I have very little energy today. But I did learn this:
One-way fare from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska by bus and ferry:
Leg One: Greyhound from Seattle to Vancouver, BC – four hours, $24.50
Leg Two: Greyhound from Vancouver to Prince Rupert – 23 hours, $135.00
Leg Three: Ferry from Prince Rupert to Juneau – 24 hours, $152.00
Total: ~ two and a half days, $312.00
One-way fare from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska by airplane:
Alaska Airlines – 2.5 hours, $199.00
I have taken a 24-hour Greyhound ride before, and I have also taken a 24-hour bus journey from London to Grenoble, France. It is not only incredibly non-glamorous, it is apparently more expensive than flying. Wow.
Anyway.
Last night was the 826 benefit. It was pretty good, and we had a great time. I think what I got the most out of it however was the brief talk by Dave Eggers and the accompanying short film about what 826 Valencia is all about. They focus on one thing: helping kids learn to write. This is truly something that is neglected in public schools. Perhaps I have just seen too many posts on internet message boards and myspace blogs and whatever, but I get the sense that writing ability is really no longer valued or taught.
When I was a little kid, about five or six, I was already writing stories. Usually about horses. But I loved it. It was the one thing I could do, apart from drawing horses (I know, I know), that gave me a feeling of real personal satisfaction. I was lucky to have parents who encouraged my writing. I loved to write back then, and still do. These kids who are being tutored in writing at 826 Valencia and elsewhere are so lucky. Unimaginably lucky. The ability to write is something that transcends into other areas of life, from developing a love of reading to overall self-confidence. It’s like learning music. It has multiple applications. If you can write, you can communicate, you can express yourself, you can let people know who you are, whether you are writing a book or just writing a kickass cover letter for a job application.
I guess all of this kind of goes without saying, but it really inspired me to help them out, and maybe you will too.
what’s depressing is that from fairbanks to anchorage (a 40 minute flight) costs just over $200 if you buy it far enough in advance…even more if it’s short notice. it would cost us a lot more than $199 to fly to juneau and we’re in the same state.
Wow. Could it have to do with the size of the aircraft or the airline? Is that one-way? It seems like these fares are sometimes set by the frequency of the flights and how many seats they can sell and things like airport tariffs and so on, so I can fly to NYC for $150 one-way on JetBlue, but it would cost way more to fly to Montana or something.
On Friday I’m flying one-way to Anchorage at a cost of $125 and taking the train back next Tuesday (should be amazing, it goes partly through Denali). While these may not be the busiest airports in the country for business travel and what not, sometimes it’s the only way to go. There are tons of small carriers (float planes, etc) because there are many places in this state you can only get to by plane or boat. It’s kind of crazy if you think about it. I think it’s disappointing however that it seems like because sometimes the only way to get from point A to point B is by plane, they take advantage of that and can sharge $200 roundtrip for less than two hours of flight time.