The beds were super comfy at the Double Tree by Hilton Toronto Airport and so when the alarm went off at 4:30am, it was very difficult to get out of bed. We met everyone downstairs by 5:30am so that we could catch the shuttle which was completely full and I do mean completely full. It was only about a five minute ride to Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Yesterday when Karen checked in online, she paid for her bag and the second bag that we brought. We never fly with more than one piece of luggage each but for this trip, we had to bring a second bag. It is filled with things that we wanted to have in the RV like sleeping bags, plastic dishes, etc. Most of the items will not be coming back with us. Because of mine and Linda’s credit cards, we each get a free bag but you actually have to go to an agent when checking in your bag. So when we got to the airport, each of us went in different directions. Karen and Steve went and dropped their bags and then headed for security. Dave, Cathy, Michael and Liam headed for the Air Canada priority check in, while Linda and I were stuck in a long line. Then Linda remembered that our TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite credit cards also gave us priority check in. So we left that line and headed over to the much shorter priority line. It was not long before Linda and I were on our way to security. Unfortunately Linda ended up in a wrong security line while I was able to somewhat breeze through because of my NEXUS card. We got caught up with Karen and Steve and then made our way to gate D24 where the Paisley Maloneys were waiting. Because boarding was going to begin at 7:05am and by now it was 6:45am, everyone quickly went and found some breakfast before we got on the plane.
To get to Anchorage, we are flying through Vancouver with Air Canada (25,000 Aeroplan miles + $241.98 CAD in taxes) which we booked back in August 2017. The running joke between Liam and I is that he always gets the window seat. Not sure why he does since he never pays for the it. We all got settled in for the close to five hour flight. Liam was able to get a really good sleep while the rest of us read, watched movies or worked on the blog. We landed in Vancouver to overcast skies just after 10:00am local time.
We got off of the plane and then since our final destination is in the United States, we had to clear security again before going through U.S. Customs. What was unusual is that some of us got our passports stamped. Because we had about one and a half hours before our next flight, we headed over to Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge. Some of us had free access because of our credit cards and others went on Kijiji and picked up passes for $30. The lounge is nice because they only let so many people in, it is quiet and there is free food and drinks. We got there just as they were switching over to lunch so we had a pretty good selection. They had different soups, salads, pizzas, warm cookies and many top shelf liquors. We made sure to get enough to eat since it will be quite a while before we have dinner tonight. Soon it was time to head downstairs for our 12:55pm flight to Anchorage.
We were all on the plane ready to go when they began paging a couple of passengers. This must have went on for at least a half an hour. Finally I think they ended up taking their bags off and we left forty five minutes later than we were supposed to. This flight even though it was shorter seemed to be longer than the first one. At around 3:30pm, we arrived in Anchorage to beautiful sunny skies. As we were walking to the baggage claim area, the boys were very excited seeing the large stuffed moose and bear on display in the terminal. It took much longer than expected to get our baggage and therefore we did not get to Great Alaskan Holidays until after 5:00pm.
We booked the RVs ($2999.01 USD including taxes and prepaid gas and propane) back in August 2017 and I could not believe that we were finally here. The first thing before you take off in your RV, is they make you watch a thirty minute video about how to drive and properly operate your RV. Needless to say with the long travel day and lack of sleep, we all were overwhelmed by the amount of information that they gave us. We got the paperwork settled and after some confusion, we got into our respective RVs and proceeded to start our Alaskan adventure.
We did not want to go to far so lucky for us there was an Olive Garden that was four minutes away. It was nice to finally sit down and have a proper meal even though it felt like it was 11:00pm to us. We were going to go to Costco but it was getting late and the boys were falling asleep during dinner so we decided to head to our first overnight stop which was Cabela’s. It has a dedicated area in their parking lot for RVs and I do believe they have a dump station. The other nice thing was that it was only four minutes away from the Olive Garden. We decided to stay in Anchorage tonight because there are a couple of places we want to explore here tomorrow.
Since the boys were so tired and ready for bed, I offered to stay with them while the others went shopping. Everyone went to Fred Meyer for groceries except for Dave who went to Cabela’s. Once everyone came back, it was time for bed.
Today’s miles = 3.6
Total miles = 3.6
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