Sunday August 18 & Monday August 19, 2019
Sunday began with an easy ride to JFK Airport and a comfortable wait near the gate. We couldn’t book a direct flight to Anchorage so we had to change planes in Salt Lake City, Utah. Everything was going well until the plane taxied out onto the tarmac and sat there for an hour. Finally, the captain told us we had to return to a gate to get more fuel! He said we were being rerouted on a longer flight over Canada (due to storms over the U.S.) and more fuel was needed to make the trip. We were supposed to leave at 3:12 but didn’t take off until 7:40pm.
Long story short, we missed our connection in SLC. Delta Airlines rebooked us on an early flight the next morning to Seattle (not Anchorage!) So, at midnight we scurried to find accommodations to get a few hours sleep. What should have been a routine cross-country trip turned into a two-day nightmare. Airline companies take all the fun out of traveling…..
We finally arrived in Anchorage at 12:30 in the afternoon, Alaska time on Monday. The bad news was there were several major forest fires west and north of Anchorage so the air was hazy and smokey with unhealthy air-quality alerts in effect. I asked Jeff to take this picture of me in the Anchorage airport because I knew our chance of seeing a real moose in the wild was very slim.
BUT there was good news: 1) our luggage was waiting for us at the Anchorage airport! Yay!! and 2) the Embassy Suites Hotel (which we booked sight-unseen from home) was very clean, roomy, had friendly staff, and a complimentary ‘Happy Hour’ from 5 to 8pm, and free breakfast in the morning. We made ourselves at home and collapsed.