Reflections of My Travel

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This was a sad morning, knowing that we were going to have to go home in a few hours. It’s sad enough when a good vacation comes to an end, but it’s even sadder when you know you’re going home to check into a hotel since your house is destroyed. And it being our honeymoon… So, when we finally got up and got around to checking out, they let us store our luggage there while we went out to walk town some more before airport time. We went to the mall and walked around it several times (much smaller than it looks from outside). We had gone there thinking that, surely, they must have a movie theatre in such a big (looking) downtown mall. We were mistaken. No movie theatres within walking distance of downtown Anchorage. So it goes. We walked around the mall so many times that we finally found some nice comfy chairs and sat down for a short nap. Finally, we had wasted enough time to slowly make our way back to the hotel to catch our shuttle to the airport. We walked along a sidewalk that was well-flowered and took pictures of the myriad of pretty flowers. You wouldn’t think too much of Alaska as being a floral state, but they grow such pretty and HUGE (21 hours of sunlight) flowers. When we got to the airport, there was a long backup at security and when we got to the gate, my very charming husband was able to talk one of the gate attendants into upgrading us to first class since it was our honeymoon. I’ve gotta say, first class was nice. The seats were big and cushy and had a blanket, pillow, and bottle of water in every seat waiting for us to board. Drinks were free so we each had a glass (actual glass, not plastic cup) of red wine before liftoff and another with dinner. Dinner was grilled chicken with a red sauce, garlic-cheese mashed potatos, steamed vegetables, and a roll. As far as airline food goes, it was by far the nicest meal I’ve had. And they put table cloths down on your little tray before setting down your plate. After dinner, they started the movie and as the previews were playing, they came out with ice cream and made us sundaes. My only complaint was that the big comfy seats do not have liftable armrests like coach usually does. This meant that I could not lay down across my husband’s lap, which meant I was able to get 0 sleep on the long flight home since I’m not good at sleeping upright. By the time we landed in Atlanta at 06:56, I understood why they called it a red-eye flight. When the plane did land, one of the flight attendants gave us a bottle of red wine to take home with us as a happy honeymoon gift, which I thought was a really sweet gesture. I’m thinking that if we drink it on our 25th anniversary, it might have aged enough to be decent wine. Going straight into work, seeing our poor house on our lunch break, and checking into a hotel brought reality crashing back in. The honeymoon was definitely over.