26 August, 1998

August 26, 1998

Fly From Barrow to Fairbanks****Put Gear In Storage****Lunch with Renee Crain****Don Flies Home****Javier Works at ARCUS****Last Night in Alaska

We got to the airport early and boy was there a mad rush on. The small terminal was packed with people leaving for Fairbanks. I guess when there is only one flight a day and no roads out of town the airport becomes a center of business. The flight itself was uneventful and when we arrived in Fairbanks, we stuffed all of our gear into a tiny Toyota and put things in storage for next spring when Anna gets to do everything again.

We went to ARCUS and picked up Renee so we could go to lunch at this chowder house. Really good food and really good company. It is nice to be back in "the real world" again and have some of the luxuries we have been doing without for a while. The prices of food are also back to almost normal too. My flight was leaving shortly so we went back to ARCUS, dropped Renee off and headed to the airport. I am going to miss the activity here but I am also looking forward to starting my new job at Rogers High School. At least I get to see Fritz, Anna, and Javier in November when we model the data and I think make a web page of our experiences.

The flight home was great. Weather was clear and cooperative and the pilot gave us all a breathtaking view of Mount Denali. My gosh, we were 25,000 feet nad the mountain was ABOVE our plane. You could see the glaciers and other formations near the summit. I really wish I still had my camera. This would have been one for the scrapbook!

Well, for me I am signing off for a while. I will try to put a summary of my experience in the journals but as Anna has already finding out, teachers get way busy at the beginning of the year so it might be a while. Hang tight and drop me ane-mail if anyone gets a chance. I will reply in kind.

TTFN

Don

JAVIER'S PIECE

After a cloudy trip to Fairbanks, which I slept most of the time, we met Renee Crain and headed out for lunch before Don had to go home. Lunch was fun. It was nice to be back in "normal" time (as opposed to "Barrow" time where things open at 11 and close at 3 regardless of daylight.

After we dropped Don off at the airport, we went to develop my pictures. Some came out okay, some came out spectacular (which I have to give credit to my camera... the finest piece of Japanese photography). Some came out like ... well they came out really bad. After sorting and labeling them for the afternoon, I went with Anna to a nice steakhouse overlooking a river and we had a great American meal. Actually, I had a croussaint (spelling?), but hey, that's what being an American is all about, right! Trying out new experiences, assimilating new cultures into your own. That croussaint was the culmination of my new experience, and for that, I thank NSF.