You’re holding your breath. Can it be? Is it really the resurrection of a Risley blog?  You settle in with a cup of coffee, tell the kids to disappear to their respective bedrooms, and turn off the ringer on your phone. Oh yes, the time has come.

This past Thursday I made the 17-hour transit between Oklahoma City and Juneau, roughly 3,000 miles, via Denver, Seattle, and Ketchikan. Denver was snowy and cold, Seattle was sunny and cold, and Ketchikan was dark so I didn’t get a good look. During the previous two or three weeks of my preparation, listening to John Denver’s “Here’s To Alaska And Me” brought me much joy. Appropriately, while flying high above the snowy Rocky Mountains, my iPod randomly selected this tune for my listening enjoyment and all was right with the world. The mountains were so awe-inspiring that I chose to document their aerial splendor right there from my 8A window seat on Alaska Airlines:

A friend of mine from college, Roni, picked me up in Seattle and took me around to see the sites during my 5-hour layover in Washington. We got to go to the Farmers Market, had lunch at a Mediterranean cafe on Post Alley, and watched men throw fish. We, of course, also drank in the local nectar of Seattle’s best coffee. Delicious.

I arrived in Juneau late in the evening and was greeted by my friends Dylan and Abby, who were my connections for this job. (I’m staying at their home this week until I can move into my house on Thursday.) Directly across the street from them lives the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Beyond the Governor’s Mansion is the city, Gastineau Channel (the Pacific Ocean) and Douglas Island across the bridge.

Friday, Abby spent the day showing me around the town and then took me to Mendenhall Glacier, just 10 minutes north of Juneau.  Afterwards we enjoyed the local Thai cuisine, which was superb, and perused the grocery store and Blockbuster. Since the nasty weather wasn’t conducive for outdoor play, Abby and I found ourselves catching up indoors and we eventually made an appearance at the Town Hall for Alaska’s 2008 Folk Festival. The entire city of Juneau was crammed inside this auditorium for an event that could rival A Prairie Home Companion, and was hosted by, who I believe to be, the female version of Garrison Keillor. Great music, fun folk dancing, and a healthy amount of ‘tongue and cheek’ humor filled the evening, and I had a chance to make some new Alaskan friends.

This week will be spent doing some ‘grunt’ work with Abby for the company and then we’ll have two weeks of training before the tourism season officially begins around the beginning of May. Until then, I’m assured more sight-seeing, introductions, and reasons to wear my raincoat (By the way, I’ll be referring to my raincoat as my anorak from now on…because I want to.)

When in Alaska, do as the Inuits do…