Barrow

I can't believe I'm here. Barrow, Alaska. The top of the world. The
northernmost point in the United States of America. And I'm here.

We flew in on Frontier Airlines. This was another nineteen-seater
propeller plane. This one though had a really low ceiling and you had
to bend over almost in half to get to your seat. It only took about an
hour and a half, even though the pilot said it would take two hours. We
flew in over the Arctic Ocean to land. We flew in over the Arctic
Ocean! This is now my third ocean. The water is actually frozen on one
side of the land spit that is Point Barrow. I have never seen frozen
ocean before.

The high school is fabulous here. This is the North Slope School
District and they have money here. Talking to some people, I found out
that there is a lot of native money and scientific money--lots of
eminent scientists come up here to study the arctic region and that
funnels money in. I have been immensely impressed with the buildings
like the high school, quite possibly the best looking high school and
gym that I have ever seen, and the AC grocery store. (I was even able
to buy a Superman comic at the AC!)

The athletic director even took us on a drive looking for polar bears.
There have been some in town, he says, and we went out to the spit to
see if we could find any. Not tonight, but he didn't seem too worried
and mentioned that we have more days.