Today our long awaited Alaska trip begins! Over two years in the planning, what started off being a 40th wedding anniversary trip is a 41st anniversary trip. Alaska is a place that Tony and I have never visited, but has always been on that bucket list.
Alaska is a photographer's paradise, filled with sights of calving glaciers, snow topped mountains, soaring eagles, breaching whales (fingers crossed) and BEARS! And we will see bears since the entire trip has been geared around going to Brooks Creek in Katmai NP during the July salmon migration upstream at the falls. So armed with a whole 22” carry-on full of camera equipment, we are ready!
Our entire trip will last a month, a combination of flying to Vancouver and visiting Cancun friends; cruising the inside passage thru Glacier Bay, traveling by train via Whittier to Denali, bus trips to Anchorage to meet Crissy, a two plane trip to Katmai and back(one being a float plane) to view the bears at Brooks Creek, journey by car from Anchorage to Seward for whale watching and glacier viewing on the Kenai peninsula and a red eye back home at the end of the month. It is an aggressive schedule but we are psyched, about everything but the boats. We don't do boats!!!! So if there was a really easy way of doing this trip without the cruise we would be doing it. I'm just hoping the weather is nice and the seas are calm!
We started our morning today at 3:30 am and we were picked up by George of LARA Frederick Airport Transportation who took us from Mount Airy to Reagan Airport without a hitch. We flew American Airlines for the first time in a long time. Because of our Advantage Credit Card we boarded in zone 1, we each had a checked bag for free, I had picked our seat assignments for free, I could bring on two carry-on items, of which one was a 22" rollerboard full of all my camera equipment which weighed as much as our checked luggage(!) and they served sodas and coffee for free!!!! Spirit has been the most convenient airline for our Florida flights and I had forgotten how great it was to fly American. Another bonus our flight was fairly empty so we moved up to the exit row seats for free. SWEET! as Crissy would say. The entire first leg I felt like a VIP!!!
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| View of Mount Baker from the plane |
However, the most pleasant surprise was going thru the Dallas Fort Worth Airport. What a nice airport! I used to hate going through there in the early 1990's and 2000's. How many times was I OJ Simpson, running thru airports trying to catch a connecting flight 3 terminals away, so, what a pleasant surprise today when we entered a beautiful totally renovated facility. Now there is a sky tram, a monorail kinda thing to get you between terminals easily, I thought I was in Disney World for a minute. No more running thru airports in Dallas!
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| Lion's Gate Bridge |
The airport had great restaurants, lots of shopping-too bad I didn’t have a longer layover, beautiful mosaics and art sculptures. But the most unique place there was the Minute Suites. With a capacity of 40 people, travelers who have long layover or have been sleepless in Seatle can rent a cubicle and catch some z's. You need a shower? Nooo problem, they can accommodate that too. I guess we would have been thrilled if they had one of these place when we were diverted to Atlantic City fogged and sleeping on airport benches!
We arrived in Vancouver and though we were in DC. Trapped 3 ½ hours in traffic trying to get across the Lion Gate’s Bridge, we finally made our way to Kathleen Kaulbacks for our Vancouver stay in West Vancouver. We are staying in her lovely home with a beautiful view of the city of Vancouver from her deck. We were able to meet Chris K. and Christina Lees for a long walk along the seawall to top off our long day of travel and a great start to our adventure.
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