Friday Night to Alaska!

Alaska Travelog #1
Flying at 38,000' - Fri, 14 Jun 2024, 10pm

Things should have gone smoothly with our flight to Alaska this evening. We both got upgraded to first class... almost 36 hours ahead of time, even... and I finished up my work early this afternoon so we didn't have to rush getting up to SFO through rush hour traffic. We left comfortably at 4:15pm, anticipating not sweating traffic and still having enough time for an unhurried meal at the airport before boarding. And then, while we were in the car....



...United informed us our flight would be delayed. And it wasn't just a piddly 15 minute delay like Southwest informed us of 24 hours before our flight earlier this week (though that turned into 20-25 minutes late as systemic snags cascaded) but a 90 minute delay. Ah, well, so much for getting in to Anchorage at a halfway reasonable time. I was hoping to pick up our rental car around 11pm when the sun was still shining and see what an 11:40pm sunset looks like. Now we'll only get in at midnight, after sunset. And more importantly, getting in that late will make for a rough night with too little sleep and put us on the back foot for being able to enjoy our vacation. 😡

Well, at least we've got those first class upgrades. Not that first class is anything special. Service is still to United's "I'm sorry, did you ask for something? I was busy gossiping with my friend" standards. But at least it's a bigger seat for this 4½ hour flight.

Landing in the Midnight Sun. 51/51.

Alaska Travelog #2
Anchorage - Sat, 15 Jun 2024, 1:30am

Flying to Alaska this evening was kind of eerie. When we left SFO at around 8:45pm the sun had already set. But it wasn't yet dark. The waning light of dusk cast a blue pall over everything. But then as we flew north the sky got... slowly brighter for the next few hours. By the time we were on final approach to ANC airport just over 4 hours later the clock had seemingly rolled back 30 minutes minutes, from "blue hour" to the tail end of "golden hour":



It was a very pretty sunset. 4½ hours after the previous sunset. Nominally, sunset in Anchorage was 11:40pm. I snapped this photo (above) at 11:55.

In Alaska at this time of year it basically doesn't get dark. I mean, the sun does set. But apparently it only drops far enough below the horizon for twilight for a few hours.



This photo (above) is a quick snap out the windows of the airport terminal just after midnight.

And yes, being in Alaska now completes one of my bucket list items. I have been to all 50 states in the US. (Plus Washington, DC— which is part of this bucket list item. Plus a few territories, which are not.)

Getting out of ANC airport took a while. Avis car rental made us go through the gantlet of standing in line like a no-status, no-mobile-app customer so they could shake me down for the corporate rate and add-ons like upgrades, extra drivers, insurance, and gas. Thus we didn't arrive at our hotel a few miles from the airport until nearly 1am.



No problem; 1am is still almost daytime!

....Well, there is a problem. Kind of. We're not going to get to sleep until after 2, which means we're probably not going to get going in the morning until 11am. But I think that's only kind of a problem because with the long days we can go hiking 'til 10pm.

5 Hours and a Shower, $300+

Alaska Travelog #3
Anchorage - Sat, 15 Jun 2024, 10am

Last night as I learned our flight to Alaska would arrive 90 minutes late I rued getting to bed late and sleeping in late. It turns out only half of that came true. We did get to bed late— around 2:30am. But then I woke up at 7:30. I was still tired but could tell I wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep. I often refer to quick, no-frills hotel stays as "8 hours and a shower".... This one was 5 hours and a shower.

Oh, and while the hotel stay was mostly no-frills it certainly wasn't cheap. As part of how everything is expensive in Alaska, this room at a Hilton Home2 Suites (a limited-service brand similar to a Hampton Inn) cost over $300.

Just because I got only 5 hours of sleep, though, doesn't mean I checked out after 5 hours and a shower. No, after a relaxing shower I opened my computer (as did Hawk) to research places to go hiking today. We've found a couple places to stop on the drive from Anchorage to Seward and we've also found two waterfalls north of Anchorage. We'll take advantage of the ridiculously long days (sunset tonight is 11:40pm) by hiking those falls north of Anchorage after breakfast/before lunch then continue on our way south to Seward.

But we're also in no rush to start hiking, thanks to these ridiculously long days. After checking out from the hotel we stopped by a fast food restaurant for breakfast since I was famished, then visited a Walmart nearby to buy some groceries for the next few days. Oh, and a spray can of insect repellent. Multiple hiking blogs warned of hordes of mosquitos on the trails, and those pesky little blood-suckers sure love me. Well, now they're going to have to deal with my Cutter 40% DEET spray.