A full day of flying and we made it to Anchorage!

---

A successful first day of traveling! We all got out of the house, had the car packed with 6 suitcases plus back packs and were on the road to the airport by 6:15 am. Marcy found a bargain for airport parking which worked out just fine and we were ready for takeoff at United, armed with airport sandwiches, by 8:00. Both flights were smooth...5.5 hours to Seattle (saw Mt. Ranier and other mountains outside of Seattle from the air) and 3.5 to Anchorage but it was a long day of flying. As we were landing I took another look at the United map to see where we were landing...Can't believe we're so far North! We arrived in Anchorage at 3:15 pm AK time (4 hours behind NJ), picked up a Town & Country minivan and made it to the Copper Whale Inn where we will be staying for 2 nights. It's a very cute place right in the middle of the downtown area. Jennifer, our hostess, had lots of information to share about the hotel, local restaurants, etc. She was a bit insistent that we stop and listen and seemed quite put off when we interrupted with questions (too NJ for her, I guess). Our rooms have views of Cook Inlet which is very pretty. The air is cool, 58 degrees (?) but not rainy so it's great. We settled our things into our rooms and then headed out to find some dinner. Beth, who makes friends with everyone, got a couple of restaurant recommendations from the flight attendant. We went to Humpy's for dinner...a very fun brewhouse with great local beer. Halibut was big on the menu...I had a halibut burger which was delicious. Ira had to try a reindeer 'hot dog'. We walked around the city for a bit after dinner...not a particularly impressive city...very quiet considering this is high season...the mountains in the distance are beautiful but the local streets are pretty low key with lots of 'moose' and 'bear' themed souveneir shops. Exhaustion set in by 8:30 AK time (which for us was 12:30 NJ time) and we ended our day. It's 10 pm and still perfectly light out! Tomorrow's agenda...4th of July Anchorage style...bike riding on the coastal trail (?) or hiking

---

Photos

Mt. Ranier from the plane...love my new camera's zoom!

Copper Whale Inn, Anchorage

View from our hotel window, 10:00 pm. Where's the darkness??

Comments

[Rita]

It's 10 PM - do you know where your darkness is???
Wow - nice start to this adventure. Hope your sleep masks are good! Looking forward to the next saga. Safe travel. Much love to all, Rita