Grand Tour

Fast forward to end of year two in Barrow. It wasn't that we didn't have lots if insightful adventures, but we were so busy, time just slipped away. I'll get a chance to tell you about a couple of our memorable Barrow ventures later, but right now we are in Roma! At the start of our "grand tour" and I simply must bring you along.

We left Barrow on a sunny night/day. Remember, it's almost 24 hours of light now.  Since the  plane was early and the day was so beautiful, the captain of the plane gave us a "fly-on-the-wall" view of Mt Denali. Those climbers who were struggling to reach the summit that day must have had quite a few interesting words for our plane-ful of flashing cameras and videographers! First time I've seen that many Prudhoe Bay workers jump up at once! We took two tours around the mountain so both sides could get a good view, then on to Anchorage. 

We had the dogs with us, as they are also at their playcation spot (several acres on the river outside of Palmer), so you can imagine the cargo we presented to our (dare I say) saint-like brother and sister-in-law who graciously let us stay for a few nights before our departure.

After a somewhat nondescript day in Anchorage buying last minute "must haves" for our trip, we found ourselves at the airport with enough time ( unusual for us) to have lunch. We had a window table ( which amounts to a table on the breezeway with a view of passengers coming and going on flights). It was easy to tell when the flight from Barrow arrived that day as we greeted no less than 10 of our friends who were on their way to their own adventures for the summer. 

Officially on vacation, we felt obligated to have our picture taken by a random individual who aw shanging out with the bears. Then we were off to our boarding area with Condor air.

Condor has these great prices for flights to Europe in the beginning of the summer. We got all the way from Anchorage to Rome for les than it cost us to fly from Barrow to Anchorage! I somewhat negated that as I opted for "comfort class,"  though it was still a great deal. Husband sat in regular class so did not get the red rose, four course luncheon, unlimited beverages, adjustable footrest, or the snoring guy next to me!