Alaska

Well, tomorrow I head for King Cove Alaska. It is very easy to get to - only takes four flights on four different aircraft and all day. I fly from Spokane to Seattle - change planes, Seattle to Anchorage - change planes, Anchorage to Cold Bay - change planes, Cold Bay to King Cove. Each airplane gets progressively smaller starting with a 727 and ending with a puddle jumper that hopefully will make it (gravel runway). I look forward to seeing Andrew and his family, he will be celebrating his 40th birthday while I am there. He filled me in on the plans he has while I'm there. Goes something like this: I arrive Wenesday, a school bus will pick me up. Thursday he has secured passage on a crab boat where we will have a couple of bunks, we will lower his four wheelers into the cargo hold and head out into the Bering Sea. ( I asked how much and he said to bring the captain a bottle of whiskey ) We head to Cold Bay to fish for Silvers, Reds, Humpies, Halibut and whatever else we can. We then head up the coast looking for caribou, if we spot them we will go ashore and hunt same. Have been advised to bring a pistol for the bears and travel light and bring a cooler to haul back all the salmon and caribou I can take. We will be out 4 days and then come back to King Cove for a traditional Inuet birthday celebration consisting of a bonfire and whale killing. For his 40th he will undergo the Inuet rebirth or 'kizat ungk jahk'. The whale will be slit open at the sternum and he will climb in (naked except for a headband) and work his way through the whales internal organs and emerge through the vagina in a triumphant rebirth symbolic of the second half of his journey in life (in this form anyway) After they wash the slime off he will give a short speech and there will be a feast and possibly fireworks. Tuesday he has to teach school but he says another boat captain wants to take me out fishing so we'll see how it goes. Wenesday afternoon I began the journey back that will take two days. Can't wait to see King Cove, I will take a couple hundred pictures so everyone can see what it is like up there. See ya.