Prologue
Sitting on the back deck of my house. The painters are finishing up, so it seems as if I might be able to leave on this trip with a sense of calm and all the stress of the past week behind me.
I’m not feeling excited, though. Not sure why. A couple of weeks ago I was hugely elated and looking forward excitedly to my trip. Now I’m mostly relieved to have gotten here. It’s weird because I’ve been looking forward to this for so long. Hard to believe it’s finally here.
5:20 p.m.
I’m looking out the airplane window at vast ranges of snowy mountains and jagged coastline.
The captain just announced that we’ve begun our descent. Already, the mountains seem to be much bigger; are we that much lower down, or are they so tall? My friend Joel at work was teasing me that I’d be disappointed when I didn’t find igloos and eskimos, but so far, I’m not disappointed at all, and we’re still in the air. It’s truly breathtaking. No more writing now–I want to watch these vistas go by.
7:30 p.m.
I’m sitting at a table outside New Sagaya City Market eating a sandwich. I took a cab from the airport to the K Street B&B, which is two blocks from here, dumped my stuff in my room, changed into shorts, and set out on a walk to this strip that they call Delaney Park. Watched a softball game and people flying huge kites.
Except for the nearby mountains, this town seems kind of bland. Totally flat. Mostly ugly buildings. The taller downtown buildings have oil company names on them.
It is a beautiful day, warm and sunny. A lot of people out and about for a Sunday evening, enjoying the weather, I guess.
The B&B is pretty basic, not at all charming. Really nice kitchen! There are a bunch of Alaska vacation videos, but I didn’t see a TV anywhere.
7:45 p.m.
Finished my sandwich. Not sure how I’m going to pass the time this evening. The sun is still pretty high in the west. I guess I’ll go for another walk if I can just find somewhere pretty to walk. Or maybe I’ll sit here and read for a while.
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