East Comes North

Pictures HERE.
Mom, Dad, Sarah, Laurel and Allison all came up to Alaska to see the sights. We hiked to a glacier near Portage Glacier, picked blueberries on Hatcher Pass, toured the Independence Mine, plus more. See the pictures to see it all.

Best layover yet!

A layover in the airline crew world is a scheduled overnight in a location other than home. It's a normal part of a pilots' life. The airline picks the hotels, mostly the likes of Marriot, Doubletree, Hilton, etc. Usually it's near restaurants, stores, or access to town. Some are nicer than others. This month I've had a number of Juneau layovers. This is probably the best I've had. Juneau is a quaint town set in the mountains right on the shores of the Gastineau Channel. It's a HUGE cruise ship destination for the Alaska cruises. Every day 4-5 of these floating hotels docks in town saturating the narrow streets with rain-jacket clad tourists filling their digital cameras. Tour busses come and go taking people to their excursions: glacier tours, salmon bakes, nature hikes, city trolley tours. There are several helicopter tour operators that take people on scenic tours. One of them, Temsco Helicopters, offers free rides to Alaska Airlines pilots. It was a great adventure. The tour went up over and landed on the Mendenhall glacier. We walked around a bit, then rode back down to the airport. See the pictures HERE.