Day 1: September 2, 2014 - North to Alaska (uh, below)
Day 2: September 3, 2014 - North to Fairbanks
Day 3: September 4, 2014 - We get lucky again (we see the northern lights)
Day 4: September 5, 2014 - Just chilling (in Fairbanks)
Day 5: September 6, 2014 - We keep chilling...and packing (in Fairbanks)
Day 6: September 7, 2014 - Traveling back to Anchorage (we see Denali!)
Day 7: September 8, 2014 - We go cruising!
Day 8: September 9, 2014 - Hubbard Glacier
Day 9 : September 10, 2014 - We see whales! (Icy Strait Point)
Day 10: September 11, 2014 - A foggy day in Juneau (with Tracy Arm Fjord and Sawyer Glacier)
Day 11: September 12, 2014 - White out at the White Pass (or how we saw lots of nothing in Skagway)
Day 12: September 13, 2014 - A slow day in Ketchikan
Day 13: September 14, 2014 - The sad sea day
Day 14: September 15, 2014 - We go to Canada (again. Debarkation and Vancouver)
Day 15: September 16, 2014 - A birthday in Vancouver
Day 16: September 17, 2014 - We go home
Tuesday - September 2, 2014
I decided to work on the day we were leaving for our 16 day trip to Alaska. Because I am retarded. And also because my boss may become apoplectic if I didn't show up at all since we're so short staffed. Regardless, once it was 2 pm...freedom!!!! I pretty much skipped out of my office and if I weren't so vain, would have twirled like I was in the Sound of Music in the courtyard of the courthouse. However, I am vain, and also, it would be weird to be doing that when there are so many miserable people crying, yelling, and generally unhappy since they had to be in court that day. I didn't want anyone throwing rotten fruit at me after all. Also, I had to pretend to be somewhat of a professional since I knew some of them.
I went home, quickly threw on my travel clothes and we waited for our ride to the airport. Our flight was at 5:10 pm and our ride showed up early, so we hopped into his waiting minivan and made our way to LAX. Oh, LAX, how have I not missed you. We had a few mishaps during check in (a lot of it to do with - ahem - our 69 pound suitcase. Yes, ONE suitcase that was 69 pounds). Thankfully, since my dad's a United gold card member they allow a max of 70 pounds without charge. It's a bit shameful to be those people who had to get our luggage tags reprinted while "heavy" stickers were being slapped all over our luggage like we were those severely obese people caught stuffing a box of Krispy Kremes into our mouths. But we eventually made our way onto the plane (even though I got hated on and my parents got TSA prechecked and breezed through security while I had to stand in line and take my shoes off. At least there was no nekkid scan today) after lolling around the waiting are for an hour or so, we got onto the plane for our exciting 55 minute flight to San Francisco where we were catching a 7:30 pm flight to Anchorage (the joys of traveling on award miles - you're rerouted all over the place). Even though we were fully loaded and ready to go early, the stupid tower kept us an extra half hour on the runway before they would let us take off and we stressed out a bit worrying about making our connecting flight. We weren't getting into Anchorage until 11:14 pm as scheduled (which would be after midnight our time) and the thought of having to book a new flight and arriving even later was disheartening.
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| waiting for our flight at LAX |
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| waiting for our flight to actually take off @ LAX |
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| look at all those full overhead bins! |
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| my much superior sandwich my mama made |
We were fortunate - we ended up landing about 10 minutes prior to boarding on the next flight to Anchorage and had just enough time to all go potty and run towards our gate before we were lining up again to get onto the flight. What sucks donkey balls? For both flights? I was in the very. last. boarding class called. They had 1-5. One I guess for the super premier members, and 2 for premier members (my parents). I think 3 was for elderly passengers and those with small kids, but I got screwed and basically ended up almost the last person to get onto the plane each time. You know what sucks about air travel now? Because we're all cheap and don't want to pay for checked luggage, the planes are over burdened by the amount of carry ons everyone wedges onto the overhead bins (which were NOT designed to carry that much stuff) and if you get on later, the bins around your seat are all filled up and you have to go to the very back of the plane to stow your stuff (or be that guy who tries to stuff his crap into the overhead bin of business class and have them glare at you). That is no bueno. Even though we checked in our suitcases (yay for premier status!) we each had a backpack with carry on stuff. Like books, magazines, our tablets, laptops, cameras, phones, snacks, and assorted toiletries and sundries we've decided we can't live without during a 5 hour flight. As I was afraid I'd have no place to put my backpack (I shouldn't have worried since we sat in an exit row and we had more than adequate space to stow our packs under the seats in front of us) my mom carried my backpack on for me while I carried her purse on board for her. Not a fair trade, is it? Because mine was HUGE. She carried my backpack on her back and had hers (much lighter) strapped to her front. My mama is awesome!
I'm such a snobby ass - but economy = no bueno. I just have to say.
But the flight seemed interminable. Probably because I was tired and a lot was because I was excited and just wanted to be in Alaska already. My mom made us all awesome fried egg and ham sandwiches for dinner (we don't like any of their options for purchase and knew we wouldn't have time in SFO to grab food since our flight schedule was so tight) and ate our tasty sandwiches while the guys across the aisle ate their sad looking $10 snack pack with peanuts and some dried fruit. I only managed to doze for about 40 minutes and just couldn't sleep. I was freakishly tired since I'd stayed up until 3 am the night before packing and went to work that day, but I just couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. See above to economy sucks. First world problems. The flight seemed to last forever, but we eventually got there!
Anchorage has a surprisingly updated and modern airport! It's nicer than LAX, which is really, pretty crappy and ugly. I don't know what I was consciously expecting - I'm not so naive as to think it's a wood shack staffed with lumberjacks, but it's surprisingly spacious, bright, and it had a Yogurtland! Oh, I only wish LAX had a Yogurtland. But we corralled our luggage (yay!) and Raymond rolled up in the awesome red minivan we rented for the week. Okay, so it's not so awesome, but it has like, 10 cup holders! I LURVE cupholders! And I love minivans with separate captain seats for the second row, so my parents don't fight over space. We had an SUV booked through Costco Travel for about about $450 for 6 days - but when I checked the prices again a month before we left, the minivans had dropped considerably in price from $600 to $312 for the same dates! So being cheap ass Chinese people (who love minivans but are too vain to own them in real life), we cancelled our existing reservation and booked the minivan. We ended up with a Chrysler Town & Country, which we've never had before. I like it more than the Dodge Caravans we're usually stuck with, but not as much as the Toyota Sienna we had last time. But we did very much enjoy taking advantage of all the cup holders. Yes, I am obsessively fixated with cup holders. Especially for a road trip, you need storage for all the liquid deliciousness like coffee, soda, coffee, Icees and coffee you'll be ingesting.
I booked our room at the Comfort Suites Anchorage International Airport and joined their free Choice Privileges program online and paid $180 for a room that generally sold for about $210/night. We booked the 2 bedroom suite. It wasn't really a 2 bedroom suite - it was more like a one bedroom suite since there was no separate 2nd bedroom. But it was still very comfortable for our family of four. It's not the Ritz (or the Wynn or the Four Seasons) - but it was spacious, clean, and comfortable for the 4 of us. The separate bedroom actually houses a queen bed. In the larger room there's a king bed with an attached living area that has a full size sofa bed, a desk, a small fridge and microwave and there are 2 TV's in the suite. A note for those who care: the TVs, though flat screen, do not have an hdmi port. We tried to connect it to my tablet and there was no port in the TV. It still uses the old school av cord thingamajig with the red, yellow and white pluggy thingies (yes, those are the actual terms: the pluggy thingies).
Raymond wanted some Mexican food, which is something not readily available in China, so of course, not finding anything other than Taco Bells in Anchorage, rolled up to Target (yay!) and purchased frozen burritos that were almost $3 each. Now, I'm not an aficionado of frozen burritos (though I am a big fan of their cousins the fresh ones - especially wet. Mmmm...) but isn't $3 a little high for frozen burritos? They were good though - but definitely not authentic, as the one he gave me was a sriracha chicken burrito. Tasty, but definitely not Mexican.
Thus satiated on frozen burritos, we all sacked out after our long day of traveling. Raymond more than us since he was on the road close to 30 hours. From Shenzhen, China to Taipei to Tokyo to Vancouver before he finally landed in Anchorage. Makes me sound like a pansy for whining about a 30 minute delay, eh?
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