Hey Alaska, I'm HEEEeeeeere!

Well, I made it.  I'm in Alaska, and I've been here for four whole days.  Yup.  Four days.

My first day, I arrived just before 5pm, and I checked into my hotel.  Once I got settled, I decided that I needed to run outside and check out Anchorage before it got dark.  Funny...it doesn't dark until after midnight.  I can prove it.  I took a picture!

What time do you think it is?  4pm?  Wrong!  I took that photo at 9:15 at night!  I know!

So, around 11pm, I decided to close the curtains; otherwise I'd never sleep.  Once I fooled myself into believing it was actually bedtime, I went to sleep.  And then I woke up at 5am--to bright sunlight.

On my first full day in Alaska, I met my fellow Tour Director Trainees, and we boarded the longest short flight I've ever been on in my entire life!  We flew from Anchorage to Juneau (because there are only two ways into Juneau--air or sea.  But rather than flying direct, we took the milk flight.  What's the milk flight?  Oh, you don't know?  It's the cargo flight that carries supplies to the towns between Anchorage and Juneau, so we stopped in two small towns on the way.  We boarded our flight at 2:45pm and landed in Juneau at 7:35.  A direct flight would have been one hour.  However, I did see some mountains along the way!

Once we arrived in Juneau, I ate King Crab and went to bed.  I know, I totally know how to live it up. But wait!  I had good reason.  We had to be awake at 4:45 in the morning!  Woo!!!

We boarded a coach, stopped to look at a glacier, then headed for the day ferry to Skagway.  It was beautiful!  Not only did I see a ton of gorgeous scenery (on what was apparently a rare sunny day), I also saw sea lions, a dolphin, and some orcas.  It was awesome.

After 5 1/2 hours of ferry riding, we landed in Skagway and were whisked into town (which took about 3 minutes, seeing as how the entire town is 1 mile long).  We wandered around, had a meeting, wandered some more, and then I went to sleep.  And here's a little picture from the ferry ride.

And that's my trip so far.

Yay.

I'll be snarky soon enough, don't worry.