Heading Home Eventually

Up at 7am. Got a tiny bit of breakfast and then waited in the theater for our transfer tour to be called. Cue low key madness…our group was called, we checked out of the ship and headed for the Seward Terminal to grab our luggage. All there, all good! We stood in line about 20 minutes. We were the last ones on the first bus. I was concerned there wouldn’t be seats. We ended up sitting in the very front…good seats but earned us some glares.

Our drive from Seward to Anchorage took about 3 hours. We saw gorgeous views of the mountains (and supposedly glaciers covered in snow, hard to tell…) and a bore tide. We stopped for an hour at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. There were moose, bison, musk ox, brown and black bears, elk, foxes, a porcupine, an eagle and coyote. Most were there for rehabilitation or conservation breeding. Beautiful area, all outside in large sprawling pens.

Finally we were on our way, but to our surprise, the bus went to the airport. Our excursion was supposed to end at the Anchorage Hospitality Center. After that airportees got out, we continued to the Center. It was a room in a convention center. It was well organized by young volunteers and served as a place to ‘put together a game plan’ and have an area as a base. It’s a beautiful convention space but there was nothing around it except a park that the tour guide cautioned us not to go to due to the homelessness issue.

Instead we decided to head back to the airport on the 4pm shuttle. I needed to check about bags anyway. The lady at the counter checked us in early which was great, but we did have to pay for bags🙄. Mom’s suitcase was exactly 50 pounds! No worries, after a nice talk with the lady, we went too the security checkpoint. More good luck, the lady at TSA pre-check has us go through her (much faster) lane. Most of the restaurants were closed so we had to eat at McDonald’s. Mom finally got her Diet Coke!

Our first flight is at 9 pm with 1 hour 40 minute lasting in St. Paul Minnesota. Then on back to Myrtle where we are scheduled to arrive Tuesday morning around 10:45 am.

In the end we made it back home 20 minutes early!!Read more