Alaska

Earlier this year, the Air Force reassigned my daughter to Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. She reported for duty early in January. She planned to bring her dog, but at the last minute, was told by the airline that they could not take her dog because it was too cold in Alaska.

So, she sent her dog to me in Virginia. Ironically, it was colder that day in Northern Virginia than in Anchorage. We selected a time frame during which it would be neither too hot in Virginia nor too cold in Alaska for the dog to travel. I delivered the dog, visited my daughter, then took a cruise.

Of course I was jet lagged that first morning in Alaska. I went for a walk in my daughter’s neighborhood and saw some moose.

Moose with calves

During the week in Anchorage:

• We hiked.

  

  Anchorage from Flattop Mountain

• Tried to see Denali on a partly cloudy day. By the time we got there, it was overcast.
• Visited some parks in Anchorage.

  

  Moose in Earthquake Park

  
  
• Saw lots of moose.

My daughter drove us to the cruise port in Whittier, where my wife and I boarded the Royal Princess. This was our second Alaska cruise, having previously cruised from Vancouver to Whittier on the Pacific Princess.

Royal Princess at the Dock in Skagway

On this cruise:

• We visited Hubbard Glacier on a dreary overcast day.

  

  Hubbard Glacier

  
  
• We visited Glacier Bay.

  

  Glacier Bay

  
  
• We made port calls in Skagway, Juneau, and Victoria, ending in Vancouver.

The cruise ship used the new medallion instead of a cruise card. It would unlock our stateroom door from 50 feet away, which was kind of weird.

The check in experience at the Vancouver airport was the worst of my life. After 80 minutes in line for the check in agent, there was another long line to get through security and yet another long line at US passport control. It was a full 2.5 hours from our arrival at the airport to our arrival at our boarding gate. Thankfully we deliberately took a flight that gave us LOTS of time. Then our flight took off a little late. That cut our margin at our already tight connection in Chicago. We had one of those customary long O’Hare taxi rides after landing to get to the arrival gate. Finally off the plane, we dashed to our next gate, only to find that the flight was delayed. And delayed again. And again delayed. Finally we boarded and departed, only to spend a long time in a long line of other aircraft waiting for takeoff. When we landed, it took a long time to get our baggage. We finally arrived home about 2AM.