Otterly beautiful
Up a little after 5 to download and print out news for the General to read on the next flight, as instructed by his execs back home. Went to knock on the General's door when his wife answered it and mock-cowered from my raised fist, so that was a running gag the rest of the week; me waiting outside their door (or an elevator, in one case) and raising a fist as it opened. To at least pretend I was on the ball. I only lost him four more times during the week, so...
Three-hour flight up to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, Alaska, then onto more buses to take us down the one highway in the state, along a beautiful inlet between mountain ranges and through a 2.5-mile one-way tunnel down to Whittier for a 4.5hr glacier cruise around the Prince William Sound.
I was unimpressed for the first hour, as the captain/tour guide kept pointing out glaciers way in the distance as we chugged along at 40mph in the middle of the water, but we soon were take up smaller passages and right up to glaciers 400 feet tall, or so they said -- it was hard to get our bearings. At one point, a bear was spotted, and the captain was telling us where to look, but all I could see was this little black thing that looked like my cat Tucker. Only Tucker doesn't jump over waterfalls. Saw mountain goats, saw eagles, saw glaciers crumbling away and crashing into the sea, causing our boat to rock from the waves. Truly amazing. I took cell phone pictures but I can't seem to get my phone to send them to my account. Grr. (Since I knew I was going to be escorting the General, I figured I wouldn't have that much free time to take pictures, so I didn't bring a regular camera.)
There was some downtime while we sailed between glaciers, so I was able to talk to some of the staff and find out how they put one of these trips together. Seems seamless from the outside, but rather daunting from within. Also got a chance to talk to a young attache couple from Norway, who probably weren't as impressed as the guys from, say, Algeria, but still. They asked where I live, and I asked if they knew where Potomac Mills Mall was. In unison, they said, "IKEA!"
Later in the trip, I asked the spouse how to say "Hello" in Norwegian: It's "Hello."
Got back into town and piled everyone into our hotel, and then we had 'leisure time' to shop and eat on our own. Still didn't get to sleep until after 10.
Three-hour flight up to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, Alaska, then onto more buses to take us down the one highway in the state, along a beautiful inlet between mountain ranges and through a 2.5-mile one-way tunnel down to Whittier for a 4.5hr glacier cruise around the Prince William Sound.
I was unimpressed for the first hour, as the captain/tour guide kept pointing out glaciers way in the distance as we chugged along at 40mph in the middle of the water, but we soon were take up smaller passages and right up to glaciers 400 feet tall, or so they said -- it was hard to get our bearings. At one point, a bear was spotted, and the captain was telling us where to look, but all I could see was this little black thing that looked like my cat Tucker. Only Tucker doesn't jump over waterfalls. Saw mountain goats, saw eagles, saw glaciers crumbling away and crashing into the sea, causing our boat to rock from the waves. Truly amazing. I took cell phone pictures but I can't seem to get my phone to send them to my account. Grr. (Since I knew I was going to be escorting the General, I figured I wouldn't have that much free time to take pictures, so I didn't bring a regular camera.)
There was some downtime while we sailed between glaciers, so I was able to talk to some of the staff and find out how they put one of these trips together. Seems seamless from the outside, but rather daunting from within. Also got a chance to talk to a young attache couple from Norway, who probably weren't as impressed as the guys from, say, Algeria, but still. They asked where I live, and I asked if they knew where Potomac Mills Mall was. In unison, they said, "IKEA!"
Later in the trip, I asked the spouse how to say "Hello" in Norwegian: It's "Hello."
Got back into town and piled everyone into our hotel, and then we had 'leisure time' to shop and eat on our own. Still didn't get to sleep until after 10.
posted by Dan at 9:29 PM
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