Travel Day

As planned, the alarm sounded at 2:45 am. Our flight out of Philadelphia, via Chicago and Seattle on to Ketchikan, Alaska was showing an on-time departure of 6 am. Our day was to consist of 7 hours of flight time intermixed with 5 hours of layovers.

The clouds were low with a trace of fog as we left for the airport. It was a perfect preview of the weather in store for us in Alaska. All in all, the travel was uneventful and on time; just long and tiring.

We leave the clouds of Philadelphia behind

You always can tell when you're approaching Chicago buy the grid of the neighborhoods

The drama started upon our arrival at our Ketchikan. As we waited at the sole baggage claim conveyer, it quickly became apparent that our four bags, containing all our gear for the next five weeks, did not arrive when we did. A check with the Alaska Air baggage agent was promising in that she had a report in her hand listing our four bags. She said that she expected they would arrive in 6 hours on a later flight, and that they would deliver them to us at our hotel, the Cape Fox Lodge.

The Cap Fox Lodge. Every culture has guys with crazy party hats

We passed the time trying to wind down from our travels, enjoyed a beer and some shrimp at the hotel bar,  and then we had a wonderful dinner at The Bar Harbor Restaurant. If you ever find yourself in Ketchikan, visit this fine eatery, it’s the best we have found in this town. The halibut tacos Karen had were to die for, and my halibut with pecan maple cream sauce was also delicious. I won’t make you envious by talking about the bread pudding and the homemade cinnamon ice cream. Plus the wine list was really great.

Our favorite in Ketchikan, Bar Harbor Restaurant

Back at the hotel, we got good news; three bags were delivered to our hotel at 10 pm local time, 2 am body time. My bag, with all my clothes, repeat ALL MY CLOTHES, was the bad news. “Tomorrow morning at 8:30” said the agent when she delivered the bad news. With that I gave up, exhausted beyond measure, and went to bed. Karen had passed out from fatigue a few hours earlier. Total time from the call of the alarm in Pennsylvania to the sound of my head collapsing into the pillow in Alaska: 24 hrs.

Our base camp in Ketchikan while we provision for our trip