Archive for airports
July 2, 2010 at 5:14 pm · Filed under alaska, atquasuk, summer 2010, travel and tagged: airplanes, airports
I’ve written before about the uncertainties of North Slope airplane travel, but I don’t think Jeremy and I have ever before had to wait four hours for the weather hold to be lifted. We expected to pick up Rob and Kelsey from the airport around 8:30 this morning, but here it is five after one and we have yet to get our day started. It’s foggy! Only about 45 minutes ago could we see the airport from the window of the house for the first time today.
Jeremy is sitting backwards on a dining room chair, eyes glued to the window. “Now it’s time for my favorite activity,” he said. “Watching the airport.”
He’s only being a little bit sarcastic. We spend a lot of time airport-watching. Usually we can see it easily, even through mild fog. An unexpected plane, a larger than usual plane, or a line of cars driving out to the airport is sure to catch our attention, and may even be the highlight of a quiet Atqasuk evening.
Jeremy is giving us earnest and constant updates on how well he can see the airport. Currently, it’s gone again.
Rob and Kelsey are on their way from Barrow to join us in Atqasuk for the 4th of July weekend. If I say it like that, it sounds like we’ve planned a vacation; in reality, we of course have work to do, and at first were puzzled at Bob’s decision to have us out of town during the only holiday weekend of the summer. Last time we were here we enjoyed the festivities in town. This year, we will have to enjoy the festivities in a much smaller town. And we will make our own fun- after, of course, we get our work done.
Jeremy and Sergio (our friend from UTEP who arrived in Atqasuk on the last flight yesterday) and I have probably been enjoying the fog wait more than our companions in Barrow, since we’ve been sitting around eating and watching Jackie Brown. But now the movie is over and Jeremy is getting antsy. I imagine that any minute now I’ll hear a familiar cry of “plane’s on the ground!” and we’ll scramble around to grab shoes and coats and jump in the truck to go meet them…
August 23, 2008 at 3:38 am · Filed under travel and tagged: airplanes, airports, interesting people
I was already worried about smelling… unpleasant before I knew that I had another day to wear the same clothes I put on in Barrow. The same clothes I’ve been wearing (and washing!) for ten weeks. I normally don’t care about this, but in the close quarters of a 757, I had only the comfort of my fellow passengers in mind. So I bought a t-shirt at the airport gift shop. Now I’m a whole new Jenny.
My fellow passengers were slightly more removed from my company on today’s flights since I was upgraded. It was nice. The rest of first class was filled with your usual busy business folk and one older Yacht-Club-esque couple. They held hands when we hit turbulence in Minnesota. They were very serious until Mr. Yacht Club had a beer and Mrs. Yacht Club finally got up the courage to use the airplane toilet. These people, the Yacht Clubs and the Business Folk, all looked at me with surprise and mild dislike when I showed up in their little first class village. I was disheveled as all heck and dragging along a muddy backpack covered with Atqasuk travel tags.
Not that any of that is news. Airports and airplanes are all the same. Under construction, busy, and filled with stock characters. In Minneapolis I encountered the typical American family and almost vomited at them with their four blond children and four monogrammed LL Bean rolling backpacks. Whatever. They were cute. I guess. The one kid was a snot, though. He wouldn’t even eat his chicken strips! I’m pretty sure he took a picture of me with his dad’s camera phone. I WAS eating a Berry Tie-dye Fruit by the Foot at the time. Clearly superior to his chicken strips. If I’ve learned anything this summer, it’s that Berry Tie-Dye and Strawberry are the best Fruit by the Foot flavors. Avoid “Color by the Foot” if you can- I know the rainbow coloring is enticing, but trust me.
I did enjoy watching the people during my solo adventure. The other non-stock characters on the loooong flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis were an old Martin Crane type and a Very Important On-the-Phone-Every-Second-Until-They-Say-I-Can’t-Be Gentlemen. He was a little shady. I would cast Tom Cruise in this role for Jenny Rides an Airplane: The Movie. These two fellows had a very important business deal to conduct, but unless they were talking in code, it sounded like Tom Cruise Guy was trying to lure Martin Crane Fellow into a cabin. With fish. I think the deal was about fish.
I was fortunate to have a pleasant seat partner for the long flight. She was pleasant in that we did not exchange words throughout the entire journey. I think she was disappointed that I wasn’t a young handsome single doctor. Based on her choice of reading material, the careful and becoming travel outfit she’d planned, and her mousy demeanor, I invented a life for her that involved patient saving for long cross-country flights where she can meet eligible young men and fall in love over packs of roasted nuts. She’s careful to wear something that shows off her figure but not her skin, partially because she is ever-so modest, but also because she is petite and easily catches a chill on planes. She’s also careful to leave at home the romance novels and especially-oh, the horror, if a worldly man caught her reading something so old-fashioned- her well-loved Jane Austen books. Since she can’t quite bring herself to read Cosmo without blushing, she settles for People magazine. It conveys youth, a sense of fun, an interest in pop culture, and is less stuffy than Time or Newsweek, but is by no means provocative or embarrassing. Her lonely flights take her to Alaska at least once a month, since she is playing the numbers game and everyone knows that Alaska is a virtual treasure trove of MEN.
On the next plane I sat next to a nice older man in a pink polo shirt who ordered a screwdriver and loves West Michigan! He helped me get my bag from the overhead compartment when Cranky Flight Attendant stashed it far away.
At the end of the day I was in Grand Rapids with my parents and my sister. They were okay with seeing me, I think. They thought that my feet should smell better and that I should stop telling them to reduce their carbon footprint, but they can deal.
August 22, 2008 at 12:44 pm · Filed under alaska, travel and tagged: airports
Of COURSE I got up in time to eat two pastries and have a glass of cranberry juice in the lobby of the Puffin Inn. Of course I made it onto the shuttle that I’d signed up for last night, and of course I got to the airport in plenty of time to sit and wait before the 8:45 boarding time. It was plentier of time than I’d originally thought. Last night they told me that I could skip check-in because they had my boarding passes all ready, but I was still expecting a line at security. Silly Jenny, of course there are no lines at security for valued customers who have been bumped up to first class!
Having a bed last night was lovely, though I suspect I will still be able to sleep on the plane. I hope that the rest of my team- none of whom were interested in volunteering to stay with me- was able to sleep well enough. I’ve already spoken to Jobby, and they even delivered my luggage to the new apartment!
Oops. They’re boarding first class. Peace out.
August 22, 2008 at 3:57 am · Filed under atquasuk, Barrow, Research, travel and tagged: airports, food, lemmings
As usual, I have spent the past few days composing paragraphs in my head. They are usually bloggy paragraphs, using my bloggy voice and my bloggy point of view for reporting the cold hard facts. As UNusual, the past few days have been exceedingly time consuming- and not filled with familiar events (otherwise it would be quite usual; we are always busy). Therefore I have neglected my typing.
It’s moderately surprising that the typing is still possible after the summer that my hands have had. Currently I have approximately six OTC wounds and one chamber base injury. Also my cuticles are quite disappointing, and I’ve duly canceled my watch-modeling appointment for next week. Will I never learn to moisturize?
My hands have good reason to be looking abused. We have worked hard this week. It was not apparent to me just how hyperactively we were working during the marathon Atqasuk weekend until we attempted to accomplish the same tasks in Barrow and it took twice as long. The scampering just wasn’t there, maybe in part because we weren’t trying to catch a plane, but also in part because site-teardown and thaw-depth measurements are kind of rough. Rougher the second time around. I managed to bang my knees all up as well, slithering over the boardwalk and remarking the site labels with a beautiful giant chisel-tipped Sharpie.
Tearing down the site (the chambers and the Crazy Tent) seemed an awful lot like putting the summer in rewind. Other efforts in removing evidence of the summer included shaving for Papasaurus (who we dearly hope will enjoy middle school this coming fall) and cleaning out the huts and lab. Some members of ITEX (not the vegetarian or the… English major) chose to further eradicate the lemming population, as if the ermine , owls, and the jaegers weren’t doing a perfectly adequate job. We are bringing five (or six?) frozen (and DROWNED, at the hands of MEAN JOBBY) lemmings back to Michigan. You know. For science.
Papasaurus is famously a non-violent vegetarian, and he nobly vowed to have no part in the slaughter. So noble were his efforts that he held his head high as he stepped his first step onto the tundra on that last fateful field day. So high was his head that he could never have noticed the adolescent lemming that scuttled right underneath his powerfully waterproof tundra boot. Lemmings, upon having their skulls smashed, twitch in a most unsightly fashion.
Readers-in-the-know were aware that my flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis is going on… now. There may not be many readers-in-the-know, so I’ll clue you in: Anchorage to Minneapolis from 9:30 pm to 6 am, and then in Grand Rapids by 9:22! In the morning! Nextly, our NWA flight is not sophisticated enough for weblog-updates. Result: ta-da! Not on the plane. Overbooking struck again, and in the spirit of community service, I volunteered when they asked for… volunteers. To stay until tomorrow. I figure I can put my new domestic flight voucher to good use somehow.
This wasn’t exactly what I intended when I annoyed my coworkers with my wishes that the summer adventure were not at an end, but, in the spirit of adventure, I am quite enjoying my solo detour. It is nothing more than a re-booking, a shuttle ride and a check-in at the Puffin Inn, but it is an adventure nonetheless. I’ve hopped onto the wireless from the neighboring Wendy’s, and this Inn bed is more of a bed than anything I’ve slept on lately. I am both comfortable and disoriented. (Air mattresses actually aren’t that bad.)
One of the events of the week that most seemed to put the summer in reverse was Wednesday’s dinner at Northern Lights. Our first night in Barrow included dinner at Northern Lights, with many of the same people. Only a different (and decidedly pleasanter) dynamic between the groups distinguished the two nights. That, and the nostalgia- we were saying goodbye to UTEP that night and some people are disgustingly sentimental in that way. (Me.)
Despite the fact that her presence was due to some botched and frustrating travel plans, the members of ITEX were exceedingly happy to reconnect with Gilda in Anchorage today. We enjoyed some seafood, beer, and bookstores. Yay Alaska.
I’m going to leave off writing and go to sleep now. Show of hands for who is worried that Jenny will not make it to the airport in time in the morning…
June 20, 2008 at 1:54 am · Filed under alaska, atquasuk, Barrow, travel and tagged: airplanes, airports, hotel
I anticipate that Jeremy and I will be doing plenty of waiting for planes in the coming weeks. There are scheduled flights that do a Barrow-Atqasuk-Wainwright loop three times a day, but variables such as weather, indifference, and simply being an airline keep the flights from following a strict timetable. Fortunately, in Atqasuk, we can see the “airport” from the house as well as the welcoming committee driving out to meet the plane. The welcoming committee consists of a cop who is meant to monitor the traffic of alcohol and the local mail-and-everything-else-of-consequence guy; these two have some sort of mystical connection with the plane that allows them to be aware of its movements while the rest of the town is calling Barrow every five minutes to ask when the plane is going to arrive.
We had a pleasant flight this morning since once again the weather cleared up in both places. Last time we flew on the little single-propeller plane we were five of seven passengers and had only a single pilot to manage the twenty minute trip. Today we had co-pilots, though we were the only two passengers, and we had to climb through the co-pilot’s door because the rest of the cabin was filled up with our only other companion: an ATV.
I watched the plane’s shadow during the short and easy flight. At least, I assumed it was easy, since our pilots were playing Trivial Pursuit during the journey. Jeremy and I were not asked to join.
After spending years of my life firmly on the ground, I have suddenly experienced many airports, and all in the space of a week. Some, like those in Fairbanks and Grand Rapids, were under construction, while I barely got to see the airports in Minneapolis and Barrow, the former because we were running to catch the connecting flight on time, and the latter because it was jam-packed with those arriving, those departing, and the people who were merely expecting some sort of freight.
My favorite airport so far is definitely the other Barrow airport. The jam-packed one is the official Alaska Airlines terminal, while Frontier, who we use on the weekly flights to Atqasuk, occupies the old pre-metal detectors Alaska Airlines building. Other than the usual door into the building from the street, the only exit is the door with a piece of paper saying “Gate F7” taped to it that leads out back to the runway.
I’m hoping that Gates A7 through E7, or Gates F1 through F6, or A1 through F6 or WHATEVER, are actually secret portals hidden around town that we have to discover in order to be worthy of the magical adventures they undoubtedly lead to.
Since we were gone a whole three nights (or two, in the case of my roommate), the hotel in Barrow found it necessary to move Jean and I unannounced from one room to another while we were away. Though the rooms are nearly identical, they had the decency to move us to a room with a nicer desk chair, and plumper pillows… not to mention that ROOM FOUR is right next door to the bathroom. I guess that’s worth having all my stuff schlepped down the hall without the benefit of first closing the zipper on my suitcase.
Look At Me Still Talking When There's Science To Do 