Okmok trip, part 1: Out into the Aleutians

When I left off here, I was scurrying out to a plane in Anchorage nearly a month ago.  Chances for internet access in Dutch Harbor were few and far between (the airport restaurant and library did have wifi, though!).  The internet on Umnak Island never materialized due to weather delays blocking the window to get a tech out there while he was free.  I arrived back in Wisconsin last weekend and have been busily catching up on everything.  I have about 1000 photos from the trip, but to keep things manageable I think I'll break the highlights up into multiple, mainly thematic posts with lots of pictures.  Bear with me, and check out whatever interests you.

We made it out of Anchorage on the second flight the morning of my last post, and there were some nice views above the clouds.

Aerial view of Redoubt volcano

Descent into Dutch Harbor

Some of the sights around Dutch Harbor:

World War II Visitor Center: this is a National Historic Area

Having a tsunami evacuation plan is very important in Pacific coastal areas!

The bald eagles here were almost as prevalent as sea gulls in San Diego.

Old naval radio station

Looking across to the town of Unalaska in the morning fog

the Norwegian Rat Saloon

The RV Thompson, which our UCSD colleagues used to deploy marine magnetotelluric (MT) instruments before the on-shore work started

Amelia's, favorite breakfast haunt in Dutch with a surprisingly good assortment of Mexican dishes

We ended up getting delayed leaving Dutch as well, due to more weather issues between there and Umnak.  Paul Bedrosian's instruments were having their own adventure and fell victim to even more delays leaving Anchorage than we did.  Our charter finally left for Umnak on Monday, just as Paul's equipment arrived in Dutch.

To be continued...

Ready to take off (luckily for everyone, I did not do the driving)

Waving hello and goodbye to the missing shipment of MT instruments