Planes, Trains and Puntos (Automobiles)!

This was the day that we had been waiting for....to lug our stuff to the airport and start our journey to Anchorage, Alaska. We were to have a 2 hour flight to Seattle, a 3 hour layover in Seattle and then on to Anchorage.

Waiting in the San Francisco Airport went by pretty fast. Pretty much the whole team was there, so I was able to introduce my sister and brother in law to many of the team as we waited for our flight to start boarding. We discussed how fast the season had gone; what we would do on Saturday; meeting times with the team; how to spend Monday; and most importantly, how long Sunday was going to be! Time started to fly by once we boarded the plane. We got to Seattle with hardly any hassle....there was some turbulence that freaked me out for a short while...but overall the flight to Seattle was uneventful.

Once we landed in Seattle we then realized that our 3 hour layover was now a 5 hour layover; our new flight was scheduled to leave after 11pm. Some of the team members had prearranged to meet up with family members that live in Seattle; not my sister, brother in law and myself! Since we had an abundance of time on our hands we started to wander through the terminals to find a place to park out booties to wait out the delay. We walked to terminal C and found a brewpub to park for a few hours. And when I say hours I mean hours! Melissa and Doug both ordered a beer (I couldn't drink b/c I was so close to the race) and then we ordered buffalo wings to start and we each got a meal. Delirium started to set in at this point! I can't tell you everything that we chatted about...but there were times that I was laughing so hard that I was crying! Our food arrived all at once, which defeated the purpose of actually ordering an appetizer and a meal. Since I don't eat meat on a bone...this could be a topic for another blog!....Melissa and Doug had the appetizer to themselves. Doug came to the conclusion that the wings were foul, or in this case "fowl"! :) He didn't want to touch them, so Melissa spent a lot of time cutting the skin off the meat so he would eat it. Which started another topic of discussion and laughter for us. It was during this time that it was mentioned that they should call the rental car company and hotel to let them know that we were delayed and would be picking up the car and checking in on March 4 early instead of late on March 3. We also during this time decided to call our uncle, who lives in Seattle, to harass him since he didn't come to the airport to take us to dinner. After harassing him for a short while, we then called our Grandma so we could tell her that we harassed him. This may not sound interesting to you reading about it....but it passed a good 3 hours for us!

After wandering back to our gate, our flight started to board about 30 minutes later. I have to admit that it was about this time that I felt like I had spent a lifetime in the airport...sort of like Tom Hank's character in "The Terminal". Our flight to Anchorage went by pretty fast, mainly b/c I slept through the whole thing. Doug and I both crashed before the plane was off the ground I think, but not my sister! She LOVES anything free....and since the snacks and the drinks are free, she had to have her free snack and drink. Well come to find out she had her free snack, my free snack and Doug's free snack! Gotta love that!

Finally we landed in Anchorage! It was after 2am at this point and we were all exhausted. We got off the plane and noticed that there were several planes getting ready to take off....strange.....Something tells me we aren't in California anymore!

While Melissa and I headed to baggage claim, Doug headed to get the rental car all squared away. After getting all of our luggage (their huge suitcase, my ski bag, duffel bag and my carry-on), I followed them to their rental car..while my team headed off towards the shuttle bus. Melissa and I were following Doug to the rental car when we caught site of our stellar ride for the weekend...can you hear the sarcasm in that? We had, as Melissa phrased it, a punto! Or in other words....the smallest piece of poop car that one can get! I couldn't help but laugh! I had no idea how we were going to get all of our luggage in it and then us as well! Doug spent some time situating the luggage, while Melissa was annoyed that we had a punto (in her words) and I kept taking pics and laughing b/c I knew that no one would believe we had this size car! Doug finally got all the luggage situated in the car and Melissa and I jumped in to warm up, it was below 20 degrees outside! I couldn't find my seat belt and was going to ask Doug for help when he got back. Melissa beat me to the punch...she told Doug as he got in the car, "Doug, you have to fix Patty's seatbelt, b/c if we slide off the road she is going to die!" I started laughing all over again...

And this my dear friends is how the trip started....planes, trains and puntos!