Juneau to Skagway!

So, omg, yesterday, I don't even know where to start!

Ok, the beginning :)

Woke up in Juneau – managed to sleep until about 6:45, more or less, but I'm still not entirely on Alaska time. Meridith and Tess were worse; they had gotten up about half an hour before and headed out to chill in the coffee shop downtown. So I met up with them, had some coffee, watched the locals.

I did forget the best story from Thursday, though. We'd been walking back to the hotel from exploring downtown, and passed a little park with a big peace sign made from leaves, with the letters “N” and “O” on either side and the letter “Y” on the bottom. A woman was standing there with her dog and suddenly began – I don't even know how to explain this – rapid-fire quizzing us on the meaning of all these symbols. There was some bizarre philosophy involved, and some math involved, and each question led to the next, and it was just astonishing. Eventually as she began singing “Oh Canada” she started to walk away and we were able to disengage ourselves.

I don't know if that paragraph did this encounter justice, though, so next time we talk you should ask me about it – I'm told I do a decent impression :p

Anyway, back to Friday! Headed back to the hotel eventually, met up with Stephanie, grabbed a great breakfast from the little conjoined diner, and before too long headed back out to the airport to get on our tiny plane!

Y'all, riding this plane might have been the coolest thing I've ever done.

However, until I survey my roommates and/or stop by Radio Shack (yes! There is a Radio Shack in Skagway!), I can't post pics, since I have neither the right cord nor a memory card slot in my computer. So I'll wait to narrate that part of the day, since the pics are really the whole point!

At any rate, we landed in Skagway and were picked up at the airport by Jon, the artistic director and one of the Soapy Smiths, and Allison, the company manager and also one of the performers, and driven the few blocks (everything is within a few blocks, actually) to where we'll be living. The building is owned by a couple guys, Skipper and Niles, who run a coffee shop on the first floor, and I can already tell how fun and sweet and goofy they are. Plus there were Niles' bacon-cheddar biscuits, which thoroughly impressed me, since I've never been able to find a satisfactory bacon-cheddar biscuit recipe. We live upstairs, in four little rooms along one long hallway – although I have the bigger corner room, because they'll be bringing me an electronic piano! – with a centrally located bathroom. After you pass our rooms and go round the corner is a small but full kitchen, and on the other side of the kitchen are the two guys' rooms. Bill is from Harrisburg and playing our other Soapy; Michael is local and has been opening the show with music and poetry for thirty years! Can't wait to chat with him some more. House pics to come!

We had a few hours before our read-through to go grocery shopping/eat/unpack/whatever. So we stopped by the Fairway, which is pricey (thanks, isolated location!) but had a better selection than we feared. The lady who was working my checkout aisle has lived here for seven years but is moving back to Washington State in a few months to be close to her kids and grandkids. It's so hard for her to travel from Skagway that she's only seen her 7-year-old grandkid four times! She said that she really feels that Skagway is home at this point, and she's nervous about leaving – but determined.

Once I had groceries and I unpacked all my stuff I felt a little better – more at home and a little less tired. There isn't and will not be any internet in the house, but I have the data plan on my iPad and there's internet in the theatre, which is immediately across the street (I didn't think it was possible to have a better commute than I did last summer in Cripple Creek!), so we'll manage :) Good thing I loaded a bunch of movies on my hard drive, though!

At six we trooped across the street to the theatre, which is lovely and old. Pics to come, I imagine! My piano is jangly, which is deliberate, and out of tune, which is not and will be fixed – and it sits directly under a very large and very real moose head, which is somewhat alarming but fun. The read- and sing-through went smoothly (more about the show later, too! I'll save all this general-type stuff for days that are less full of plot!) and we got out early. Jon was nice enough to take us all – Meridith, Stephanie, Tess, Bill, and me; Allison; Julie the choreograher; and Jon's wife Tegan – out for a drink and some appetizers at the brewery down the block (because everything is down the block... :p). And then we crashed!

I'm still a little jetlagged and tired this morning but better than yesterday. The blinds in my room are pretty good and the bed ain't bad. And now I'd better get dressed and head to rehearsal!