Saturday morning, I stepped onto the stateroom balcony for the last time and saw two huge ships as we docked in Fort Lauderdale, a Princess and a Disney. 

I didn’t get much sleep on Friday night.  We were up packing and enjoying one last hit of music by the Ocean Band.  We had our bags out before the 1 AM deadline.  Some of them to be shipped directly home and some to meet us on the pier.  I was especially careful to photograph my “little red bag” that had gone walkabout on the way to Fort Lauderdale and did not join us until month into the cruise in Chile.  We were shipping it home directly from Fort Lauderdale to Sitka through the luggage forwarding service that HAL offers.

Our flight was not until 6:30 in the evening so we opted for one of the latest times off the ship, just before 9 AM.  Before that we had breakfast and said goodbye to several crew friends.  Traditionally crew line up to wave you off the ship.

In the terminal we needed to find the three bags we were flying home with.  The first two were no problem but HAL had given us rolling duffels to carry home stuff we acquired on the trip.  On the terminal floor there were around 200 identical bags waiting to be picked up.  I made one pass through the terminal and couldn’t find ours.  Suzi made a pass and found it.  Since it was around 9:20 and the flight was at 6:30 we had booked a day room at an airport hotel.  I had planned to use the time to write final bog posts and do a little reading, but we both were tired, so we took long naps.

The airport was a mess.  Normally Alaska Airlines has quick and efficient check in and bag check systems.  But today there were long lines.  I made a comment that Alaska Airlines dropped the ball but one of the folks waiting said “Blame Alan.”  Travel with Alan is a service based in Longworth, Washington that put together packages using unsold ship berths and airline seats.  It offers deals on short notice, and as one person traveling with the group said, “Alan fills ships.”  Volendam was at just over half capacity before we reached Barcelona. According to folks traveling with the group about 260 of Alan’s customers joined in Barcelona.  While not all 260 were flying to Seattle, a lot were, and they were flying on a group ticket.  With large group tickets you can’t download boarding passes or print bag tags using the kiosk.  So, each of them had to see an agent and the local station was not prepared.  It wasn’t only Alan causing the backup.  A sports team with a group ticket also added to the confusion.  With individual reservations we had no problem.

The flight to Seattle flew along what radio DXer call “The gray line.”  It is the line of the sunset.  Just at sunset you can “catch” distant broadcasts along the line.  The line shifts with the season.  In June it runs southeast to northwest. So did our flight.  We had sunset for several hours.

Flying the Gray Line

We had a hotel in Seattle. The next day we flew to Sitka on the Southeast Alaska Milk Run, a jet from Seattle to Anchorage making stops, including Sitka, along the way.  I love this flight.  Southbound to Seattle leads to adventure; northbound takes me home.   The scenery is beautiful with close up views during takeoffs and landings. 

In Sitka we found one of my bags arrived BEFORE us.  Not sure how that happened.  Friends picked us up at the airport and when we got home our oldest son, Brian, and two grandkids, Liam and Fiona, were waiting.  They’re here for the Sitka Fine Arts Camp.  We also have the Sitka Music Festival this month, the Raven Radio summer solstice wildlife cruise, and we will be here for Raven Radio’s end of fiscal year fund drive.  We’re where we should be.

Our other son, Kevin, daughter-in-law, Shannon, and grandson Elias are coming down for July 4^th.  After that we fly to Minneapolis with Brian and his kids, pick up Liz, our other daughter-in-law and drive to the 50^th Winnipeg Folk Festival.  It will be a full summer.

There will be one or two more posts in the form of codas as I gather my thoughts and try to  bring closure to this trip.  I’m fortunate to be where I should be.