk beds with 6 people per room and the board is a mess hall where the average meal price comes out to 39 cents per person. Whew. Think of that next time you order some tasty fish and chips!

We went on a great morning hike to the ridge top of the mountain behind town.


What a fun mini-vacation! After a thorough tour of the town, a nice hike and a bit of bacon and coffee from the local restaurant, we were feeling quite thrilled with ourselves.

We took a little walk down to the place where the plane comes in. There was a lady standing there, scanning the horizon. "Waiting for the morning plane?" we ask with naive excitement over the prospect of seeing the float plane land on the water. "Just hoping that there'll be one," she replies. We look around. The weather seems OK to us. She goes on to explain the many factors that have to align for the plane to get to Akutan. "My honey's on the plane. I sure hope he gets here, but probably not today," she states with a sigh. "What's that....not today?" Hmmm......

Father's Day Mission 2007 - Part 1

What's that you say? Father's Day was last week and you're just now getting around to writing about it? Well.....we'll get to that later. Maybe, if you're lucky, in Father's Day Mission 2007- Parts II, III or the Extended/Uncut Director's Version.

Living on an island somewhat limits your opportunities for far reaching adventures of the kind we're used to....you can't exactly get in the car and drive for 4 hours and wake up in the Canyonlands. So Dawson, in his infinite trip-planning savvyness, realized that we could take the state ferry (which comes to Dutch Harbor every 2 weeks) over to the neighboring island of Akutan and fly back on a float plane called a Grumman Goose. It was designed to be a 24 hour mission with a lot of bang for the buck....boat riding, float plane riding, and a new island to explore which is simultaneously home to a traditional Aleut village of 89 people and the largest fish processing plant in the northwest.

The ferry arrives in Dutch Harbor every 2 weeks from April until September. It takes 3 1/2 days to go from Homer to Dutch and then has about an 8 hour layover here! The obvious logistical problem with ferry travel to Dutch, for those of you planning a trip, is that you either have to stay for 2 weeks or make it an 8 hour mission (which is a bit on the short side when you've just travelled for nearly 4 days to get here!). But we did meet a few people on the ferry who were just there for the ride to and from and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. The AK ferry is pretty cool....you can book a stateroom or just pitch your tent on the deck. And they have tasty hamburgers and pie.

But back to the basics....Boo's first Ferry Ride on the Trusty Tuste!

The ferry takes cars and the loading process is pretty cool. You drive onto the plank, then it's lowered into the ferry, swivelled around, and you drive away into the boat's bowels!

Unfortunately, we missed out on this gourmet breakfast and apparently, some tasty coffee as well!


Boo-dah, the intrepid explorer, entertained the passengers as usual. He made sure he knew where the lifeboats were, just in case of emergency.




We passed one gigantic herd of birds. It seemed like we were going to run them over, but they eventually flew off and re-assembled behind us. Must have been something tasty in that part of the ocean. As for other wildlife, we were treated to a display of whales spouting and breeching, but those pictures never turn out, so I didn't even try!

The times they are uh changing

(The shoe is still size 12).

Remember that cute little baby that smiled and stayed right where you put him...
not any more!

Stairs!! It took him approximately 2 days in the new apartment to learn how to climb the whole flight. (And his favorite descent method is head first, at the speed of gravity).




He's going to be just like his mama, champion of the bent arm hang.