All five of the Pacific salmon have a common name, and a really common name. Chinook salmon are also called kings. Coho are also called silvers. Sockeye are reds. Pink salmon are also called humpies. Alas, the poor chum salmon, whose common name conjures up images of ground-up fish gruel used to attract sharks, are also known as dog salmon. This name stems from the practice of using chum salmon as dog food… so in at least one respect, both of these monikers end up more or less in the same linguistic place – ground-up fish gruel… one for attracting sharks, the other for feeding sled dogs.

Chums get no respect.

In many places in Alaska, the run of pinks and chums more or less coincide with each other. These runs also coincide with the silver salmon run, and often people will be actively fishing for silvers, but catching pinks and chums. Most people don’t keep the pinks – by the time they reach fresh water, their flesh is quickly deteriorating in quality, and since people prefer the silvers, they toss the pinks back. Almost nobody keeps chums. Chums are for dog food. Nobody eats dog food.

Yesterday we were fishing (for silvers) and catching a lot of chums. They may not be the choice for the table, but I tell you what, they sure are strong. They’re not jumpers, they’re pullers. Pullers and head-shakers. They’re aggressive and take lures readily. They can get quite large. They’re colorful. The lure of choice is typically a Pixie or a Vibrax, and this is exactly the lure you’d be using for fishing for silvers. Unfortunately, chums are so strong that they often straighten the hooks on the lures! So when you’re fishing for silvers and hook a chum, you often experience the double-disappointment of catching an undesirable fish and having to retire your favorite lure, because the hooks are ruined!

When I was fishing this weekend, I had a couple of guests with me from the East Coast. Neither had ever caught a salmon before. The silvers were being elusive, but the chums cooperated, and both of my friends landed hard-fighting chums. It is an experience I am sure they won’t forget.

After my friends left, the rest of our fishing party started to discuss how chums really need another name… something that doesn’t conjure images of ground-up fish gruel. The commercial fish people have done just that, and when you see chums in the supermarket, you’ll see them under the name “silverbrite” salmon. Seems a little misleading, doesn’t it?

In the spirit of full disclosure, until yesterday, I had been disparaging the chums myself, by grouping them together with pinks, and calling them “humpies and chumpies”. But I am past all that – I have seen the error of my ways, and now I have a new-found respect for them. I may not want to catch them and take them home and cook them… but as fighters, they’re top notch.

So, we narrowed down our new name for chums to two choices. Which do you prefer?

Alaskan River Marlins or Tiger Tuna?

We’ve been getting some phone calls today from one of our leisure travel clients who is feeling a bit put out because of weather-related travel delays. Fortunately for me, she’s not my client, but rather, my office-mate’s. But if she were my client, this is what I would tell her:

Relax.

There are a whole constellation of things conspiring against our client – the weather, the fact that everyone is trying to get back to Alaska after the holidays, and unfortunately, unrealistic expectations.

As a professional travel planner, I arrange a lot of airline flights, and coordinate them with our custom tour packages. One of the most important aspects of planning a trip is to make sure that potential for airline delays don’t impact your other plans. For example, when we plan a trip for clients, we never plan any activities for the day you arrive in Anchorage – the flight is long, and you’ll be tired… but more importantly, there’s no guarantees your flight is going to arrive when they promise it will. And for our Iditarod packages, we often will allow for another full day, especially if the guests are coming from the east coast or Europe.

Airline delays have become such a problem that many airlines have taken to pushing back arrival times – it doesn’t slow down the travel, but it changes the expectation. On a recent trip, all four of my flights arrived early… presumably because the airline added another half hour to the expected travel time to help pad their ontime performance.

But really, this isn’t what our client is complaining about. She wants to be here in Alaska, and she’s stuck in some airport along the way, and because of weather and heavy holiday traffic, she’s not going to arrive here when she had hoped. That’s a shame. But being upset about it doesn’t fix it. She needs to relax.

Once I was traveling from Fairbanks to Washington, DC for the Christmas holidays, and it took me twenty-four hours, four airports, and a lot of improvised scheduling to get around the weather and traffic delays.

I had a blast.

Whenever I travel, I bring a book… or two. It is really the only time I get to sit and read, so for me, the book is the treat. I also bring my mp3 player and some really nice headphones. I don’t go anywhere without my laptop… but that can be a mixed bag, because that is just one more heavy thing you have  to lug around with you. If I have a layover – whether scheduled or not – I make sure I take in some of the amenities that hub-city airports have to offer. For some, it could just be a nice lunch, or a drink a the bar. If the layover is extended, you might want to consider buying a one-day pass to one of the airline suites. Most have free Wifi, snacks and drinks, comfortable seats, a friendly concierge or two, and all the latest information on your flights. Sure they’re a little pricey, but when it comes to your sanity, it is often worth it.

The most important thing you can bring with you to the airport is a good attitude. Of course, you want to get where you’re going as quickly as you can. But if you can’t – so what? Make the most of the time you have. Be prepared to have fun. Treat yourself  to a good meal, people-watch, browse the Internet, catch up on your reading, or get to know a fellow traveler. And the key to it all is in the planning. Make your travel arrangements so that a delay of an hour or two doesn’t end up stressing you out and screwing up your plans.

After all, it’s a vacation!