Chapter 1: Welcome to A Rink and a Dink
Our original 2020 Alaska Adventure was meant to be a big expensive blowout celebration of both the family completing the 50-state quest and Sarah’s graduation from high school. It included flights to 3 separate destinations, a one-way cruise from Vancouver to Seward exploring the Inside Passage, an 11-day driving tour on land and visits to 4 national parks.
For 2021, I was able to salvage most of that. The cruise was a no-go, which left me with a large credit with Royal Caribbean that I’m still working on figuring out how to use so I don’t lose that deposit. First world problems. But the rest of the plan stayed fairly intact, and I was able to use a lot of the credits and money I’d spent on 2020 reservations to take care of this trip. So that was certainly a blessing.
Our departure date was Tuesday, June 29. It’s never easy getting 6 people and their luggage on a plane. Especially when you’re a little rusty at the whole traveling thing.
Right off the bat, I have to give my wife a huge shout-out for her packing skills. She has a foolproof system that is designed to minimize the amount of luggage we take with us, and therefore by extension minimize the airline luggage fees we are forced to pay. Since we were traveling for almost 2 weeks, we were never going to avoid them altogether, but you do what you can. Alaska was a bit more challenging because it doesn’t fit the typical warm weather climate of most summer destinations. We had to be prepared for almost any kind of weather situation—the forecasts called for temperatures between 40F – 70F (4 – 21C) and just about any combination you could think of with rain, sun, clouds, and wind, not to mention a couple of boat trips that could feel even colder.
Julie’s system involves piles, plastic bags and post-it notes. She writes the planned activities for each day of the trip on a post-it note and then sticks it to the wall in the upstairs hallway. Everyone chooses some clothing for the day (hopefully appropriate for that day’s activity) and then they add their clothes to the pile. Then Julie takes the pile and compresses it into a gallon-size plastic bag (like you’d use for food in the freezer) and sticks the post-it note on the bag. She’ll try and group a few consecutive days’ bags into one bag in the hopes of us having to move fewer bags into the hotel rooms as we move throughout the vacation.
We had one bag packed with air mattresses and cool-weather jackets. We tried to cut down on clothing by planning to rotate through a few pairs of jeans and sweatshirts (per person—do I really need to spell that out for you?) throughout the trip. But we still ended up packing 4 bags, plus carry-ons. Jeans and sweatshirts and jackets take up a lot of room no matter what you do.
It was going to be a long day. Not only did we have a great distance to travel, but it was going to be covered in 3 separate flights. And because airlines are terrible, we also had to suffer through the constant juggling of schedules right up to our departure date before we actually knew what time we were leaving. It’s gotten to the point where the airlines are basically saying if you want the cheapest flight, you’re not going to get any sleep. That’s the deal.
Well, I have 4 kids. I haven’t had any sleep in 20 years. So there.
We left our home in Delaware at 4:30 in the morning and headed for Philadelphia International Airport. My father was very gracious to drive us to the airport so we didn’t have to pay for long-term parking, even though he was taking care of my mother at home who had undergone a recent hip replacement. I really did win the lottery when it came to family members.
At a surprisingly busy airport (see above comment about when the cheap flights are), we checked our bags and donned our masks and did the TSA Tango, leaving us with roughly 45 minutes to departure.
Oops. Check that. More like 90 minutes, as the flight was already delayed. We’re off to a good start.
We were flying Alaska Airlines for the very first time, and overall our experience with them was…fine. It didn’t seem any better or worse than any other airline. Besides the flight delay, the only other hiccup was that when I checked in and printed our boarding passes, they’d put Dave in a seat by himself on the second leg, from Seattle to Juneau. I know for certain when I’d bought the tickets and selected our seats, I’d placed us in rows of three, one behind the other. And yet, there was his seat assignment, across the aisle with strangers. Someday I’ll understand why airlines like to give you the illusion of choosing your seats if they have no intention of actually letting you sit in them.
So that issue was yet to be worked out. Not a deal-breaker, by any means.
We grabbed some breakfast at a Dunkin’ Donuts in the airport and eventually our plane arrived with no further delays.
It was a 5-hour flight from Philadelphia to Seattle. I enjoy flying to Seattle, as the approach is one of the prettiest in the country.
I managed to get a nice view of the downtown area on our approach as well. You can see the Space Needle, the Chihuly Sculpture Garden, the arena where the Seattle Kraken will play, a Frank Gehry monstrosity, and even the monorail tracks if you look hard enough.
In Seattle, job #1 was finding lunch. And our departure gate. We’d arrived at gate N7, in the north satellite building. Our new gate was announced as C3, in the main building. This meant we had to figure out how to find the underground tram that shuttled passengers between terminal buildings.
Here’s a map of the aiport.
We finally got to the main terminal building and dodged passengers this way and that to arrive at gate 3, which was housing passengers for a flight to San Diego.
My ticket still read Juneau, so this appeared to be a problem. After some amateur sleuthing, we found that our gate had already been changed…to D6. So at least it was another long walk.
We ended up grabbing some overpriced airport McDonald’s burgers for lunch and found gate D6 without further incident.
I tried asking the gate clerk if we could figure out a way to switch Dave’s seat so he could sit with the rest of us, but she was unable to do anything for me. Once we’d boarded the plane, we found a nice old lady sitting in one of our rows. We asked her if she would be kind enough to switch seats so Dave could sit with us, and she seemed very nice and agreeable.
Until a young woman came up and asked why these people were sitting in her seat.
After several minutes of confusion, it turned out that the old lady had sat in the wrong seat to begin with, and the young woman was the one we’d really wanted to switch with. Thankfully, it all worked out in the end, and they didn’t really care which seat they had since they were all aisle seats.
I spent my time on our flights reading a book or watching some TV episodes I’d downloaded. I was watching
For All Mankind from Apple TV+, and I really have enjoyed that one. It’s an alternate history show about what it would have been like if the Russians had landed on the moon first.
The flight to Juneau was full of amazing scenery. It was almost as if the approach to Seattle was just the appetizer. We flew up along the Inside Passage, and it was nothing but snow-capped mountain peaks and glacial bays and fjords the whole way. This was taken just north of Vancouver, I believe.
When we landed in Juneau, we stayed aboard the plane (first time I’ve done that for a layover). Technically, we were now in Alaska, but according to family rules, we couldn’t cross the state off the list yet. The rule states that our feet have to touch the soil of the state in order for it to count as an official visit. This rule was put in place expressly to prohibit counting airport layovers.
At this point, it was approximately 7:00 p.m. East Coast time (3:00 p.m. Alaska time), so we’d already been awake and traveling for 15 hours and still had one more flight to go. This one was just a short little puddle jump to the
town of Gustavus, AK.
You’ll be forgiven if you’ve never heard of Gustavus. Gustavus (Gus-stay-vus) is a town of roughly 500 year-round residents on the outskirts of Glacier Bay National Park. During the summer months, it is serviced by one Alaska Airlines flight per day. Otherwise, you can only arrive via small plane or boat.
Honestly, it was fun to fly there. It felt like a new type of adventure, going where relatively few people dare to tread. If you’ve ever landed on the short runway at Chicago’s Midway airport, it was a similar experience here as we hit the ground and the pilot immediately jammed on the brakes and hit full flaps to avoid careening off the edge of the runway.
We taxied over to the “terminal building”. They wheeled out some stairs and we climbed down onto the runway to de-plane.
We got a kick out of how tiny the airport was. There was exactly one building, which housed the Alaska Airlines offices. The baggage claim was basically a shed with a door on either end.
I made a comment about a “rinky-dink” airport, and apparently Drew had never heard that expression before, because he was telling anyone who would listen that Dad called the airport a “rink and a dink”.
The
Glacier Bay Lodge is the only place to stay on park property, and they run a shuttle to and from the airport. The driver was there waiting for us (and most of the other airplane passengers) and happy to help us load our luggage onto the bus. It was nothing fancy, just a regular old school bus.
Most visitors to Glacier Bay arrive via cruise ship, and never leave the ship as they cruise the waters of the bay for the day before moving on. If you want to spend more time (or if there are no cruises running), then finding your own way to Gustavus and staying here or in a mom-and-pop inn are the only real options.
The driver gave us the nickel tour of the town of Gustavus, pointing out the one (1) intersection, known locally as “4 corners”. That’s where the one (1) gas station and one (1) restaurant are located as well. He said there were two places to get groceries and supplies. One was a general store attached to the gas station, and the other was run by a family by the name of Cosh who would make a Costco run every so often and then re-sell their purchases to the residents. So it was called the “Coshco”.
One nice thing about flying into a remote location is that most things are very informal. As we drove further down the road, we took a bend and headed toward the national park. As we entered the park property, the bus driver pointed out the sign. Someone asked if he could stop for a photo, and he said, “Sure! No problem!” So he pulled the bus over and we all piled out.
And our feet officially touched Alaskan soil.
That was it! Family history was made on this remote spot in Gustavus, Alaska.
We’re done! Thanks for reading. You guys are the best. In conclusion, I—
(checks earpiece)
Oh, come on.
(checks earpiece again)
Sigh. I’ve been informed that the DISBoard Trip Report bylaws state that I must report upon the entire trip, not just a tiny portion of it. So apparently I have to keep going. Believe me, I’m as disappointed as you are. I thought I was going to knock this thing out in one chapter.
Well, we arrived at the lodge where we were told that they had our room keys ready for us and we just needed to give our last names to the workers out front. And there was only one restaurant on property, and it was reservation only.
So we immediately split up—I got in the line for the room keys and Julie went inside to get a dinner reservation. As we milled around waiting for Julie, I took a photo of our luxury airport shuttle.
Hey, it got the job done.
Julie came back with bad news. They couldn’t seat us in the restaurant until 7:50 p.m. (We’d arrived at the lodge at roughly 5:00 p.m. or so.)
This was going to be a rough evening. We were all tired and hungry and working on some serious jetlag. We moved our bags to our rooms and unpacked for the night.
Yes, I said rooms. In an Oblivious Family first, I had actually reserved two hotel rooms for our family, which meant everyone would have an actual bed to sleep on. I know, I’m getting soft in my old age.
Actually, I booked the boat tour of the national park at the same time, so I had to list everyone and couldn’t go with my usual trick of forgetting a couple of kids so I only had to book one room. Disney gets me that way, too.
We took some time to wander the grounds of the lodge. We took a short trail down to the edge of the bay in Bartlett’s Cove.
Nearby is a building where some of the native Alaskans and park rangers give talks and demonstrations to guests.
This is the main lodge building as it appears from the water. The guest rooms are in cabins to the left of this spot. Like most national park lodges, they’re rustic and spartan, but they’re fine. All we need are clean beds and a bathroom.
Along the path to the dock was a humpback whale skeleton. Sadly, this was the remains of a whale that was struck by a cruise ship several years ago. Her name was Snow.
When we’d wandered as much as we could, we walked back up to the main lodge building. We wandered the tiny gift shop for a bit, and then went upstairs to the national park visitor center (actually housed inside the lodge). That kept us busy for a good 7 minutes or so.
Finally, we looked at the restaurant and saw some open tables. So we decided to go back to the host desk and ask them to have mercy on us. At this point, we’d been awake for almost 20 hours. The long hours of Alaskan daylight meant our bodies truly had no clue what time it was. Thankfully, the staff took pity and seated us right away.
We mostly ordered cheeseburgers, which were nothing special but also not bad. There was no kids menu, so Drew was going to share a burger, but in the time it took to cook the food…
Looks a lot like my Trip Report readers, doesn’t he?
Coming Up Next: Six passenger set sail that day for an eight hour tour. An eight hour tour.
Thanks for jumping in and saying hi! It makes me glad to hear that these have helped in your planning. Don't be shy, stick around and chime in all you want!
That'll teach 'em!
)
It has to get better soon. Right?
Those aren't seats. Those are torture devices.
