We packed up all the last minute items for our trip just as the airport shuttle arrived at 7am and we were off to the airport. (Hoorah!)
We arrived at the airport and checked in. The wait was not too bad and the security checkpoint went pretty quick. I noticed that Alaska Airline doesn't have an express lane for first class customers. The flight out was on an MD-80. This airline is definitely a different experience than flying first class on American Airline, but relaxing none-the-less.
All over the airport, they have security signs that talk about not checking your film. I hope the digital video tape I brought will be ok.
The first leg of our flight was from San Diego to Seattle. It was about a two hour flight. The flight was ok. We reached Seattle and had a 90 minute lay over.
Just after we boarded, it started to rain. Who says it never rains in Seattle. I guess we just got lucky to miss the rain. It didn't last very long and once we took off we were on top of it. After we boarded, they told us the flying time to Fairbanks.
I was surprised it was 3.5 hours! I knew it was far away, but the times on the tickets made it seem like it was only two and a half hours. I forgot that Fairbanks is in a different time zone. It is one hour behind California. It really is far to Alaska. If we could get a non-stop flight it would take longer to fly to Fairbanks than it would take to fly to New York City.
Angie and I worked on the in-flight magazine crossword puzzle together to pass the time. During the flight to Fairbanks, all we could see out the window was white clouds. It actually hurt our eyes to look at them.
For the in-flight meal, they served us a choice of a turkey and provolone sandwich with potato soup or a turkey salad with bacon. Angie went for the sandwich and Steve had the salad. Steve donated his chocolate candy that came with the lunch to Angie. So far he is still on the diet.
Still nothing but clouds out the window. It is blinding to look at them. The sun reflects off them and you can't see a thing. This is the first flight we have been on that we have seen ice on the windows. This is the furthest north Steve has been. Before this trip, the furthest he had flown was to Köln, Germany.
We arrived in Fairbanks and picked up our rental car. We had a small hitch with the reservation (they thought I was going to keep the car for 3 days), but it was taken care of right away. They rented us a Ford Escape, sort of a mini-explorer. It had a lot of room for our luggage. The air was dry and Steve kept getting shocked every time he touched the door handles.
While waiting outside for Steve to get the car, Angie's hands got cold and she started to look in her suitcase for her gloves. The wind was biting cold. She then got a big laugh to see an Alaskan driving a convertible with its top down. Don't they know it is cold here? But we figured this is the warmest it gets here, so this was their topless weather. Other cars were driving with their windows open so I guess they think it's warm.
We checked into our hotel and deposited our luggage. After changing clothes we decided to go to dinner. We drove up and down the main street and nothing peaked our interest. We then checked out the AAA book and the hotel map. We settled on a nice restaurant called Vallata. It was a little out of the way, but it was worth it.
Angie had pasta and Steve had veal. Both meals were very good. The Pasta has some of the best italian sausage Steve ever had. (yes, he got to sample Angie's food)
The restaurant had Asti-Spumanti so we ordered a bottle. The waitress had never poured it before so it was funny to watch her try to open the bottle. She asked if we were celebrating. We told her it was our 12th anniversary, so she congratulated us and then brought us a strawberry short cake dessert on the house to celebrate. I guess Steve's not on his diet anymore - that lasted a whole 1/2 day, but at least he didn't eat as much dessert as Angie did.
Both Angie and Steve were tired, it was 9:30 pm when we finished dinner and it was still light out like it was mid-afternoon. It doesn't get dark until 10:30 they said.
We learned later that this was just when the sun sets. It still stayed light until much later. As you can see from this picture, it was still bright out after midnight.
After a stop at the local grocery store for some water, we headed back to
the hotel for bed. Angie had a hard time sleeping. She kept waking up and
thinking she had overslept because it was so light outside. She woke up
almost every hour and checked her watch. As we learned it didn't get dark until
about 3am. And then about 5am the sun came back up!
Notice the timestamp in the lower right corner on the photo to the left.