The Excitement Is Over...for the moment...

We have come to rest at last...the great class trip of 2012 is finished. The kids were duly returned to O'Hare Airport, and we stuck around to make sure that they made it through the TSA thicket. Two of them had tribal ID, which was temporarily confusing (not surprised), but the requisite calls were made and they were allowed to pass on to the boarding gate. Several hours later, we began to see texts and Facebook posts suggesting that they had made it to Anchorage successfully. Then it was time for the pictures to begin appearing. I get the impression that they had fun... The trip began on the 21st of May, with a group of four seniors gathered at the airport in Napaskiak. One of them already did not have ID that showed him to be older than three or four years old. We do not always have much call or formal ID in the village. I can go for weeks without even pulling my wallet out of a drawer. However, from time to time, we must accede to the wishes of the outside world for official confirmation of our identities. Not long before we left, we discovered that another of the group could not find her ID, either. This meant that we now had two children that needed to get over to the agency to get tribal-issued ID. That meant that we needed to get across the river quickly, so that all of the necessary pre-flight errands could get done. My wife needed to get to the district office to pick up the check for the trip funds, the dogs needed to get checked in to fly, and the kids needed ID. The plane that was to get us to Bethel was late, and there was not enough room for all of us on it. I stayed at our airport with the dogs while the others got across...(more to come later in the day)