Still in Anchorage

I guess I left my photo card reader at Sarah's--can't seem to find it and was going to upload the rest of the vacation photos while we are killing time in Anchorage. Yesterday we arrived at our gate in Seattle after the plane had boarded just about everyone but us. Not sure how we managed to be that late (or if they were just boarding very early) but it was kinda nice not to have to sit and wait. The flight was not full so we got to spread out and have a window and an aisle seat with the middle seat vacant between us. Oh, that is such a luxury! I was very grateful. As we were deplaning, we realized that my coworker Daniel was right across the aisle from us but our line of sight had been blocked by his seat mate so we never saw him during the flight. It's so funny that we almost always know someone on the SEA-ANC flight. Alaska is a big state but a small world, that is for certain.

In Anchorage, we had several hours between flights and Rich happened to have a free pass to the Alaska Air Board Room so we enjoyed having snacks and drinks, reading, watching TV and browsing the internet while sitting in comfy chairs in a semi quiet room. Finally we made our way to PenAir, chatted with several people we knew, and loaded up for our flight home. We stopped in King Salmon to refuel, which the flight attendant said would only take a few minutes. After at least 30 minutes on the ground with the door wide open (freeeezing!!) and the pilot making a couple of trips back and forth to the terminal, we started getting concerned that we were not going to Unalaska after all. It was getting dusky and we cannot land after dark so we knew we would be cutting it close even if everything else was good to go. Our worst fears were realized when the Captain announced that we were going back to Anchorage. They'd been waiting for a weather update and then it was too late to fly in.

Returning to Anchorage, we were told by the PenAir attendant that there are no open seats till January 31! Don't you love it?! They'd already added one extra flight for today but said it was filled with another flight of people who'd sat at Cold Bay all day yesterday (thank goodness we did not have to do that, at least!) We were basically told to go to a hotel and start calling Alaska Air this morning.

We had dinner at the hotel and a quiet evening, went to sleep early after being up at an ungodly hour in Seattle. This morning I called AK Air and was told there was nothing available. We went to the airport and got put on standby along with several of our friends and neighbors. We were denied the 12 PM flight, denied the 12:30 PM flight, denied the 2 PM flight, and told we could start over again tomorrow. I was happy that several of the families with kids were able to get on the plane and head home, though.

After we checked back into the hotel, we received a phone call from the PenAir agent at the gate, saying that she had been able to confirm us on the 9:55 AM flight tomorrow. After a late lunch, we've just been lying around the room, watched a movie called "Wonderful World" with Matthew Broderick (had never heard of it but it was a good story) and don't seem to be too interested in getting out and doing anything in the big city. It's snowy and cold and I think we are a little burned out from all the travel.

Hopefully we will be home tomorrow!