Alaska

Well, after six hours of serving the drunks, we landed in Anchorage. We were a little late leaving because the plane had come from the hangar where it had been sitting all day in the heat so when it arrived at the gate it was blazing..... This is a real geriatric crowd, old and hard drinking and they ran our butts off. You get the "cruise ship" people this time of year. Certainly a more demanding crowd. Top that off with the cockroaches that were coming out of the galley in First Class and it was just plain crappy.

The crew was a bunch of slam-clickers (as in slam the door, click the lock) so I knew I was going to be on my own. The weather wasn't all that great; basically intermittant rain. I ended up going to Humpy's (http://www.humpys.com/) with the pilots. They were actually pretty cool. This is an awesome ale house and they have more selections of beer than you can shake a stick at. I started with a Pyramid Hefewiezen and had an Alaskan Amber for round two. For dinner I had crab nuggets with this awesome garlic dipping sauce. So it was good times.

This time of year, it never really gets dark in Anchorage. We walked back to the hotel around 11:30pm and it looked like it was early evening.

I slept like a log of course because at midnight in Anchorage, it is 3am back home. We are finally at a nice hotel again. We only fly this route for a few months out of the year and for the last few years we stayed at this dump that used to be a nursing home for old Alaskans. Thankfully we are back at a nice place that is closer to town.

Tuesday it was still rainy and dull so I kind of stayed close to the hotel. I walked down to the Downtown Deli http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2806728-downtown_deli_anchorage-i;_ylc=X3oDMTFka28zOGNuBF9TAzI3NjY2NzkEX3MDOTY5NTUzMjUEc2VjA3NzcC1kZXN0BHNsawN0aXRsZQ-- This place is known for it's Sourdough Pancakes, so that is what I ordered, but did not like them at all. I did enjoy the Reindeer Sausage though. The place I usually go to, the Kodiak Cafe, went out of business. This place was ok, but not as good.

I wanted to rent a bike and ride the Tony Knowles trail along the coast, but the weather was just too iffy. I walked around town a bit and then it started to rain again, so I went back to the hotel and watched this funny movie called "Waiting...". I had brought my DVD player along in case the weather was "iffy". It was crude, lude, and pretty funny. Sometimes you need to watch something mindless.

I ended up going back to Humpy's for an early lunch. I just love that place. It was early enough to still have a wee pint, so I tried the Moose Head Rasberry Wheat Ale. It was ok, but a little sweet. Enjoyed it with a nice Halibut burger and some steamed rice with Teryiaki sauce.

Got back to the hotel to try to nap for a few hours. Pick up was pushed back until 920 because the plane was late downline. It actually arrived at 10pm so we sat at the airport for a while. The red-eye home is pretty easy as most people sleep. Of course we were full, but it wasn't too bad.

The thing that really stuck out this trip was the pretty flowers. The colors are so vibrant and so intense. All the public squares and common areas had such amazing landscaping. Nothing like that would make it in the heat back home. They also had these Salmon Statues everywhere (like the cows in Chicago) http://www.wildsalmononparade.com/ . My favorite was the one in my hotel..... Marilyn Mon-ROE





Finally, props to my good friend Jonathan for giving me the idea of starting a blog.