Starting out

Wanted a way to let everyone know how we're doing while up here in the Great White North, so I created this blog. You can leave comments if you want to send us a message and I'll read them when I have Internet access (which we have for free from Sophie's Station, our first hotel of the trip).

So without further ado, here's the journal entry I wrote yesterday in the airport and on the plane!

4:55 pm Seattle time
I’m sitting in the food court in Seattle, Washington. Can’t get wi-fi, well, can get it, but have to pay for it. That stinks. Internet in Rochester is free. But have to pay here? Good thing I don’t really care.

Why don’t I care? Because I saw mountains with snow!!! We went over the Rockies and that was really, really cool. Also saw Mount Olympus from the air and it was impressive!

GTG. Moving to gate. Will write more later.

5:14 pm Seattle time

Okay, have found our gate, made sure the slips we got from the machine are actually boarding passes and settled for a while. The flight boards in about 40 minutes and takes off at 6:20 pm. So I have some time to get caught up.

We left home this morning at 7:15 Eastern and picked up Steven’s mom in Waterloo. Kate came with us so she could drive the car home after dropping us off. We drove to the Rochester airport and waited at the curb for Dave, Dar and Lori (only about 5 minutes). Kate needed to follow John back to the apartment and help with the movement of cars to appropriate parking lots, then she left for home from there.

When we got to the security checkpoint Steven went through first. The woman at the first desk looked at my boarding pass and made a comment about the fact that I must be with him and she pointed in Steven’s direction. I said, “for better or worse!” and she chuckled. We all went through with no problems, although Mom needed to get frisked because of her titanium knee.

We left on time and made it to Dulles in Washington, DC without incident. Took about an hour. I was certainly ready for a stretch afterward and that was the short hop! Steven mentioned he’s the one with the least flying experience, having been on a plane only once before when he was 12. He giggled at takeoff (my favori8te part of flying) and enjoyed looking out the window.

We only had about an hour layover in DC, so we got something light to eat (Auntie Anne’s pretzel for me; cinnamon pretzel sticks for Steven) since the next flight would be just under six hours long. There would be food served, but you had to purchase it. Nothing for free anymore on these flights!

There were some delays boarding the flight for Seattle as the plane’s inner air temperature was hot. The pilot wanted to wait to get too many people on till the air conditioner had a chance to kick in. But once the boarding started it went smoothly.

Unfortunately, there were several small children and at least one crying baby on this six-hour flight, including a little girl behind Steven who kept kicking his seat. At least the movie was good – the newest Star Trek. I read Bleachers by John Grisham (it was okay, but too filled with football jargon for me to get into it) and left the book on the plane (on purpose). We landed in Seattle 20 minutes early, so we must have had a good tailwind.

Mostly we had the window shade down on the flight, but after the movie Steven put it up to peek and we saw the mountains below us. At first I thought they were the Rockies, but there wasn’t snow on them. But a little while later (after going over a flat area) we hit the real Rockies and saw snow. Not a lot of snow, but enough.

And then we got closer to Seattle and saw three mountains that poked up into the clouds. One was Mount Olympus (the one closest to us) and I’ll have to look up the name of the others. We flew over part of Puget Sound before landing.

We’ve eaten dinner now (Steven had bourbon chicken and orange chicken and I had cod fish & chips) and are waiting for the next flight. We should board shortly. This flight, the last leg of the journey, will take about three and a half hours and one more hour back in time. Very cool!

11:20 pm Eastern time

I know the time isn’t correct for this time zone, but I’m too tired to try and figure out the right time. As you can see, it’s late at home and I’ve been up since 4:00 this morning. Sun’s bright here as we are above the clouds and still headed west. We’ve passed over Ketchikan, although it was beneath the clouds and I’m on an aisle seat, so I can’t see anything anyway.

I do want to say something about take-offs. They are my favorite part of the flight. The plane taxis out to the runway, taking its time and puttering along. I could fall asleep to the gentle bouncing along, like a baby’s cradle rocking me to sleep. And then the turn onto the runway itself, getting ready for the long race down the tarmac. The plane’s engines get louder and your body is pressed back into the seat as the G-forces take over. Faster and faster the plane bolts down the runway until suddenly there’s a small lift – and the ground swiftly falls away.

(We’re passing over Sitka right now…I have to say the clouds over Sitka look just like the clouds over Ketchikan…)

I’m afraid turbulence isn’t something that bothers me. I don’t like roller coasters, but there’s just something fun about the sudden ups and downs in an airplane. I have to resist the urge to call out “Wheee!” when my stomach flies into my throat…


Grrr...I had some trouble with my laptop on the last leg of the journey and it looks like it didn't save the final entry. To recap the arrival in Fairbanks:

We landed just fine and right on time at 9:00 pm local time. That means we traveled a total of four hours back in time. We managed to find our tour bus that would take us to the hotel, met breifly with our tour director (Toni -- she seems really nice) and got the information for Wednesday. Steven and I collapsed in bed around 10:30 local time (that's 2:30 AM for those of you back East!). Slept well for the most part, but it never got darker than about 4 o'clock on a winter's afternoon in Rochester!

We're touring Fairbanks today -- will keep you posted! Till later...love you all!

Cindy