The 49th State

Heading south to Seattle shortly. At the Juneau airport waiting to board. Above is a sample of a more or less generic view in Juneau (click on the photo to blow it up and see the mountains in background better). Generic, with the caveat that they get about 40-50 days each year as sunny as this.

Yesterday we journeyed back from Haines, where we hung with Mary's cousin Lee and his family and took some amazing hikes. Natalie had advised that we should plan to spend a night in Juneau after coming back from Haines just in case we were delayed coming back. So we stayed at the Frontier Suites out by the airport. I selected it on Booking.com because it had an airport shuttle and wasn't too expensive.

Turns out, there was a reason for that. It was the very essence of what Graham would termed a "sketch" (short for sketchy) place. As we were checking in, there was a guy waiting behind us. He transacted quickly and then got on the elevator with Mary and me. "I've been staying here since February, I forgot it was a hotel."

We had dinner in a Filipino place downstairs (there's a big Filipino community here) and then waited in the parking lot for a cab to arrive to take Natalie back downtown. Across the parking lot there was an "Alaska Man" hanging out: backpack, jeans, beard. He took delivery of a pizza from the Domino's in one of the hotel buildings and then stood in the parking lot eating. After a couple of slices he paused for a cigarette. He didn't seem to have a beverage handy.

Natalie's cab arrived, driven by a youngish woman. As the cab pulled out of the parking lot, Alaska Man followed it with his eyes.