The trip to Europe begins...

My trip started off on an interesting note when the TSA security person asked if I was old enough to be travelling alone. Now, I've been told that I could pass for 16, but I think that anyone over twelve can travel without an adult. I guess that I should take this as a compliment just weeks before my 29th birthday. If you promise to show me some powder stashes, I'll tell you where to find the fountain of youth. The flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage was relatively uneventful (and on time!). We were in the air a little longer than normal due to 150 mph winds. Apparently, we were flying directly into the jet stream. There was a surprising lack of turbulence, but the cloud formations were really cool. It was if we were flying through a river. The clouds, better described as streams of water vapor, displayed waves and laminar flow. I've never seen anything like that before. It reminds a person that similar principles apply to fluid motion, regardless of the medium (air, water, ice).