Fairbanks. Austin. Home.

Our trip had come to an end. It was time to head home. Our flight left at noon so we didn’t have to rush. The challenge that face us was fitting all of our Alaskan treasures into our suitcases. But we did it. Then tetrised our luggage into the rental car one last time and headed to the Fairbanks airport.

As we flew over Alaska, a layer of clouds stretched across the state and down into Canada, hiding the landscape below. Good bye Alaska. We’ve had an amazing time and hope to come back. Somewhere over Ts’ilʔos Provincial Park in southwestern Canada, the clouds began to break and we were treated to views below of rugged mountains, glaciers, blue lakes and rivers.

I watched as we flew over the many lovely islands between Vancouver Island and Seattle. I longed to visit and explore. We had an extremely tight layover for our next flight. The pilot asked all the passengers who did not have a flight leaving shortly to please stay seated and allow those that did to exit first. I was skeptical as to how well that would work. To our amazement, the majority of the passengers did as asked. We were able to quickly deplane (I thanked everyone over and over as I made my way to the exit) and get to our next gate minutes before it started to board. A shout out to the passengers on that Alaskan Air flight into Seattle that day.

But would our luggage make it?

Lifting off out of Seattle we were treated to another spectacular sight: Mount Rainier lit by the afternoon sun.

We arrived at the almost empty Austin airport around midnight. Yet one last place that was turning out the lights and locking the doors behind us—or so it seemed. We quickly gathered our luggage (which made it!), shuttled to our vehicle, loaded up, and headed home

We were starving. Our layover hadn’t allowed for a chance to grab dinner. We were back in Texas, so of course—Whataburger. We stopped at the one in San Marcos for to-go orders and made it home about 3 am. We rested on Friday and our traveling companions headed back to Mississippi on Saturday.

Thank you, Cheryl and Sparky, for an amazing adventure into Alaska. Without y’all, we might night have gone. Let’s keep checking those airline fares for another trip. We’ve got to see the Northern Lights and Denali still.

One last bear sighting in the Fairbanks Airport.