The flight into Anchorage was amazing! If you ever have anything resembling a choice, fly in during the daylight hours. (I’m told a lot of people fly in at night and miss the show.) Once we started our descent and got below the level of the clouds, you could see the mountains jutting out right into the ocean and real glaciers! None of those “Oh, I mistook it for this year’s snow that just hadn’t melted yet.” glaciers from Glacier National Park. These were honest-to-god GLACIERS. (I think I mentioned during the summer that my mental image of glaciers was always that of an iceberg on land.)

I’ve had a blast in Anchorage; I was picked up at the airport by the District Librarian and a few other new teachers that were in town getting their own shopping done and we headed to dinner at this cool restaurant called Moose Tooth, which has amazing pizza. (If you’re ever in Anchorage, make sure to eat there.) The next day was full of grocery shopping ($165 in meat that is one of my checked bags, $600 in non-perishables and $140 in postage at the post office), meeting Lynda, one of the returning teachers from Shaktoolik, and a couple of the former teachers who were in Anchorage. The welcome wagon that the district put together this year was really helpful, but, I’ll be leaving a few suggestions for them to try next year (this is the first year they’ve done this).

It’s probably needless for me to say, but… I’m in love with Alaska already. Anchorage is fantastic, it’s a gorgeous small city nestled between the mountains and the bay and I’m really excited to board my plane in an hour and see more of Alaska.