We are here! What an adventure!

We left the house Saturday morning at about 6:30. Mom and Soraya took us to the airport. We arrived 2 hours early like Willie likes. Had coffee and banana bread $14.00. The trip from Albuquerque on Southwest Airlines was uneventful - thankfully!

Got to Seattle Airport, found our luggage and I easily convinced Willie that we needed to use one of those little luggage wagons! Best $4.00 ever spent! Checked in at Alaska Air found our traveling companion, Maxine.  There were two little ones on the plane and they both got wound up into a screaming fit - at the same time. Every one on the flight was miserable! Other than that the flight to Juneau was uneventful!

The Juneau Airport isn't very big so it was easy to find our luggage and then to the next airplane ride on Excursions Airlines. We had to weigh each piece of luggage which I thought was a little weird - even my purse!  Then I remembered them asking me how much each of use weighed when we booked the flight.  Our flight out wasn't due for about an hour so we walked down the road a ways to Donna's Restaurant where we met Insane Mary our hostess, waitress, cashier and entertainment!   The food was excellent and Mary entertained us most of the time we were eating. She LOVES Juneau and gets a silly twinkle in her eye when she talks about it.

My questions were about why everything was being weighed was answered when our 15 year old looking pilot appeared! He was probably really about 25 but either way, he was very young! They said the plane could only carry 5 people - I laughed thinking how big that might be - then we walked across the airstrip to this teeny tiny plane that looked like it could seat 2 maybe!!  I climbed in first because there was only one way in. Then Maxine sat next to me, the pilot got in and then Willie.  We all strapped our seat belts on and he started the engine.  the first crank was a cough and a sputter and I gotta admit I got a little scared! The engine finally cranked over and we started rumbling down the runway. there is no FAA tower there so the pilot just looked both ways and started down the runway! The lift off was smooth and we rumbled down the road until like magic we were airborn then the flight was just AWESOME! I took so many pictures the water and mountains were just amazing and breathtaking.  The mountain in front of us was to big so we went around until we saw the next landing strip. It was a dirt patch between two rows of trees! YIKES! But the landing was smooth and when the pilot parked the plane he kind of slid in so he was ready for take off next time.