5/15

Good morning folks,

sorry I was not able to update you all on the rest of my flights yesterday, we were delayed on the first plane which meant I was running to catch the last two flights.

The first flight was fine for a while, and then we hit a LOT of turbulence, which pissed me right off. After ten or fifteen minutes of white-knuckling it we finally managed to find a patch of sky not hell-bent on making me shit myself (Sorry mom).

The second flight can be summed up in one conversation:

“His name was Travis and he was the President of Yale at the time, so I called him PrezTrav, or TravPrez depending on the day, get it haha, get it!? Ahh it cracks me up, PrezTrav. I came up with it you know. He loves it.”

^ That was the guy I sat next to on the six hour flight to Seattle, Washington. ‘Nuff said.

After I got off the plane and away from that weirdo I was standing in the boarding line waiting to get on my last flight out of Seattle, all of a sudden I hear "Asa? Asa!" I thought, oh cool there's another person with my name, looked around and it's my buddy Harper from St. Mikes. It's incredible how small the world really is! He was headed up to a wedding I believe, and to do some fishing and sea kayaking for the week.

There really may be a god somewhere up there however, because on my last flight from Seattle to Anchorage I sat next to an incredible man whom had just retired from active duty. The whole plane was packed, but no one claimed the seat in between myself and this gentleman, so he set his iPad up in the middle seat and we watched fishing videos the entire flight. He told me many spots to fish in the Anchorage area, gave me a list of places I had to go while in Alaska, and only tried to recruit me to the military once (Mom, I said no thank you).

The last flight was truly incredible, when we left Seattle it was pitch black, and after two hours of napping I looked out the window and saw what I thought to be a beautiful sunrise. Wrong, we had been chasing the sunset and had finally caught up to it, as we kept getting close to Anchorage – it kept getting lighter. Flying into Anchorage was incredible, the first thing I could see on the horizon were two massive mountains poking out of the clouds. As we dropped through the cloud cover and approached the Cook Inlet all I could see were incredible mountains with lots of snow, and lakes and ponds that were frozen solid. I was not pumped to see that.

Chasing the sunset!

When I first woke up after leaving Seattle

A little closer to Anchorage..

By the time we landed in Anchorage it was very light (definitely legal shooting hours, Royce). 

I made it to my hotel at around 11:50 pm my time (4 hours behind) the sun didn’t set until 12:30 am, and was back up around 3:00 am. It really is the land of the midnight sun, and is not conducive to sleep. It was a little chilly, but nothing unbearable - I think somewhere in the upper forties,  but the wind was warm which was a pleasant surprise. 

I get picked up from my hotel at 2:00 pm and then it’s off to the Kenai and my home until the fall! I’m hoping to be able to update this once a week but be patient with me in case I decide to go fishing instead of going to town to get internet (so unlike me, I know).

Cheers,

Asa