Hope this letter finds you in the best of health and happiness. We wanted to share with you this great news - we are visiting Alaska! Yes, the same far away state of United States. It is one of the two states that is not attached to the main land of USA (the other one being the island state of Hawai).
We got so excited by this trip that we started preparations quite early. Looking at the maps and the tour books thrill us to the core! The state is vast and the five days that we have dedicated to the tour seem very less. Also, it is one of the most visited states. So we thought that it would be prudent to book everything in advance. We got all our staying places, car and air travel done in about 15 days. One thing we noted was that things are pretty expensive in Alaska. We winded up paying almost one and a half times more than usual - but this is Alaska!
We had our flight starting at 6 pm. We wound up work early and were home at around 4:30 pm. But our plane was running late! We hoped that we could make it on time to catch our next connection. We were flying San Francisco-Seattle-Anchorage. We had almost an hour to spend because of the delay in the flight. Finally we were in the air at about 7 pm. Soon we were circling the Seattle (in the state of Washington) airport. At around 9 pm, we were searching for something to eat in the airport. It was surprising to see that the Seattle airport had shut down by then. No dinner! We had to unwillingly jump onto our next flight with big holes in our stomachs.
We were cruising towards Alaska. Its not fun when you are starving. The airline did not give us dinner either :). A couple of lemon cookies were delivered instead. Something is better than nothing. It saddened us all the more to think of all the goodies we had packed in our checked in luggage. Come to think of it, we were sitting right on top of it! Hey, look, lights! Its Anchorage! Afterall, this trip was not going to end in tragic starvation.
Anchorage is the biggest city in Alaska - most of Alaskans seem to live in this city. The airport is a regular sized, usual looking one. Anchorage is like any other city in the US - kind of adds a dramatic feeling to what lies beyond. We got our baggage and got our car. We had initially booked a compact and were handed over a Ford Escort. Somehow, we were not comfortable with it and upgraded it to Taurus. It was one of the most sensible things we did on the trip. This car was more comfortable and sturdy.
We were ringing the doorbell at John's Motel and RV Park at around 1 am. An unassuming lady checked us into the hotel. Good clean rooms, moreover inexpensive. Now was the time for a midnight snack!
We were looking forward for a great day ahead...
Yours affectionately,
Ajay n Deepa