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!