It took me a surprisingly long time to get this picture (~2 years)--even though I had been through there more than a few times.  -Even then, I had to pull a "tourist trick" (stopping, and backing up on a main road :P ) to get it.  This is on the Dalton Highway, on one's way to the Arctic Circle:

   -Real "original," ain't it? ;)

   *EXTRAORDINARY* *LIKENESS* Here are Norma Pfeiffer and Jennifer Parnham, together for the very first time.  The likeness between these two is positively . . . extraordinary.  It is not just the way they look--but the way they talk--their mannerisms--their attitudes. . . .  More than once, I have seen Jennifer, and thought, "What's Norma doing _here_?!" :) The one on the left in Norma, the one on the right is Jennifer.  No, wait--the one on the right in Norma. . . .  -I can't tell.  :)

   It was no small feat bringing the two of them together--as one is from one of them thar' suthern' states (Eh-hee-hee-HOO! :) ), who now lives in Alaska--and the other is from Montana.  (!) :)

   And here is our "good-bye dinner" to Katariina--recently become Dr. Nykyri.  !!:)!! From left to right: Miko (her husband), Katariina, Fred, Karen, her husband Thomas (who I had just met for the first time), and of course (down front, trying not to be seen) Laura - Babes.  :)

   This picture is from the summer of 2002.  No one--including a 35-year resisdent of Interior Alaska--can ever remember the river being so high:

   And here is a picture of the fire! Fire!! FIRE!!!! (Um, heh-heh.  Sorry about that.) that we had after the COMPS.  After 400 hours of preparation over 2 years and 4 consecutive days of 3 hour tests, the sense of relief was . . . well-nigh indescribable.  :)

On to yet more Alaska pics.