Alaska Bear Trip - Day 1: Airport Travel
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DAY1: Airport Travel: The rules have changed drastically for passengers since my last trip. Here are some of the new things I had to do:
I didn’t have to do a strip search but I did feel like I was stripping for them. You now have to take off the following an place into a plastic container which goes through the xray machine:
* the shoes you are wearing,
* ALL outer garments (coats, vests, sweaters),
* purses, fanny-packs, cameras — anything that I was carrying or was strapped to you.
* computers have to be removed from the carrying case. (It did not have to be turned on like it had in years past.)
My Horizon flight left Arcata, CA at a little past noon with a short hop to Redding, CA (20 minutes) then the longer journey to Portland. The flight was fairly comfortable because they were only about two-thirds full. I arrived in Portand about 2:30 PM.
Although the flight was short, I now had a 6-1/2 hour layover in Portland. That was the bad news. The good news was that the airport is fabulous — great shops, food courts, and restrooms. They also had WiFi so you could connect your plug in a computer in the waiting rooms along. I could not get my computer to recognize the WiFi, however, it worked for others. I believe it had to do with the security on my laptop. Anyway, I’m now looking into a WiFi card (memory stick with WiFi locator software) that should work.
Here’s a photo from the airplane:
Immediately after taking this photo I was asked to put the camera away.
The airport also had a room set aside with cubicles with built in tables and electric plugs and the WiFi worked there as well (for SOME people). I was able to take advantage of the space for downloading the photos from my camera to my laptop. I also could have done other non-Internet things, but I was just too darn tired so…. I napped. That’s right, I laid my head down and slept for a couple of hours. Pretty nice! Much easier than trying to sleep in a chair alone.
Alaska Airlines was nice. Here’s a few photos of the 1st plane I was on:
Bear hugs, Frankie
If you want to know what you can do to protect polar bears and other endangered species, contact The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) at National Wildlife Federation (NWF)
