A "Wonder"ful Alaska Adventure June 2014: Day 1 - June 7, 2014

Vacation Day is here at last. After 14-15 months of planning and daydreaming it is finally time to leave for our Cruise. The bags are packed and we’re ready to go, the van is loaded and we are on our way.

We jokingly refer to Southwest Airlines as our company jet and I therefore had a lot of frequent flyer points with Southwest. Enough points that it was free to fly to Seattle on Southwest and would cost $500+ per ticket to fly to Vancouver. I don’t know about anyone else but a long day of travel is a good trade off for free tickets. Our flight was scheduled for 10 am from Houston Hobby. I figured if we left by 7:30 we’d be able to get there with no rushing, no stress, etc. I forgot it was the first Saturday of summer. Wow, were the lines for baggage drop at Hobby LONG, very, very, LONG. Fortunately I realized when we got about halfway through the line that priority check-in was for A-list and not just A-list preferred. So we made it through baggage drop and finally through security. We stopped for a bathroom break and James went to grab a snack at Wendy’s before we boarded. They started boarding almost immediately. James ended up having to not get the chicken nuggets he’d ordered because they forgot to put them in the fryer. We finally made it on the plane and were able to get two rows of seats although not right next to each other but with a single row between us. I'd say Alice was a little exited to be on the plane. (By the way Play-Doh is the best in flight entertainment possible)

The flight was smooth without any issues. My only complaint was that I didn't realize just how short the layover was in Albuquerque was when I made the reservations. We only had 30 minutes on the ground. As we were waiting to get off the plane that number was down to 15 minutes. I was certain we were going to end up boarding last and there would be no seats together. Fortunately we got off and they hadn't started boarding yet so we were able to board in A group. There were 51 through passengers on the flight though so there were still some slim pickings in seats. This time we got 2 rows back to back. Of course with the super short layover there was no time for a bathroom break or food.

It was another beautiful and smooth flight. We flew over the Great Salt Lake which was beautiful to see from the air. I’d love to see it on the ground as an adult sometime. The last time I was there I was a baby. We also flew by Mount St. Helens and Mount Reiner. Wow that was so beautiful!

The Great Salt Lake

Alice and her kids on the plane.

And that is Mt. Reiner. I couldn't believe how tall it was.

We landed in Seattle. We were scheduled to get in about an hour before my parents flight. We finally grabbed something to eat. I won’t claim it was good but it was food. We then got our luggage and I left James and the girls to wait for my parents while I went to pick up the rental car. I had my choice of minivans and so I picked out a Town and Country with stow and go seats. Mom and dad came outside at the same moment I pulled up to the pick-up zone at the airport. We amazingly got everything in the van and it was time to head north to Vancouver.

A little north of Seattle we stopped at The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Eating there brought back lots of college memories. We used to eat there frequently and I was very sad when I went back to Atlanta to find it wasn't there anymore. Dinner was just as I remembered from the bread to the salad to the ravioli to the Spumoni . We made it to the boarder. When we saw the first sign it said <5 minute wait on I-5. After a potty stop for Alice the next sign said 15 minute wait. I’d have to say it was at least a 20 minute wait but I'm pretty sure it was more than 30 minutes. After chatting about the Disney Wonder with the talkative customs agent, we made it across the border without incident.

We had to stop for one more bathroom break before we finally made it to the Pan Pacific and got checked in. I had pre-purchased 2 rooms with Hotwire. Both rooms were “upgraded” for free. One room which I gave to my parents was upgraded to a king water view room on the 16^th floor. Our room was upgraded to a king suite so we had a King size bed in a separate bedroom and the girls had a pullout couch in the living room. We were on the 9^th floor with a “city view.” The view was much nicer from 16 on the waterside but having a separate room was very nice.

We explored the hotel and surrounding area a little and then it was time for bed.

All in all it was a long day and we are very excited to be here ready for our vacation.