Made it to Alaska!

Joe said I should not blog this evening, because I'm so tired that I make no sense at all....  But I'm trying to stay up till 9pm (there is a 4 hours time difference between Anchorage and New York), so I'll give it a shot anyway.  The sun is setting at 11:27pm this evening in Anchorage, but I will be setting much earlier than that.....
Our day started in Newark, with a 7am flight - which means getting to the airport at 5, because the news has done a very good job scarring us about the security lines.  It was not bad at all (we were TSA pre-checked, making it much nicer), but  that way we had time for breakfast.

We flew Alaska Airlines, through Seattle, and I have to say I was very impressed with them.  Nice new planes, wifi on board, and a Bloody Mary even though we were flying coach. (actually in the extra leg room part, but still....).

We arrived in Seattle in glorious weather, giving us a great view of Mount Rainier and of downtown. We almost wished we could stay there more than our 1 hour layover....  (about 15 years ago, I almost made it to the top of Rainer - we were just a few hundred feet down, but the risk of avalanches was too high, and we had to turn back.  This make me want to go and finish this!)

  But off we went for another 3 1/2 hour flight to anchorage. 

We landed around 1:30pm - in Anchorage"s very nice airport (more about the relative size of Anchorage airport to the city later on).

I actually like flying:  I don't like airports, and I don't like the stress of been on time, and. connections, etc...  But I really like flying across the country, particularly on a nice day like today - when you can clearly see the plains turning into the Rockier, and then the high plateaus before the Cascades, and the Pacific coast turning rugged as you get to Alaska - I just love it!
Since there is a 4 hour time difference, I had plenty of time to walk through the city - it is REALLY small.....

 I walked for 1 hour - slowly- and saw all of it.  Which make the size of the airport hard to understand, until one realizes that all of Alaska travel and business goes through it - that includes fishing, tourism, oil and military.  No one stays here in anchorage for very long - but everyone goes through it - thus the size of the airport, and the number of large hotels.  It is also not particularly pretty, in spite of the spectacular setting - but spectacular the setting is!
Tomorrow, we are off to Denali National park!
Of course we had to end the day with a nice drink - because that's who we are!