Well, our two-week, land and sea vacation in Alaska is finally here. Today was a travel day with flights from Nashville to Seattle and Seattle to Fairbanks, Alaska. This took a bit over seven hours total and covered approximately 3,500 miles.
I didn’t have any trouble waking up Kate and Sara this morning, even though it was just after 4:00am. They have been incredibly excited about this trip, so they popped right out of bed and got dressed quickly. All things considered, things went about a smoothly as they possibly could all day.
Both flights had free movies, which helped make the time go faster. We even get a little extra time for our tight turnaround in Seattle, because our plane from Nashville landed 15 minutes early. This allowed us just enough time to grab some pizza before boarding the next flight.
The conditions in Fairbanks were exactly as advertised with grey skies, temperatures in the upper 50s, and a light rain. At the airport, we collected our luggage and boarded a bus to the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge, which will be our home for the next two nights. The lodge sits right on the Chena River, and we spent some time walking on the trails around the lodge before sitting down for an early dinner.
Dinner was at the “Edgewater on the River” restaurant in the lodge.
I would have loved to have gone to downtown Fairbanks and explore, but we are all exhausted and decided to turn in early. Tomorrow we take a riverboat cruise in the morning and then go panning for gold in the afternoon.