Monday 6 June 2011
Highlights: The sun shining brightly at 00.30 in Anchorage

Said a last goodbye to San Francisco with an early 6.20 am start. The next major part of this trip will see many early mornings as I get in touch with nature.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be back to San Francisco. It’s a very cool place and I recommend it but the world is a big place and life is short.

At the airport I had to pay a bag check in fee ($20) and I had no lounge access! Back to being a regular traveler, kind of sucks with long waits. First flight on Alaska Airlines went smoothly enough which left me with a 4 hours stopover in Seattle.

While waiting I had time to reflect on life and those around me. I have some truly great friends but I’m starting to realize there are a few people, mostly at work, who are either taking advantage or don’t appreciate what I do for them. I’m considering whether I should be more self-centered and if so would this make me a bad person??

Seattle Airport
Impressed with the facilitates of this airport.  During my 4 hour Seattle stopover I used the free WiFi (Australian Airports take note) which allowed me to stream ABC News from back home making the four hour plus stopover much easier.  Did a few laps of the airport with the heavy day-pack (I always keep the laptop with me when traveling on planes) than I went an wasted the physical effort with a stop at Wendy’s for a double cheese burger combo.  I’m my own worst enemy with since things.  Still I managed to track down a power outlet to power up my iPhone for inflight games and music, I counted 6 rare locations in the entire airport.

We had a last-minute plane substitution and major gate relocation.  This didn’t argue well for my bag in transit making the flight.

Anchorage
It was a totally full flight to Anchorage.  A young girl asked me to swap my window seat that I allocated 5 months ago so she could see Anchorage on landing in her first ever flight.  I agreed and was meet with looks of surprise and amazement for our fellow travelers.  the flight attendant even offered my free drinks, not sure why it was a big thing but the young girl was very happy.

A 3 hour 10 minute flight, they have no inflight entertainment, only paid meals and two free non-alcoholic drinks.  Shows both Virgin and QANTAS domestic flights in a good light.

Landed around 9.30 pm and a quick call to the hotel saw the courtesy shuttle arrive 15 minutes later.  After check in t the very nice Clarion Hotel I did a quick look at e-mail via the free WiFi (which I’m finding is very common in USA).  However with the sun shining I decided to explore Anchorage at 11 pm.  The town is around 200,000 people and is very small when you think of the biggest city of a state.

It felt strange that most shops and buildings were closed until I recalled that it was close to midnight.  The sun shining so brightly does confuse you!  The area around the city looks magnificent, hopefully I’ll get a chance to explore when I return in a few days.  A long day, but a very comfortable bed saw me off to sleep with the sun shining at 12.30 am.