Here we are in Juneau, Alaska. Despite the best efforts of the world to stop us. Our flight out of Hopkins was fine, in fact, probably the best I've had there. It was really easy to get through security, really fast. Our flight got delayed but not by much, only 20 minutes or so. In Chicago the weather was looking pretty crappy, but we got out of there okay too, after meeting up with Andrew and Becky. In Seattle we met Caitlin, and figured out that Michelle got stuck in Detroit. She'll probably catch up with us tomorrow. Zippy... I dunno the deal with Zippy. Anyway, the three from other places all seem pretty cool. I think we'll get along fine. Honestly, I'm really optimistic about this group, our flight out of Seattle had all kinds of issues, we barely made it to Juneau because of all the ice in Juneau, but everyone stayed really chill. No one freaked out about a change in th plans. It was reassuring (and a nice change from some people I deal with. Hehe). But, we did in fact make it to Juneau, waited for ever and ever for our baggage on the carousel but finally got it, crammed everything into vans, barely, and got to the grocery store. Got a ridiculous amount of food there, came to the shrine, carried bags and groceries down an extremely slippery road of ice, snow, water and gravel... but no one fell, which was good. And, quite frankly, this place is nice. Big common area with lots of plush chairs and a couch, very warm, nice wooden walls. Two fridges, decent kitchen, though we do have to handwash everything. The shortage of places to shower might be the only issue, but eh, don't shower every day, problem solved. I even get a room to myself tonight the way things worked out. Obviously, that won't be true tomorrow when Michelle (and Zippy?) shows (show?) up, but not a bad way to start the trip.

Friday, January 8th, roughly 1:15 AM local time (5:15 AM home time)