Friday, May 22, 2009

Well we leave Anchorage today. Woke up around 6:15AM and made sure we had everything packed up. We have to return the car and check in by 8AM for our 9:30 flight back to Dutch Harbor. My sister has to wake up for work at 6:30 so I made sure she was up. I’m going to miss being around my sister, her b/f and my Cupcake! It’s been a great 2 weeks with them!! We did our last minute shopping at Wal-Mart, cleaned up the car, filled it with gas then headed to the airport around 7:45 so we can make it to the airport before 8.

We checked in for our flight, went to one of the stores to get something to drink and eat then proceeded to our gate to wait for our flight. We didn’t happen to see anyone that we knew, actually! I heard there were supposed to be a couple other Akutan folk flying home with us on our flight, but they either didn’t make it or changed their tickets! I HATE flying and usually never sleep on a plane, but I was super tired from staying up late last night and waking up early. So I actually slept almost the whole flight! We stopped in King Salmon to fuel up, but I only woke up when we were taking back off! The approach and landing in to Dutch Harbor had me guessing whether or not the Goose was even flying to Akutan or not! It was super foggy and we were circling tight to the left as we were gliding down like some of the birds in the area! We eventually popped out of the clouds, a little bumpy which made me hold my seat pretty tight (as I said before I HATE flying in anything but the Goose!). We landed and saw the Goose sitting next to the runway, waiting for us to get out of the way so it can take off! I was hoping they would wait for us to come in so they can take us home, but we’ll just see what’s going on when we get off the Saab! The time is about 12:50 when we landed, we took off on time at 9:30AM, and the flight was a little longer than 3 hours due to fueling up in King Salmon.

We got off the plane and went to the “baggage claim area,” after waiting for our bags; we were told that about 1500 lbs of bags were bumped off our flight, one of the bags being my suitcase with all my clothes in it. Happy I packed light and left a bunch of my clothes at home this trip! I picked up my pups, I missed them so much! Then we went to the Pen-Air ticket counter to check in for our flight home. We were told that Trident had chartered 4 flights (at $3000 one way!) and we were going to be on the scheduled 4:30PM flight. So we had to sit in the airport and watch the Goose load up with cannery workers and take them over to Akutan. This pissed me off a bit because I’m a local and the cannery workers are covered by a company… and if the weather goes to crap and the plane cancels then we’ll have to foot the bill at the hotel if we get stuck, and the company takes care of them. So I feel it would have been a little fairer to get the locals home before the cannery workers… So until our flight takes off, we hung out with Atka’s VPSO, this super cool guy named Hank! It was good to be able to get to know each other a little better. It would be really cool if he was to come to work as the VPSO in Akutan! I feel he would fit in great with our community, he is very friendly and easy to get along with! It would be cool if he did move here, he was constantly trying to buy us something to eat, but we had just eaten before meeting him. His flight to Atka was cancelled due to weather, I guess he was just coming back from VPSO training down in San Diego.

Well at about 5:30PM we were finally told that our flight was ready to go and we can get loaded on the Goose! YAY!! I’m going home!!! I missed sleeping in my own bed! Just before 6 the Goose made its way into our harbor, flying over my house then landing out in the water in front of town! It was just my hubby, the pilot, me and a bunch of mail on the plane. It’s a cool 45F out with a slight drizzle falling from the sky, slightly cloudy with patches of blue sky and sunshine. I noticed this beautiful light blue and black boat at our city dock, I really love the way the trooper vessel Stimpson looks! They keep the paint job super clean and I love the colors the Troopers use! (I LOVE light blue) I snapped a picture of it sitting at our dock, and all the smaller boats tied in up the “skiff (boat) harbor”. On our way walking home from the plane ramp we passed about 3-4 Troopers and our VSPO, I stopped them and asked if any of them were Cookie Dough’s husband, they all looked at me funny!! Then I was like, “I’m sorry, who’s Mel’s husband?” They let me know that none of them was him, but they giggled at me when they realized I’m a blogger and that’s why I was asking! LOL! Nice looking group of guys though, there is something about a guy in a uniform that intrigues us women… not sure if it’s the same for a guy looking at a girl in a uniform though….(comments anyone?)

The island is still pretty brown compared to how green it’s getting in Anchorage! I noticed my lawn needs a mowing bad! I’m happy we cleaned our house up spic and span before we left so I can get it all messy unpacking! LOL! Most of my boxes that I mailed down the other day have made it home already, I’m happy that I mailed some of my clothes home (especially since I didn’t get my suitcase!). We picked up our lab Tug from my parents house before going home, he was super happy to have us back. I think he was just looking for what we brought home for him!!! HA HA HA!! Spoiled pups!

We ate a cheese burger over in Dutch not long after we landed, then I made some small pepperoni pizza’s on pilot bread when we got home. The store was already closed so I was happy that I had some food in the fridge/freezer still! I turned the TV on and started to try to catch up on everything that we’ve missed over the last 2 weeks (my sister didn’t have cable). It felt really good to be able to sleep in our own bed, we put a tape in and recorded The Tonight Show with Jay Leno then went to bed early! The pups were really happy to finally be able to sleep with us in our own bed in our room at home!!!

I really missed blogging and need to get back into the routine; I’m really happy to be home again and enjoyed our little trip away from “The Rock”. I have to get some training in the Post Office since I’m going to start work there Monday-Wednesday while my cousin is out on medical, then on Thursday and Friday I will go to work in the Corp Office. I also can’t wait to get back in the Corp and get all the Bank Reconciliation done up in the computer! I’m pretty excited about that ever since I finished my training on it! But I’m going to enjoy the Memorial Day 3-day weekend chilling at home with my pups!! So until tomorrow, TTFN!!

I will make a post with some of the pix I took on our trip. :)