"Northern Lights" - Alaska
	Day 1:  Saturday, May 11, 2002

The day began late because, unlike past trip, aircraft was involved.  The reality of it being over 3,000 road miles from home to Anchorage, and the fact that many of those miles were on un-maintained roads, didn't appeal to me.  Throw in the fact that there is no AAA road service in Canada, and the boy's cell phone doesn't work in Montana, so it sure as heck won't work in the middle of no where in the Yukon Territory of Canada.  

Thus, we became part of the Flight 554 experience.  Given the trip to Manila, Philippines last month, I'm getting good at this air travel stuff, but it's still not like driving.  We arrived at the airport around 2pm for the 3:45pm flight, and after getting through security and baggage check (which was, to my surprise, more involved at this domestic flight on United versus the international flight last month to Manila), we sat.  And sat, and sat.  But I managed to play on the thingy that moves people from place to place.  Humans - you can't even walk for yourselves?  Why, when I was a duckling, we'd have been delighted to have the ability to walk by ourselves... anyway.

I also found that like cooking, a watched status board doesn't move any faster than if it weren't watched.  But I was bored, there were no other chicks to stare at, and the balance of the passengers weren't overly interesting, as they sat, bored, all around me.

We left the ground at 3:55pm (10 minutes late, you'll notice), had an in-flight movie that had that guy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in it, something about a molecule accelerator wristwatch (yeah right, dude), and before you know it, we were landing in Anchorage at 7:11pm (Alaska time), which was about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.  Kudos to the pilot, and to the girl two seats over from us, who was polite enough to not try and talk to me, or get up during the flight and make me, in turn, get up (she was on the window, I in the middle, and the bald, tubby one on the aisle).

The baggage was collected by 7:30pm, and the rental car secured from the good people at Alamo (James, if I'm not mistaken).  And despite what you may have heard, yes, this is your grandparents' car.  On the flip side, we quickly found that with the design of the interior, when I'm not driving, I fit quite comfortably on the dash - yessss!  

We did have a bit of trouble getting out of the lot.  The lot attendant, a girl of perhaps 20 years, light brown hair, paige-boy haircut, alabaster skin, apparently ran out of paper in her receipt printer.  Thus, the gate wouldn't open.  She struggled to change the paper, once she managed to find more paper, and it was a good 3-4 minutes before we were set free.  I told the boy she was probably feeling frustrated, and he should make her feel better by commenting that she was in fact quite cute, and asking her for her number.  He declined... something about there could be a terrible row back at the coop.  I don't know what that all meant, but it sounded chicken-related.  Or, perhaps HE is the chicken in the scenario... dunno.

Under my keen sense of direction (fly south for the summer, north for the winter, enough said), we found the motel, tucked a bit (24 blocks) north of what you'd call the primary downtown area.  After checking in, we decided to wander.  Not really hungry, but I needed batteries for the camera (that camera sucks batteries like... well, never mind).  We took an extended route to get there, as is the style of the time, and because I found there are Chevron gas stations around town, I'm comfortable driving around in circles (don't ask, but it's a good thing).

The downtown skyline is nice, even if it is 24 blocks away from the action (read, Wal-Mart and Arby's).  The area between the motel (5th Street) and the Wal-Mart area (30th Street) is separated by several inlets.  They're very pretty to look at, of course, although at the eastern equivalent of it, there was really no movement in the water, leading me to the notion that it's probably swarming with mosquitoes. 

I also enjoyed the West Anchorage High School mascot mural, although for different reasons, I'm sure. Has anyone here stopped to consider an eagle actually lifting a boat anchor?  It's a matter of weight ratios -- a 40 pound bird cannot lift a 500 pound anchor.  Period.  Check my math, if you wish, but you'll find I'm right on this one. 

Anyway, yes, we managed to find the Anchorage Wal-Mart... by the way, they don't really like you taking pictures in their store.  Carrying a duck in your backpack doesn't go over that well, either.    Rainbows are nice, and apparently they occur without it raining.  I also observed something I didn't think about before.  With sunset being late (past 11pm), the hooligans are hanging out in broad day light.  Here, you can see the sun (it's 9:30pm here) better than the hooligans, but trust me when I say -- they were soooo not cute. 

We snacked in the built-in McDonalds, where the cash register girl was complaining to the other girl that she was supposed to be off at 9pm, but the manager (if you want to call him that -- he looked 16, with a silly tie and really bad-teenage-facial-hair-attempt looking sideburns) is making her stay until closing.  (She then took her 10 minute break with Mel, who's off work, but there, and came around to whip up a new batch of fries.)  It sounds like register girl, whom we'll dub Rachel, is going to be quitting soon, and emptying out the bank account and flying "outta here."  Interesting.  More so, as we were getting ready to leave, she kept rubbing her belly.  I wonder if that was for good luck or something. 

So, we leave.  And I find that, apparently, I'm neither alone nor unique in my notion for the name of this trip.  The "Northern Lights" are everywhere - mini-malls, street names, you name it.  

Dang, and I wanted to go fishing.  And, if you like the nature shots without me in them (although I can't see why you would), try this one.

So far, it seems like a neat place.  We're maybe a mile east of the ocean at the peninsula, and only a few miles from where the mountains begin to fade into the clouds.  The city's bus line is People Mover -- catchy name, eh?

Oh yeah - we're a block from the fire station.  At 10:07pm, they took off for a call.  Or to hit Pizza Hut for dinner.  It's hard to tell, but in a town of 261,000, it seems like they go to a LOT of calls - it's the fourth time in two hours they've left the station that I've observed.

And at 11:01pm (AKDT), it is beginning to look like sunset.  From here, we should get roughly six hours before sunrise - hurrah!