Sunday, July 19, 2009

Alaska

I don't where to start. We just got back from Alaska, couple days date, but we FINALLY made it!! It was absolutely gorgeous! I loved it. It was great to see our friends again. Its been over five years since we had seen them last. And it was so nice of them to put up with us and our adventures :) Thanks Eric and Danielle you saved our bacon!!! :)
One of our only things we wanted to do while we where there was to go fishing! I was so excited. This little last minute trip of ours was a little hoorah before I get any bigger. :) (and can't do anything..)
We went fishing on the Kenai River. It was pretty crazy figuring everything out on our own. Just the rules and regulations where frusterating! We finally found a spot and tried our luck to no avail. We talked to some friendly fisherman just down from us, and they offered some great tips :) We snagged several, but lacking the right tools we never kept any. Unfortunately, we didn't have any to send home. Huge bummer, but we plan to go back some day! Make up! We hung out and went to a movie while we were there. It was fun!
Now to the not so fun part. This makes the whole part of the trip a memory never to be forgotten. We have come to the conclusion that our flight benefits are not so great. Flying standby has its ups and downs. This time it had more downs than a (my dad would fill in something humerous here). We got pretty lucky gettin to Anchorage. But coming home is a different story.
Anchorage doesn't have a ton of flights leaving daily. 2 a day for Delta. When we scheduled, they looked great. Shouldn't have any problems. Well the first flight we didn't get out on. So the next morning we figured we should be okay. We looked online and it looked good. Nothin. we were stranded. For the next couple days. Yea. Eli had to get back to work or else he would be out of work. We were running out of options quick. Ticket prices were outrageous. We found a different airline that accepted Delta. So we tried that. More people were coming in early for the big salmon run next week. Which left us with oversold flights and no options. The gate agents gave people with lower priorities tickets over us. One pilot wouldn't wait for the agent to fill the plane. We blame that one on stupid people who won't be at the gate when their plane is scheduled to depart. They wasted so much time checking in after the plane had been loaded. I was so unbelievably frusterated after that one. We would have probably got on that one. Our friend ended up giving us air miles that allowed us to get out.
All across the board we were dumped on. Repeatedly. :)
But, we made it. We are so glad to be home.
Moral of the story, standby sucks :)



These pretty flowers where everywhere!
Storm coming in into inlet...... @ 10:30 at night. :) crazy bein daytime all the time!
Another view of the Kenai River


Eli fishing the Kenai



Some fat girl fishing the Kenai! :)




Cruise boat to Portage Glacier





Portage Glacier






Anchorage Temple



Can't wait to go back! (With tickets)

6 comments:

Lindsay said...

Even with all the downs, it looks like the ups were worth it:) You look adorable with your fishing pole, glad you made it back and had some fun picture to share;)

Michelle Thompson said...

It looks so beautiful there. My parents lived there when I was little. My brother Shane was actually born in Anchorage and they loved it there. Someday, I hope to get there. Looks like you had fun. You deserve it!

Jackie said...

Oh you guys are so lucky to have gone to Alaska... You were very brave to venture there... I could have given you the stand by advice. It can get very risky.. It always looks easy getting there, but the coming home is always a pain in the butt..I'm glad you made it and Eli still has his job...It is very stresfull.. By the way how are you feeling?

Stacey said...

Looks like you had a great time! Glad you made it home,although the standby thing was a bummer! You are too cute!!

Brook said...

WOW! That sounds stressful!:) But I am glad you had fun..pics were beautiful!

Andrea said...

What a fun trip!
Sorry you had a crappy time getting home. Standby travel is an adventure!