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Well, downtown Anchorage wasn’t that much fun yesterday. The museum of Alaskan history + art is well worth visiting, but other than that it was quite limited in terms of things to do. The Imaginarium is touted as being very good, though it was full of kids and mainly aimed at them. I suppose if we hadn’t done a flightseeing tour the day before, the Alaskan Experience Center showing a 45 minute film of slide snap-shots taken from the air over Alaska would have been worth visiting.

Quite sad to have left Alaska as it really has been wonderful. Although I’ve got over a week yet before coming home, Minnesota + Winnipeg tomorrow evening aren’t really going to match up, but at least this week should be more relaxing. Taking off last night made it my 9th flight in 9 days and have now travelled something like 12,000 miles in total so far!

So, after a slightly delayed flight out of Anchorage last night, we got into quite bad snow storms in Minneapolis early this morning. As the rental car assigned to us hadn’t been returned we got a free upgrade – a Pontiac G-series with a V6 engine. Very tasty! A long drive up to Halstad was uneventful, and now that we’ve got things cleared for heading up to Winnipeg tomorrow (since Kat forgot her passport…) we’re good to go!

We’ve got ice hockey late tomorrow afternoon and then trying to find something fun for the New Year’s eve celebrations. Couldn’t find much special online, so will probably just see what bars are open and any events the hotel knows of that are arranged. Hope everyone else enjoys the celebrations and doesn’t get too rowdy!

So, the weather this morning was clear, very clear! After calling up the tour company and getting picked up by Vern, the owner + pilot, we initially had some (funny) doubts with climbing into a knackered Chevrolet mini-van with an old guy with a very strong accent originally from Mississippi. But, so long as you listened carefully, you could just about understand him!

I must say, it really was one of the most amazing things I’ve done! You can see mountain ranges on TV documentaries, nature programmes, etc. and in books, but to actually be there is stunning. Mount McKinley rises from sea-level to it’s peak at 20,320 feet, and is unbelieveable – apparently the tallest mountain in the world in terms of height gained. Those in the Himalyans and other mountain ranges may well be taller, but this really does rise out of nothing.

Onto some photos then! Think I took around 100 photos in total, but here’s a few downloaded quickly. First up, this is the Alaskan mountain range as you fly into the area:

Here’s the view of the Kahiltna glacier and Mount McKinley on the right. Can’t remember the peak on the left, just a few hundred foot lower than McKinley itself. The Kahiltna glacier is one of the largest there is, certainly in this area – 45 miles long and 7 miles wide:

And Mount McKinley itself from closer up whilst circling the bowl where most of the climbing expeditions head out from. It’s not considered to be technically difficult in terms of climbing it, but as the weather can be so dangerous, some of the worst in the world for mountain climbing in terms of how it can swing, a number of deaths have been recorded, and many expeditions end in failure.

After quite a bit of turbulence looking at swinging around the back of McKinley, Vern changed tack and swung back round the other side and into the great gorge above the Ruth glacier. It wasn’t until we were told the gorge was over a mile wide we realised the sheer scale of thing!

The glaciers themselves just didn’t seem real. Flying back out down the glacier out of the mountains had us flying 800 feet above the ground and descending 500 feet per minute. You just didn’t realise how steep the glaciers fall away as it all seems so level. The actual glaciers seem a little rough with humps + bumps which end up actually being like 100 foot high! But, we ended up back safely:

So, for anyone in Alaska, head to Anchorage and get in touch with Vern at Vernair for an awesome experience!

Made it safely to Anchorage after a right carry on with flights. Were due to leave Tuntutuliak at 9a.m, but by 10.30a.m we called the airline only to find they had us booked for the 1p.m flight. No real problem, but then at 11a.m they called to let us know they’d be landing at 11.30a.m. Fine, fine. 5 minutes later our taxi driver tells us he’ll be 10 minutes…

So, here’s a few photos. This first one is the sunrise this morning across the back of the school buildings, and then another photo showing just how lovely the little aircraft was that we flew out on. Was the same kinda plane that flew me in to the village, though since there wasn’t as much cargo, we had a ton of room in the back two seats!

This is the view looking back on Tuntutuliak as we were taking off. There’s a load of other photos I took during the flight showing just how much (or little!) there is out here:

And here’s the two of us all wrapped up warm. Shame about the inflight movie – was no trolley service either… Least the pilot turned round half-way down the runway and shouted “You guys got your seatbelts on, yeah?”

But we got into Bethel without problems, had a nice Italian meal at a place called Dimitri’s, then headed up to Anchorage. Luckily we’d checked in early at the flight was overbooked. After calling for the shuttle to pick us up, the Millenium Hotel is really very smart. The hallways are all decorated with excellent photos + paintings, along with many stuffed animals – didn’t realise how big things like mountain goats, wolves, and moose actually were until I saw these things! Would recommend the Moose Lounge – excellent food, and they topped up our drinks 4 times and they don’t charge extra!

But. hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow for the flight-seeing tour!

Well, gonna be leaving all the igloos in an hour or so. Got a flight up to Bethel (hopefully on a little 3-seater jobby again!) and then another flight back over to Anchorage. A bit closer to civilisation I suppose, and hopefully the weather will be okay for the glacier flight tomorrow over Mount McKinley and the Denali National Park. Really looking forward to that. Then apparently there’s shopping to be done on Thursday Walmart and other major food stores let you shop in-store, then have all the food shipped back to wherever so Kat needs to pick up a load of food – first time in 5 months or something it hasn’t all been done online!

Plus, we got a car rented for when we hit Minneapolis which Kat’s excited about as again, she hasn’t driven in 5 months. I’m thrilled… Especially with her track record with cars (check the photo from our trip back in May where I was left stood by the Interstate with a hole blown in the engine block and half a piston dangling through it…)!

But, got to make it to Anchorage first!

Well, definately reckon we got ourselves a white Christmas! We’re off to get water (steal from the school…) which should be fun as there’s only like a 200 gallon tank on the house which is pretty much out now. The locals go ice chipping, where they cut blocks of ice out from the frozen rivers + lakes and then allow it to thaw in their tank. The water is probably cleaner + purer that way, as the village water itself contains traces of arsenic!

But, for a Christmas present Kat made me this qaspeq which is a traditional shirt the Yup’iks wear. Hand made too, and is really comfortable – just like a native!

What did I get Kat for Christmas? Chocolate, a miniature tree to go on her keyring, a Disney sticker book and an engagement ring… There was me, down on one knee (honest, I was!), telling her much I love her, and then the daft bugger said yes So, she now has a pretty ring on her finger (some of you will have already seen it). If not, here it is:

So, guess it’s time for all you wimin’ to get a hat sorted or something like that!

This ring got me into so much trouble coming through immigration at Minneapolis as I seemed to have The Grinch handling my I-94 and ended up with a 10 minute lecture on how he didn’t care where we lived after we got married, and preferably that should be in England (welcome to the US…), but I wasn’t allowed to even contemplate getting married whilst over here. I’d forgot my suit anyways…

Just a couple of quick photos from wandering around the village today. Is quite weird to walk across frozen lakes as if it’s an every day occurence. Suppose it is up here! This is the view looking back onto the village from the walk up to the dump, which is actually quite a pretty walk!

And, as I’ve now been nicknamed the Jolly Green Giant due to my coat, which is actually warm, here’s a snap of me too:

Well, finally arrived around lunch time yesterday. The plane out of Bethel was delayed by over 2 hours due to ice on the plane which wasn’t much fun after already spending 40 hours travelling. But, the plane into Tuntutuliak was a little 3-seater jobby with me sat up front next to the pilot so that kinda made up for it! Was very cool, and seemed such a magical way to fly into this place! The flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage was pretty bad with turbulence, and didn’t get much sleep in Anchorage as the airport stayed pretty busy through the night. The trans-atlantic flight was good though as I was on a new DC-10 which meant nicer seats, more space, and even more importanly – a TV screen for each seat! Certainly made things go by quicker with 30-odd movies to pick from!

It’s pretty cold though (duh!), and very weird with daylight, or rather lack of! It’s just gone 10.30a.m and is just starting to get light, though the sunrise is quite pretty. Am due to get the guided tour of the village today which should be fun, though from what I saw as we rode in on the four-wheeler from the airport, a lot of the houses are very much the same. Quite weird to see all these wooden huts raised above the ground that look very run down, but then brand new snowmobiles and 4-foot satellite dishes outside!

Plus, there’s not quite as much as snow as I expected. Maybe there is, and it’s all just compacted down, but I expected to see 4/5 foot of snow, but there’s not. Sure everything’s covered, and all the boardwalks are pretty icy, but it’s not like all the roofs of buildings and water tanks, etc. are covered in the stuff. Reckon you could build a pretty good snowman mind!

but no, I ain’t singing the rest of the song!

Reckon I’m pretty much sorted, but know I’ll have forgotton something! So long as I have passport, tickets + money, I’ll be fine. After all, I can ask for several key essentials in Spanish… Gonna hit the sack soon and make the most of a proper bed – will be 2 days before I get another one of those!

So, here’s hoping I don’t get lost and end up in the wrong igloo, and of course, praying the delightful baggage handlers in Amsterdam don’t pull their usual trick! I’ll try to update things whilst I’m away with some pretty photos, and the little section on the left hand side here should loosely let you know where I’ll be.

Well, with buggering off to the land of the eskimo bright + breezy on Wednesday morning, we’ve been celebrating Christmas today. Means I get two lots of pressies + Christmas dinners! Well, am sure Kat will throw something in the microwave next Sunday at least. Bet there won’t be any chocolate brownies or anything either…

Had an auntie on the phone that never listens to you much wishing me a good trip and said she’ll be thinking of me whilst I’m away. She also asked how I cope with the language barrier whilst over there. I couldn’t resist – told her I had a translator for converstations with the Americans. “Ah well Iain, you’ll pick up the language soon enough” she said. Poor thing – is still believing I’m actually going to be living in an igloo for a week!

But, on a slightly sadder note, one of our neighbours lost his fight against stomach cancer on Friday night / Saturday morning and died in his sleep at home. Illness had come on suddenly, and although his family were expecting a struggle, didn’t expect it to come so quick. He was only 36 and leaves a wife and 2 year old daughter. Certainly makes you realise how lucky you are and grateful to at least be able to celebrate Christmas with your family, something although many won’t see as a blessing on Christmas afternoon when everyone starts arguing after too much turkey, they should!

Truth be told, I just haven’t had the time to play around with this project as much as I wanted. Maybe with it being close to Christmas and stuff winding down at work (plus, just wanting to be in Alaska by now!), I just don’t have the energy on an evening to sit down and crack on.

But, Samba has been running quite happily for a week or so and integrated quite nicely with OpenLDAP. Running on two different severs, thus simulating what you’re likely to get in the network environment, has been a bit of a struggle. All the documentation with regards to running the two of them together are aimed at them being on the same physical machine. Taking out SSL makes this fairly easy and doesn’t cause problems, but most of the tutorials on enabling SSL make it harder. This has been the cause of most of my problems.

In the end, a combination of Samba-OpenLDAP howto from Idealx (a bible almost!) and the LDAP SAMBA PDC Howto from the Gentoo Wiki (always excellent resources!) have got things up + running. Moving between the two doucments is fairly easy, but for the SSL parts, stick with the Gentoo Wiki version – much easier.

Configuring the client machine has been fairly non-eventful in terms of authentication – a couple of simple changes to PAM and configuring of the OpenLDAP connection all that is required. Logging in works fine, correctly authenticating and determining group privileges. It’s getting the correct drives mapped across that’s a challenge at the moment, and this is what I just can’t be bothered to figure out right now!

Again, almost all the tutorials expect you to be running Windows clients, which make it dead easy to configure using the login.bat scripts. However, these don’t work for Linux clients, requiring your own logon scripts. I’ve pretty much got it handling the home directories and the associated shared network drives. I’ve had a quick play with How to Implement Login Scripts into a Pure Linux Environment from the Novell KB which seems to do the trick, but I’m not too happy with the method of grabbing the groups and writing them to disk before mounting them.

Overall, aside from my mistakes and ignorance in not fully understanding SSL connections between the servers, and the struggle in getting login scripts to handle network drives, it’s all been fairly easy, albeit slow going! Certainly the smbldap-tools from Idealx have given the power required to add new users, create these Samba groups for shared network drives, and adjusting the user + group permissions.

For me, one of the core features of a network system for end-users is to allow any information they need to be accessible from anywhere, no matter the machine or OS, hence the design around Samba to facilitate Windows machines, as opposed to going for NFS (a much easier method considering the bulk of the work + clients I’d use would be Linux). This basic setup shows this is possible, but fiddly when compared to the Microsoft AD and NTFS shares it’s designed to replace.

Once additional features such as the web caching + filtering get built-in along with e-mail (both on separate servers – more work!), the true power and benefits should become apparent since they’re all running from a single authentication point and directory from the word go, without the need to hack things together as is the case with current MS AD / Samba connectors.