Count-down to Vacation

We are so fortunate that we get two big vacation trips each year, thanks to Rich's great work benefits. Even though I don't get as much vacation time as he does, my employer is nice enough to let me go anyway, although some of it ends up being without pay. :) We will be heading out again on August 18 and I just can't wait! I am just like a little kid waiting for school to get out for summer vacation. I want to start packing! Unfortunately, because of the continued problems with volcanoes in the area, we keep having plane cancellations. We are getting really paranoid that we will not make it out on the 18th, which will set up a domino effect and make us miss our flight out of Anchorage as well. If that's not bad enough, we splurged and spent some of our mileage to upgrade to first class from Anchorage and we don't want to lose those seats! We have done this before and our flight from Dutch Harbor was delayed enough that we missed our Anchorage flight. Yes, they put us on another one, but there were no more first class upgrades available. So sad!

I called Alaska Air the other night to see if we could get a ticket a day or two earlier, just to buy ourselves a cushion and we could wait it out in Anchorage instead of here. Of course, there were none. I went to our local airport and was at least able to get us bumped up from the 5:30 PM flight to one at 10:30 AM on the same day. That doesn't help a lot if the whole day's flights are canceled, but it does help if that one doesn't fly but later ones do.

Man, it's complicated living out here sometimes! Send out lots of positive vibes that it all works out for us.

First, we are going to Denver for the Democratic National Convention. Sarah, Miles and Elle will be in Ft. Collins for a friend's wedding right before we get there, so Sarah and Elle (and maybe Miles) are going to hang out a couple of extra days and wait for us. We are so excited to get to have some time with them and see what little Miss Elle is up to. She is growing and changing so much! We are going to go to Estes Park for a couple of days and then we will do a little more traveling around Colorado after they leave, since I do not have to be at the convention till the night of the 24th.
I am so excited about being part of the Convention as an alternate from Alaska! We have a very diverse and interesting delegation and have been having weekly conference calls to get ourselves prepared. We are participating in a "day of service" in Denver and will be working at a women's and children's shelter, so I am glad that we are doing something for the community while we are there. I know it's going to be an amazing experience, not to mention historic! Go, Obama!

From Denver, we are flying to Vancouver, BC, spending a few days there, and then catching our Alaska cruise most of the way back home. We are looking forward to relaxing and taking it easy on the ship, as well as seeing some of Alaska we have not seen. We will be stopping in Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan, then finishing up in Whittier. We still have to make some arrangements to get back to Anchorage from Whittier and catch our flight home on Sept. 10.

We will be blogging from the convention (or at least from the hotel, not sure if I will be able to take my computer in since I am not an "official" blogger) and the rest of the trip, so stay tuned!