3 a.m. — Time to get up to head to the airport. One negative about living in Alaska is that it takes forever to travel anywhere. There aren't many direct flights, so you almost always have to go to Seattle or Portland first, which adds three to three and a half hours to each trip. And they are frequently red-eyes. I get a sausage McMuffin and coffee at the airport McDonald's while waiting for my flight, and since this is work travel, I get an $80 per diem to use towards food. ($5.95 expensed)