Huh

It occurs to me suddenly that I've been busy all week, and have not remembered to call the Berry Company. I have, of course, NOT gotten a call back from them. Bastards.
So I called back. No surprise that they are not open on Saturday, I suppose. I am, however, surprised that they apparently turn off their entire fucking phone system other than an automated answer giving their business hours. No option for leaving a message, no option for "if you know the extension you need, please dial it now". Just "We're not here. Call back at a reasonable time, you dumb schmuck." (I may be paraphrasing slightly there.)

Alaska; Day 7

Last day on the boat. Weather was finally "Alaska-like", raining off and on and windy all day. No worries though, as this was a travel day; we were all on board as we headed back to port at Petersburg. Nobody had to sit out watching nets, or be running around in the skiffs.

We ran near a group of humpback whales feeding; many pictures were taken!
Flukes, flukes, and flukes!
A pair diving together
Surfacing/blowing
Lateral fins during a roll aka "playing shark"
Dorsal fin
Whale face (really, I promise that's what it is!)

Lots of birds, mostly gulls (mew, and either herring or glaucous), but some cormorants (still no pictures, sorry, I suck) and a couple species that I'd never heard of: White wing scoter and pomarine jaeger (yeah, it's a cruddy picture; he was a long way off and moving fast). Here, wiki has a better picture than I got. These are apparently a rare sighting, I was told repeatedly that I was lucky to see it. Also Arctic terns, and a Pacific Loon in his pretty tuxedo colors.

One daring gull was trying to steal fish from a seal.

As you come into the harbor near Petersburg, there are large buoys to mark the channel. These have become a favored hang out of sea lions, who don't want to swim the 30-40 miles back to the haul-out beach. There was a solid layer of sea lions on the platform of every buoy we passed, and usually 1 or 2 more circling and looking for a place to haul themselves up.

I also got a kick out of the sea lions who would line up in the shallows, each with 1 flipper sticking straight up in the air, just group-napping.

There was this mighty handsome eagle posing as we came into town.

I wandered around through town for a while; not much town to wander through, but there is a fairly neat (and sobering) memorial park, with plaques for folks dead or missing at sea. There are about 4 pages of pictures of plaques here, for any interested.

Dinner was at a bar in Petersburg, Keto's Kave. I gave up and went back to the hotel for bed about 1. A few of the others ended up closing the bar down. Guess I'm too old for that anymore?

Fish and Wildlife has posted a blurb about the otter project.

Alaska; the return trip

Next day was time to head home. Which means that once I again, I commend myself to the goodness and mercy of Alaska Airlines.

First thing in the morning, I called customer service.
"Hi. I'm supposed to be flying out of Petersburg, Alaska today. I did not receive the confirmation call which I was expecting, so I just wanted to make sure everything's okay."
"Did you make a reservation?"
"Yes..." (thinking but NOT said aloud: No, I was expecting a confirmation call because I think you're all psychic and just KNOW when I need to fly, without my bothering with this 'reservation' thing.)
She rattles at the keyboard for a minute. "Did you pay for it?"
"Yes!"
After another 4-5 minutes of key rattling, she finally says "Oh, there it is." (This is NOT comforting, thank you!) She confirms that I'll be leaving that afternoon, and that I'll be allowed on the plane.

I walk down town for breakfast, and then back to the other end of town (what? it's not a long walk) to check out the book store. While I'm poking through the stacks, the power goes out. To the entire town. And apparently to Wrangell and another town as well. I am assured that if the airports all shut down just for little things like power outages, half the scheduled flights through Alaska wouldn't happen. Somehow this is not terribly reassuring, as it's been my experience that half of the flights through Alaska don't happen. (What, me, cynical?)

I spend about 2 hours chatting with a random guy in the hotel lobby (yeah, I'm odd), and then hit the little cafe outside of the hotel for lunch. Sweet potato and rock fish curry over brown rice--good stuff, Maynard. Power came back on somewhere in there.

Then we head to the airport; T and J are on the same flight out as I am, and there are a couple people coming in on that flight that Dennis and Toni are supposed to pick up. I go to check in, and the computer refuses to print me a boarding slip or baggage claim strip. Takes 3 tries for the woman to get it done. I realize that this is probably a result of the power outage and not anything the airline did, but still!

Petersburg is a tiny airport; they don't have the baggage x-ray machines, so everything gets searched by hand by TSA. And swabbed for nitrates. Oddly, even though the clothes I was wearing when I tested positive in Ketchikan are in the bag, they pass it. I do end up having to send my carry-on through twice though, because they couldn't figure out what my camera was on the first trip. *sigh*

So we all board, and the flight attendants come by and tell me to turn off my reader. Since I'm still wondering exactly what that's about, I ask. And get one of the stupidest, blatantly bullshit answers EVER. FAA regulations (I am told) require that all devices, even those with no transmit functions, be turned off because (drum roll please) they want people to pay attention to the safety spiel and these devices would be distracting. Riiiight... because the bloke next to me reading his book, and the woman over across the way with the magazine, those people aren't distracted? Why don't these (dare I say non-existant?) FAA regulations require that books, magazines, games, and newspapers be stowed also? And how come I can't turn the reader back on as soon as the flight attendant is done talking instead of waiting until we get to 10,000 feet? Your answer, it makes no sense! A 6 year old could do better.

Bruce suggests that prior to my next vacation, I should download into the reader the FAA regulations regarding passenger conduct, as well as TSA regulations regarding passengers so that when I get obviously bullshit answers like that (or like the one we got on our Knoxville trip, where the flight attendant claimed it was a TSA regulation that passengers not seated in 1st class couldn't use the lavatory in the 1st class area) I can ask them to show me the pertinent section.

Anyway, rather than deal with turning the reader off every time we land as we island skip down the coast, I start in on the book I bought at the Petersburg book store. Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow. As with most of Doctorow's work, it's available for free download on his site. It was a terribly apropos book, given my recent frustrations with TSA. Basic plot is a teenage kid in California, and his struggles with a Homeland Security Department gone bat-shit (even more so than currently in real life) after a terrorist attack. I recommend it. (As you may have guessed from the links to buy or download it, yeah?)

The flight to SeaTac was actually fairly uneventful. Then I spent 3 hours sitting in SeaTac waiting for my next flight. Picked up dinner at Waji's, which was not bad, but nothing spectacular either. Was continually irritated by the "Talking Fountain" in the waiting area. Someone's idea of art, apparently, is to hook a speaker up to a drinking fountain, so that whenever anyone gets water, it makes quite loud, repetitive sounds like rocks banging together under water. Maybe I just don't get art, but I found this intrusive and annoying, not pretty or soothing.

SeaTac decided to play switchery-doo with the gates, and no announcements were made that I heard. I figured it out (just) before they finished boarding, and the flight to Spokaloo was uneventful.

One final note about airport security: I apparently had a pretty basic misunderstanding of how the "metal detectors" work. I wear this shiny piece which Bruce gave me. As you can see, it's not subtle. This is a big chunk of metal. Not a single security machine cared. I was vaguely aware that it was possible to sneak ceramic or polymer weapons through security, but it had never occurred to me that I could walk through with over a quarter pound of metal. Apparently, stainless steel doesn't interfere with electromagnetic fields enough to trip the security. So you can get through security with practically any sort of weapon, if you're prepared. Meanwhile, people who are absolutely no threat are delayed, harassed, and imposed upon. Does this make me feel safer? Hmm. Nope. "Security theater" indeed. Americans lose, the terrorists win.

Alaska Airlines (Addendum)

So after I was safely returned to the lower 48, I called Alaska Airlines' customer service number to see if they would reimburse me for the leg of the flight up which didn't happen.

I was informed that because they didn't actually cancel the flight (just, you know, decided not to go to where I'd paid them to take me), they couldn't reimburse me anything. It was entirely my problem that I'd decided to leave the plane and pay those other people to get me where I had already paid Alaska Airlines to take me. After all, they'd offered to put me up in a hotel room in Juneau and get me there another day later.
Never mind that reimbursing me for the charter boat would have been a HELL of a lot less expensive than paying for a hotel room, AND would have made a customer hugely happier, thus increasing the chance of repeat business. No, no, I'm just SOL.

What they can do though, is give me a $250 discount coupon for my next flight.

When I specifically told the woman that I am NOT flying on Alaska Airlines again, she helpfully told me that the discount coupon is good for a whole year. I repeated that there is absolutely no chance of my flying on this airline again within that time frame, and thus this is not in any way a helpful offer. She then offered me frequent flyer miles instead.

I repeated (again. re-repeated?) that since I am so unhappy with their service that I won't be flying their airline again, so frequent flyer miles are not of use to me EITHER. What I want, and what might make me less wroth with AA customer service, is reimbursement for the leg of the trip that I paid for and which they did not deliver.

She transferred me to her supervisor.

Supervisor and I had EXACTLY the same conversation. At the end of that, she started over, but increased the offer to $350 discount. Yeah, that's nice, you can make it $3000, and it doesn't change the fact that I will not be flying Alaska Airlines within the next year and therefore it is nothing but salting the wound. She then falls back on frequent flyer miles, upping that offer to 14,000 miles. Now, to add to the fun here, this whole thing has taken so long that clients have arrived (you'd think 20 minutes would be enough, but apparently not), so I'm docking tails on a litter of puppies while talking to Supervisor. I finally get fed up enough that I give up. I accepted the frequent flyer miles (after Supervisor finally thinks to tell me that they can be used on other airlines), and hang up.

So. I remain un-mollified by Alaska Airlines' customer service.

Now, I loved the time I spent in Alaska, but unfortunately Alaska Airlines is the only airline that flies there. If I go back, I believe that I will take the ferry.