Alaska - Day 7

Friday, August 22, 2008:

We woke up at 4:45 am to catch our 5:30 shuttle to the airport. Good bye Fairbanks - too bad we couldn't spend more time with you. We made it to the airport with what should have been plenty of time, but it was the slowest airport check in I've ever seen, and that includes in all of Europe and in Israel too. Insanity. When we finally got up to the counter, we were checked in quickly. My bag is close to the weight limit - yikes! I have to be more careful when I pack.

While we were waiting to board, we saw a soldier saying good bye to his wife and child. She was crying, but the kid was a bit oblivious. Very, very sad. Who knows where he is off to? I almost cried myself. I hope he returns safely.

Our plane took off and first landed in Prudhoe Bay, a major oil field/oil rig field. Tons of men got off the plane - looking like they were heading to work. I imagine it's hard work - sort of like that new show, Black Gold. We noticed that the plane carried a lot of cargo to them as well - I think that's one of the only ways they can get stuff there. Definitely different than home.

After the pit stop, we landed in Barrow, and it had the smallest airport I've ever been to - basically one room, one luggage chute, and one check in counter, and that was it. After a bit of confusion we met up with our tour guide, Eli, and we had a 6 hour tour of Barrow. The town is tiny, so we could have finished sooner, but all in all, it was a nice tour.

Along the way, I got to see and touch the Arctic ocean - it is beautiful. We also saw lots of ships coming in - there are no roads to Barrow, so everything comes via plane or boat. Here are some facts about Barrow and its residents:

• Barrow residents will be paying $7 a gallon for gas this upcoming year, no matter what the price is everywhere else. This is because they buy the supply for the whole year once a year, and it is delivered via ship in late August/early September.
• Milk costs $10 a gallon! Eggs were >$4 a dozen, and a 12 pack of soda was $12, with some being on sale for $9 or so. Chips were $8 a bag. I think I would be screwed here - I love my diet coke, but who can afford that?!? I guess some people actually bring coolers when they fly to other places so they can return with food. What a different way of life.
  
• 80% of the people here hunt for subsistence - they hunt caribou, moose, seals, bears, whales, and birds. Our tour guide and his family hunt, and they ate a caribou head the day before. I mean the whole head ,brains included! Not sure if I could do that
  
• There were animal skins drying all over town. They use the skins for different things.
• Oh, it's a heavily Inupiat community - run by their tribe. I saw signs for a regular court house and a tribal court - kind of a split between native and non-native ways of life. Interesting to see the blend. Another example of this - as we watched some native dances, one of the singers was texting on her cell phone as she sang. A clash between new and old I guess you would say.
  
• The town boasts a big Native Heritage center, where they showed us some native dances and drumming. We got to participate in a blanket toss, and that was really neat - as a group, we were able to throw the woman probably more than 15 feet in the air! The blanket toss is part of the succesful whaling celebration, and you literally toss a person into the air via a blanket (we all stood around the edge, holding it, and then we worked together to toss her).
  
• About 5000 people live here, and it's the northernmost US city!
• Odd contrasts here - the houses are total slums for the most part. Windows broken, crappy paint, you name it. Just total crap - they look worse than third world housing, but it's still part of America. However, the heritage center and some other buildings were quite nice. And they have a $1 million football field. Most of the money for that was donated I think, but man, they need money for regular housing! I don't know how they make it through winter in some of those houses (it can be 70 degrees below zero there).
• They catch approximately 18-22 bowhead whales a season or a year here. The whales are huge - we saw the skull for one that was 57 feet long. They share the meat and the other parts with the community. Cool.
• Lots of other native traditions in daily practice. I like that.
  
• No polar bear sightings today, but there are signs posted in town saying they are in the area and to be careful!
• The roads/yards are dirt/mud, and sort of go all over the place. Only some parts of the town are based on a grid system. No sidewalks.
  
• People get around by ATV, snowmobiles, boats, or trucks/SUVs. Hardly any regular cars here.
• Sometimes, the whales come right up to shore. They do this to scrape the barnacles off their skin. We didn't see any whales, but some people we met did.
• It's dark for months in the winter, but the sun doesn't set for part of the year either.
• The town had four hotels and several restaurants. Nothing fancy here at all. Very basic, but the restaurant menus were rather extensive, considering that everything has to be brought in via plane/ship. We did eat at a Mexican place called Pepe's, and it was pretty good. Huge menu.
  
• The grocery store had all sorts of food, including fresh fruit and veggies, even asparagus. Again, pretty amazing considering how things have to be shipped there.
• You can see the remains of ancient sod houses all over town - they are over 2000 years old and they housed early inhabitants of the community. Sort of looks like bumpy grass. There are grave markers on many of the bumps.
• There are only 3-5 feet of unfrozen ground before you reach permafrost - this means that graves are dug very shallow.
  
• We had a dinner of sandwiches, chips, and potato salad in the room. All of that stuff cost over $40 at the grocery store!

I went to bed super early, as I'm sick. As a result, I missed the midnight sunset, which is a bummer, but I really wasn't feeling well and needed the rest. Dad tried to make it, but he didn't last either. We could have seen it right from our room, but it just wasn't meant to be.

We had excellent weather all day - we both imagined it would be absolutely freezing in Barrow, with highs predicted in the high 30s, but we had sunshine and little wind. Not sure what the temp was, but it did feel warmer than 30+ degrees. I guess we were lucky to have clear skies, as it's often foggy/cloudy, and planes don't always make it in. It seems we are bringing the sun with us on this trip, as we had clear days in Denali too. I credit Dad with this luck, as it certainly didn't come from me! :)

Saturday, it's more time in Barrow and then a flight back to Anchorage. The flight back to Anchorage arrives late, and I'm probably going to bed right away. Then it's home on Sunday. Yay!