Expedition to Alaska

We're back at it once more! Adventure calls and we are answering! This time, we're going on our own dime though. Sort of. Since our (well, mostly my) last post Jess and i have graduated from Stetson and have both collectively decided we spend too much of our lives doing nothing and we both got jobs working at a Hilton hotel nearby in order to get that sweet, sweet discount on hotels across the world! We figure for such cheap rates we'll have to convince ourselves to have a little adventure, and so far it's been working out! Our discount gets us $35-$45 a night rooms usually, with the exception of big, grand hotels costing up to $75 a night, but considering most hotels are at least $100 regularly, and the larger hotels are sometimes $300+, we're getting and awesome deal, all in exchange for 5 days of work a week. Considering what we're paid salary-wise, this discount is really the least they could do.

Well, since getting out discount we've stayed a lot of local hotels, just taking some days-off trips to enjoy some hotel amenities, but we started planning a trip to Alaska almost as soon as we started work, about 10 months ago. Jess just said "I think we should go see the start of the Iditarod" and we just decided "You know what? We should!" So we let everyone at work know we were planning on going and were told we'd have to wait until 4 months out to formally request the time off because the system certainly isn't designed for 10 months advance notice requests. We went ahead and planned the days off though, using 2 PTO's for Thursday and Friday, then just lining up our 2 days off a week for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, leaving us with 6 days off and one remaining PTO! Slam dunk! Then we got our hotel all books and ready and shopped around for prices, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. We waited to formally book the flights for our time off request to at least get looked over and verbally approved by our boss because Lord knows with our luck we'd book the flights, the one thing you can't cancel, and our boss would tell us we'd done something wrong. But no such even occurred and we booked our flight about 5 months out. Then it was the waiting game. And boy did we have a long one to play.

Around a month in advance we ordered new suitcases, but only Jessica's arrived in time so I'm just using one of our mothers old rolling ones, and shopped around Goodwill for new coats, long sleeved shirts, and durable shoes since all we have are work sneakers, flats, and sandals, all of which are worn within an inch of their lives and are in absolutely no condition for Alaskan weather. The stuff we got...probably isn't as well, but it's better than what we had SO it's gonna have to do! We actually got the shoes just a day ago because I scored and found shoes that were the exact same style just two different sizes, which is perfect because Jess likes her tighter and I like mine looser so it totally worked out! Love a good thrift find!

Well, since that find Jess and I had only a day to get ourselves organized. I made the worlds most perfect packing list of everything we needed before we could reasonably begin packing because I LIVE for lists and it really helps so you don't end up panic-packing things too early only to have to pull them out to use, resulting in you forgetting them. So, list was made then everything organized on the table, then we finally packed them yesterday into Jess's suitcase and the rest just in the car so when we arrived at our parents house we could just chuck it into the bag and be ready to go. I worked 7am-3pm yesterday, and Jess worked 3pm-11pm, as usual, so she packed her suitcase in the morning and I loaded the car and did final checks in the evening. AT 11pm I went to pick her up from work and we drove the hour or so to our parents place. Our parents house is closer to the airport and they volounteered to drive us so we wouldn't have to pay for a ride or parking, it just meant a midnight drive which I was fine doing. We arrived and all hung out in the guest room as we packed up our remaining items into mom's old bag and discussed the morning plan. We all ended up in bed around 1am, leaving only a few hours of sleep until our 8am wake-up.

I was so excited and used to getting up early anyway) that I was up around 7am getting things ready while Jess (who's accustomed to sleeping in and working late) rested until 8:15am. We had some breakfast burritos, started a Bang! energy drink just to keep us vibrant, though we really didn't need it with all our energy, loaded up the car and started off on the drive! It only took us about 20 or so minutes so we arrived at the airport around 9:30am. We said our good-byes, which are always emotional for us because we're a family of ninny's, and entered the airport!

There is nowhere, NOWHERE, I feel more alive than an airport. It's just so hopping, with lots of people, all kinds of things to see, and of course, the anticipation of adventure! It's so deliriously vibrant at airports that I get so excited I almost can't stand it! We found where we needed to go pretty quick and were actually super organized for TSA! We've done this enough times we knew what was gonna go down and our suitcases weren't so stuffed to the brim that we could easily open them up to pull out our larger electronics, liquids (4 Bang! energy drinks because I'm coming prepared this time! Only got a few days to enjoy ourselves and we are not going though this exhausted because of some silly iron deficiency and not eating enough food. Pah!), and had our boarding passes and ID's at the ready. They haven't started the new rule about having that whole Real ID thing yet, but we brought out Passport ID's anyways because better safe than sorry! My suitcase got pulled for inspection, definitely because of all the candy I packed, but the agent was so friendly and cool! We laughed the whole time about how much chocolate we were bringing and how we could use it in the event of a sporatic bear attack. You know, Idiot Conversation!

Once through that we jumped onto the tram headed to 112, our terminal, and reorganized our luggage so everything was put back in it's place. We had a lovely chat with a couple on the tram who asked us if we were twins (which had already happened once before and twice after because we get asked at least 3 times a day every time we're spotted together). We had a lovely chat with them for the brief ride which we didn't een notice because we were conversing and organizing. We, naturally, immediately found the bathrooms as soon as we were off and located some seats at our flight terminal. We arrived about 10am and boarding was set to begin at 10:30am to we made perfect time! We ate a little bit of the ham sandwiches our mother had packed us, filled our water bottle, and took turns making a final bathroom break before they called for E to begin boarding. It didn't take long at all to get on and get situated, after sorting out a seating issue with a very friendly woman who'd accidentally taken Jessica's seat in C 30 when we was supposed to be C 31. I was right across from Jess in D 30, so we both got aisle seats for the 6 hour portion of our flight!

We then sat there until 11:30am, though we were meant to take off at 11:30am, because they needed to inspect a nick in something on the plane, one of the propellers I believe. We were happy to chat about out upcoming adventures and further trips until the captain let us know the nick was well within flying capacity and we were prepped for take-off. We gripped hands from across the aisle as we began our ascent because Jess hates take-off and needs some emotional support. I'm always fine though, thoroughly enjoying or at least not minding flights, with the exception of the middle bit. I'm so impatient  and a creature who likes to pace and move about, so sitting strapped to a little seat bored me to tears, but I find ways to keep myself occupied as best I can. I actually made it over and hour after take-off before going for a bathroom break, mostly because as soon as the seatbelt light goes off there's a mad dash for the lou, but still, go me for some endurance. It's the small achievements, right?

The first flight was 6 hours and it felt like it would never end. Jess got up and got one of our sandwiches and some of our snacks from the overhead compartments because got a bit peakish about 2 hours into the flight. We ate the sandwich and a box of M&M's, then chatted from across the aisle to pass as much time as we could. Around 3:30pm we reverted to just chillaxing and tried to get through the last 2 hours of the flight, which always feel like the longest part because at a certain point in the air you wish undeniably to be anywhere but in the air. Mostly you just wanna be at your destination so you can enjoy yourself there. I find airplanes are the one place in the world where you can be sure everyone is wishing they were elsewhere. On boats people enjoy the ride, road trips can be a joy, and trains are always a delight, but airplanes are so confining, everyone just isn't where they would like to be.

The descent lasted forever, because it always does, and we found ourselves entering Seattle! Home of Frasier Crane! We landed at basically 3pm, our connecting flight to Alaska didn't even start boarding until 4:40pm, and our new gate as literally right next to the one we got off on, so we had some time to explore a little and relax. We wandered around a few of the shops, did some hard Yikes at the prices of crap, then sat to eat our second ham sandwich. Filled up somewhat and refreshed, we stumbled upon the cutest little macaron shoplette! Lady Yum had the coolest variety of macarons ever, including cotton candy and mint chocolate chip, so Jess and I actually unclenched our grimey paws and parted with $20 for a box of 10 macarons. We're on vacation, we keep telling ourself, we can get something nice. We're going to experience Buyers Remorse for the next 48 hours over it, but boy were they good! We ate them at our gate, C15, as we checked our phones for a second and discussed how unprepared we probably are for the cold.

At 4:50pm-ish we boarded, this time in 28 A and B, so a window and middle seat. The woman sitting next to us was super nice, a local of the area, who was more than happy to share what she knew with us,and we were more than happy to share a stick of gum with her! The flight was pretty smooth, but Jess and I couldn't get the in-flight movies to work on her computer or my tablet, so we used our boarding passes to play Hangman and Connect 4, then did the Sudoku they had in the plane magazine. We actually managed to complete it! How about that for two piles of idiot! We were exhausted by that point because while it was only 7pm Alaska-time, it was 11pm Florida-time. So, shocker, we napped a little until we finally touched down to a 14 degree Anchorage, Alaska! The end of the ride was a little shakey and Jess and I both got a little motion sick so we let everyone else pass us as we collected ourselves to exit the plane.

The airport was pretty empty for 8pm, and an empty airport is always strange, but we followed the signs that pointed towards the exit and 'Ground Transportation' as we were looking for the public transport bus to get us to the heart of downtown Anchorage. We asked a security guard on the way out and he was very useful in pointing us the right direction. We went down two escalators, took a right, went up an escalator, and ended up in an indoor bus stop. We took this time to throw on our warmer gear (remember the coats and hats and gloves we acquired) and tried to figure out where our bus would be picking up. We asked a man waiting for his bus, then one of the hotel shuttle drivers and they pointed us to an outdoor bus stop just a few feet away. We merrily trotted over just as our bus, the 40, arrived and jumped on! It cost us $2 each to ride and took us for about a half-hour ride through the city. We got off at the People Mover Transit Center and followed a shining blue H for Hilton to try and get to our hotel. It was a mess of streets and both our phones had died so we couldn't use them to navigate, but we followed the H and kept on going!

We walked for roughly 10 minutes and to be honest, it wasn't that bad. I guess I sort of expected I wasn't a complete stranger to the cold yet, but I was still worried the cold was going to, I don't know, hurt me? But we did just fine, feeling the cold air in our lungs and the crunch of snow under our feet! We hadn't seen snow in 4 years, but it all comes back to you after living in it for 18 years. Our 2 Wise Men Walk brought us at last to our hotel at 8:40pm, with 20 minutes left still to get to the Club Lounge for desert! Jess had any option of rooms she wanted for just $45 so she chose the specialty rooms that come with free access to the lounge for breakfast, dinner, and desert! We trotted up there with luggage in tow because I wanted that free food and we made it just in time for the last piece of chocolate cake and two little treaties in addition to soda and juice. We chatted with the worker there about work in the hospitality industry and the differences in our hotels before we took our sodas and trotted off to our room. While it was only just 9pm in Alaskan-time, it was 1pm in Floridian-time and we were exhausted! We both took a shower, unpacked a little bit, and totally crashed! So, we drove to the airport at 9am, and arrived at our hotel room at 1am. Total Time: 16 hours. Egads! But worth it for the adventure we're chasing!