My Travails Thus Far...

I left for Alaska on the morning of June 10th- my flight out of Ft. Lauderdale was at 11:50.  Being the smart packer I am, I had a carry on bag with an extra change of clothes, some toiletries, and my heavy jacket.  This was going to be a long trip to get to Alaska, with lots of opportunities for my checked luggage to get lost, so I thought I'd be proactive.
No problems getting to Houston, and then on another plane from Houston to Anchorage.  Once I arrived in Anchorage Friday night around 7:45 their time (which is 4 hours behind us), my short flight to Kodiak was delayed by an hour.  Then two hours, three, then canceled altogether.  Apparently, the weather is very overcast in Kodiak and no planes are flying in or out.  So now, I'm in Anchorage (with all my bags, yay!) and have to find a hotel room, which was no biggie.  I go outside to wait for the hotel shuttle, and it's about 10:45 p.m. and it's bright sunlight!  Kind of weird, think about it- you're getting ready to go out on a Friday night, and leave the house at 11:00, and it's still light out.
My flight to Kodiak is re booked for Saturday at 9:45 a.m., so I get to the airport at 8:45, and my flight is already delayed due to weather.  One hour turns to two, two to three...I'm making phone calls to make sure the ship doesn't leave without me(!) and I find out that most of the scientific party is stuck in Anchorage as well, so that makes me feel better.  My flight is now rescheduled to 7:20 p.m., so I just hang out at the airport all day.  What fun.

Leaving Anchorage (at 9:30 p.m.) on my way to Kodiak finally! 

7:20 rolls around, and flight is delayed...until about 9:00 when it finally clears up enough in Kodiak for the pilot to land the plane.  So yipee, I'm finally getting on the plane to Kodiak and will be getting on the ship!!  I arrive in Kodiak and no bags show up.  Remember when I was bragging earlier about how smart I was, bringing my carryon with extra clothes in it?  Well, I checked it for this leg of the trip b/c I was lazy and didn't feel like carrying it anymore :(  So now I'm in Kodiak with just a backpack of electronics and money.  Great.  One last flight from Anchorage arrives about 20 minutes after mine, and I barely want to look at the bags on the carousel.  Of course neither of mine are there.  They're still in Anchorage, and will arrive on the first flight Sunday.  Keep in mind that as I'm writing this, it's 3:20 p.m. Sunday, and no flights have yet to arrive because of the inclement weather.  I hop in a cab and speed to Wal-Mart (b/c it closes at midnight, and it's 11:30 by the time I get in the cab) to grab some sweats to sleep in (I've been wearing the same jeans and t-shirt since Friday morning) and toiletries.  My bags DID get on a plane to Kodiak around 7:00 this morning, but the plane had to return to Anchorage b/c of the bad weather here.  Luckily (for me, not them), some of the scientific party is still stuck in Anchorage, and they've gotten my bags and will bring them whenever they get here.  So at least I know (hope) the bags are in reliable hands.  I've spent today just hanging out on the ship, because it's been raining all day, and I have no raingear to protect me, so I can't even go out exploring some of the hiking trails around here without fear of soaking the only clothes I have.

The harbor where the Oscar Dyson is docked. Just a bit overcast.

This has been quite an eventful trip thus far, and we haven't even left port yet. We're scheduled to leave at 0900 Monday, but the rest of the science crew and some deckhands aren't here yet, so we'll just have to wait and see.