Anchorage, AK

I had always dreamed of going to Alaska, but I never thought it would happen.  But when I started the job with the airline I knew that dream would become a reality.  And so it finally did: My first trip to Alaska.  It would only be for a day or so, but I had the trip packed full of things to do.

Tuesday, June 11, I had more training at work.  But when I was done I met my sisters Josie and Emily behind security and we boarded an 8:20 flight to Portland, Oregon.  We got a pretty neat view of Mt. Hood, shrouded by clouds as we prepared to land.

We had a little while to sit in Portland until we boarded our flight to Anchorage.  The sun had set, and it was completely dark when we boarded.  However after a while we could see the sun's glow on the horizon, and by the time we reached Alaska it was pretty bright.  It wasn't something I was used to.  We landed at 1:15, and it was light out.

After we landed, and found our way outside the airport I tried calling the Motel 6 shuttle.  However I couldn't make any phone calls.  It was strange, but I could send text messages.  We did get lucky, though.  Somebody else had called the shuttle and I happened to see it.  So we got a ride, and got checked into our room at Motel 6.  It took a while to get to sleep, despite being tired, because of the sunlight.  But sleep did finally come.

In the morning we were up by 8:00 and hungry.  So we decided to order from a restaurant that delivered.  I settled on a reindeer sausage omelet and pancakes, Emily got a breakfast sandwich and hash browns, and Josie got a cheese omelet with fries and pancakes.

After stuffing ourselves we packed up and checked out of our motel room.  Then we set out on foot. We walked along the road until we came to the Chester Creek Trail.  I knew that connected with the Tony Knowles Coast Trail, and that was where we were headed.  It was very nice weather; sunny, but not too hot and a cool breeze was refreshing.  It was very beautiful scenery.

When we hit the coastal trail, we went south on it, towards Earthquake Park.  It was pretty cool seeing the wide open tidal mud flats, and the mountains across Cook Inlet.  The only thing I wasn't prepared for were the mosquitoes.

(The big "scar" is from the '64 earthquake.  Park of the mountainside tore off and fell into the ocean.)

We continued on, past Earthquake Park up to an overlook where you could see across Cook Inlet.  You could barely see Mt. McKinley against the horizon, and at the other end was Anchorage.

Then we began hoofing it back through town.  We eventually saw a McDonalds far off in the distance and decided it would be a good place to rest up.  We got some smoothies, refilled our waters, and then headed off into downtown.  Emily had seen an advertisement on T.V. for a Polar Bear Gift Shop.  It was supposed to have really good deals on souvenirs and gifts.

The T.V. was right.  There were two stores, and they had a lot of cool gifts at really good prices.  So I got a few key chains and postcards for people.  And I even grabbed a neat shot glass. After that we just wandered around downtown for a while, and tried to find some grills to eat at.  But I couldn't bring my sisters into any of them as they had attached bars.

We decided to call it quits, and catch our bus back to the airport.  We were pretty tired.  So the rest of the trip consisted of sitting at the airport half asleep, and looking out the windows and wondering why it was still light out at 1:00 am.  We caught our plane to Seattle, and then  back to Boise.  It was a great first trip, and next time I definitely plan on renting a car and getting some mobility to see more sites!  I would love to go down south to Seward.