Anchorage
No, this isn’t a picture of Alaska. It’s the San Francisco sunset the night before I flew to Alaska. I took it as a good omen. See, the reason I’m flying to Alaska is to attend The Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Many of my playwright heroes have attended and it is a great honor to be invited. In fact, I still can’t believe I’m going.
Last night I arrived in Anchorage. As soon as the doors of the plane opened I felt as if I’d been given a new set of lungs. This is the cleanest air I’ve ever breathed. Alaska Airlines is awesome, by the way. They: 1) use a single piece of paper for all of your boarding passes; 2) seat from the back to the front of the aircraft; 3) have comfortable leather seats.
I got in around 6:30 pm. The sun was still shining bright. It didn’t start to go down until around 2:30 am and even then it was never darker than dusk. It was dusk for about two hours and then the sun came back up again full blast.
This is McGinley’s Pub at 9 pm:
Leave it to me to find an Irish pub. Really, I swear I’m not one of those tourists who races to the familiar as soon as they end up somewhere new, like McDonald’s or Cheesecake Factory. I usually make fun of those kinds of people because the whole point of traveling is to experience the new. However, I was told by a nice Anchoragean that this was the happening place where the locals go. And indeed it was. A five-piece band played classic Irish tunes and the bartender poured a mean Guinness – he poured a few of those, actually.
I’m eager to get on the road. It’s a 6-hour drive to Valdez and I can’t wait to get some pictures of the glorious landscape along the way. Plus, I’m dying to play my cds. I have a backpack full of Broadway showtunes, my David Sedaris boxset (thank you, Faiza), and the Peter Saccio Shakespeare lectures (thank you, Aunt Mary and Uncle Randy).
Thank you to my wonderful parents, to MomMom, to Gabriel, and to Drew, for all of your support.