Day #1: Hawaii to Seattle to Anchorage

Some of you might have guessed that we have been gone for a couple of weeks now on our Alaskan Land Tour and Cruise.  We returned late last night and were exhausted today, but managed to get most of our laundry and errands done.

It was a good thing I decided to write my travel posts when I got home because WiFi on the ship was exorbitant!

So here goes! 

Day 1:

                                                                                                 

We woke before the sun was up and were ready for John’s Taxi to take us to the airport for the 8:00 AM Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle.  

Not enough time to have an Ivar's clam chowder in Seattle like we hoped.

We made our plane transfer to Anchorage and were met by Ryan, a Princess representative at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. 

After introducing himself, he asked if we were from Hawaii.   We said, "yes."

"Where?" he asked.  Then he told us the street address where his grandmother lived and we discovered that it's just a few blocks away from where we live!

HOW incredible is that?!?  This is such a small world.  Ryan said there are a lot of Hawaii transplants in Alaska.  That was a surprise.

Mom and Auntie Grace were captivated by their first look at polar bears and wolves. They were glad the animals were stuffed and not dangerous.

When we got to our Captain Cook hotel via the Princess shuttle, it was quite late.  By the time we got ourselves organized it was well after midnight.

The Princess representative at the hotel said we would meet Deb, our tour guide the following morning at the buffet breakfast.

Wow!  It felt amazing to think we were in Alaska!