Alaska

Started with an hour+ drive to the Sunport in Albuquerque.

Then a flight from there to Seattle Washington with a connection to Anchorage Alaska.

Then a bus to Homer arriving at 2:30am.

Final approach into Seattle

Leaving Seattle at sunset

Arriving at Anchorage, Alaska 

 

Home Again

 I left Homer Thursday evening, flew to Anchorage and then a connection to Phoenix, then on to Albuquerque. I had one delay on the last flight but finally arrived home. I had no food in the house so I went down to Madrid, met with my friends and had a lite dinner. I have been up for 38 hours now. 

When I got to Madrid I was told they had just been talking about me. Looks like I have a photo shoot. Nice to come home and have a job lined up.

Here are a couple of shots from my trip home.

On my first flight a tiny plane

Approaching Anchorage 

Sunset on take off from Anchorage 11:55pm

Sunrise in Phoenix at 6am

Greetings from Homer Alaska

 I arrived a week ago Friday and have been on the go since.

The flights up were good and my luggage arrived, yeah.

I got in around 11pm and grabbed a Lyft ride to the hotel where my sister and her friend were staying. They quickly climbed into bed after letting me in. Took me a bit to get organized and then to fall asleep. We had to get up early the next morning to take her friend to the airport, after dropping her off we started the drive from Anchorage to Homer. We made a few stops along the way, first was along the Cooks Inlet to watch the Beluga Whales. Very hard to catch them with their heads out of the water. This is the best I could do.

A plane flying over Cooks Inlet as we were watching thee whales.

My first meal was “Halibut on a stick” at the Boardwalk restaurant, ate it before I could get a picture.

On Sunday our cousins arrived, we had never met in person before. We took a hike in the Eveline State Recreation Site.

On Monday I was given a gift from my son and sister, I went All Species Fishing for the day. I caught a couple of Halibut, a Silver Salmon and a rockfish. We had the Salmon for dinner that night, along with a couple of pieces of King Salmon and a rockfish. These are all the fish I and the couple on board caught.

Tuesday and Wednesday I spent working with my sister at her store. She was just training me on her new system. Tuesday night the cousins took us to dinner at, Lands End, on the Spit. No pictures but a great meal and wonderful service. We all ate too much.

On Thursday I dropped her at the bus stop for her trip to the Anchorage Airport for her vacation. I met the cousins at the, Two Sisters Bakery, and introduced them to chocolate bread. Geert gave his name, Maya, the daughter of one of the owners, lookup and saw me and said “of course Chocolate Bread”.

She recognized me from my previous visits to Homer. My favorite bakery! The rest of the day I ran some errands.

Friday I worked at the store. Saturday I was off, it rained all morning so I did some laundry. In the afternoon I had ran some of more errands. Went to the bakery, late, figured they would be out of the Chocolate Bread, but they had a few left. Not great for my diet, but soooooo good. I then headed for the farmers market. I then went to the Spit and bought some smoked Salmon, last year they ran out before I could get some.

On my sister’s advice, I went for lunch at the Broken Oar and had their Creole with clams, scallops and shrimp. Delicious on a cold day.

Today, Sunday, I am working at the store.

These are picture from the farmers market and the Spit.

Alaska

 Just a quick note, I flew back to Alaska yesterday and will be here until the need of September. I will be posting pictures as I get out. Today we are hoping to see some Beluga Whales before we drive from Anchorage to Homer.

At the gate waiting to board

Last day in Homer and Heading to California

 Sunday, after the 6+ mile hike the day before, we decided to take it easy. 

My sister’s, “SO” is returning on Monday so we went to the grocery store and bought a few of the things she needed. We went to the, Boardwalk restaurant, for Halibut on a Stick and waffle fries. We ate half and saved the rest for dinner. Stopped by the, Pickled Pear, a food truck, to picked up some Mexican Street Corn, to have with our dinner

Returning to the house we relaxed and watched some TV.

Lola sitting in my lap while watching TV.

Halibut on a Stick

Bea and Esther attempting to crawl in my lap to say goodbye.

Monday, Scotty, Lisa’s SO informed us his flight was canceled and he was rebooked for the next day. The airline booked him a room and gave him meal vouchers, he was going to go back to his mom’s house. Being the East Coast was sweltering and he had no A/C at his mom’s, well sorry mom, he stayed at the hotel.

We went to the airport and she dropped me off. Unfortunately, my hat was left in the car.

I went to check in and asked if the flight was on-time, I was told it was, in a belligerent tone. I then said I had one bag to check to San Francisco and one to gate check to Anchorage. I was informed by the agent that “she” would not “gate check” my bag because it was not a mobility device or car seat. I informed her that every time I had flown with them I had no problem gate checking a carry-on with thousand of dollars of photography equipment. She informed me “SHE” would not do it, thank you #RavnAir in Homer. I had her check the bag to Anchorage, figuring I had an hour and a half to retrieve it and make my flight.

At 8:45, she went to the gate to start the boarding, except there was no plane. It was late, she walked away after 15 minutes of standing there. The plane, finally arrived, no announcement, at about 9:20, thirty-five minutes late. We were supposed to depart at 9:15, needless to say we didn’t depart until 9:55. That left me with less than a hour to collect my bag, go through security and get to the departure gate. 

My bag came quickly, security was very quick, and my gate was just about the last one on the concourse. I made it as they were finishing boarding. The bag that I checked all the way through did not. My AirTag showed it still in Anchorage.

I filled out a form at baggage claim in San Francisco, as the agent was entering the information, my phone alerted me that my bag was in Seattle. A second later she finished entering the information and it told her my bag was in Seattle. The, only, good part was the agent at #RavnAir didn’t charge me for my bags.

My, sister, picked me up and we went to her house. Her husband and I watched a James Bond movie.

Then it was time for bed.

Here are a few shots from my #iPhone12ProMax that I took as we were passing over San Francisco.

San Francisco 

Golden Gate Bridge

Bay Bridge