August 29, 2008 - Friday - 2008.
San Francisco - Anchorage
Sandy did all my packing, my daughter Vanessa was to arrive at my house after picking up her check and depositing it at the bank around 10:00 AM. Our timing and schedule was stress free, we had enough time to get to the airport, park the car and be shuttled to the terminal.
We checked in at the United Airlines curbside baggage check-in because of my mother-in-law who needed a wheel chair. The porter immediately weighed my daughter’s suitcase (since it was the biggest one), and it weighed 58 lbs. The porter instructed my daughter to move some of the contents out to meet minimum weight of 50 lbs. She transferred her cosmetic bag into Sandy’s and her weight came in just under 50 lbs. We paid the $15 per baggage charge and proceeded to the gates.
For those who do not travel as often as we do, keep your driver’s license and boarding tickets on hand while going through Airport Security, remove shoes, metal belts and jackets including blazers, separate laptops from the case, bagged liquids no more than 2 ounces, cell phones & keys. I forgot my belt, while going through the metal detector I beeped the hell out of the machine, of course I had to be frisked, an experience that is quite embarrassing and at the same time funny because I wasn’t the only one, on the other side of the glass screening room was this 80 year old woman clearly far from a suspected terrorist.
I also forgot to mention that my mother-in-law decided to walk with her cane through the security, even the cane had to be checked-in as well, how far we have come as far as beeping up security I found to be hilarious.
After the security check we proceeded to the gate, luckily the walk for my 86 year old mother-in-law wasn’t that far, the flight to San Francisco was booked solid, UA was selling upgrades to available business and first class seats, knowing this I did not even attempt to ask for an upgrade because there were 4 of us who needed to sit close to each other. On the 1 hour flight to San Francisco, I handed my business card to a lady who works as a marketing rep for a Sacramento Pharmaceutical company and who obviously travel frequently. She got so excited to find out that we are travel agents she asked for 3 more of my cards and handed it out to 2 other passengers on the plane.
We had a 6 hour layover in San Francisco, this was my 2nd time at this airport and my first time to have a long layover so we made the best of it, we arrived around 2 PM and our flight leaving at 8:00 PM. At the main terminal hub, they had shops and even Starbucks as well as other fast food services. We decided to have Sushi for snacks and parked our hand carries on one of the Eating areas’ table.
Sandy, Vanessa and Mom went shopping at the bookshops and the gift shops for about 3 hours while I started this trip report. Around 6 PM, we decided to have dinner and agreed on Chinese food because we were in San Francisco known for the largest Chinatown outside of China, I was pleasantly surprised the wonton soup I ordered tasted just like the ones you eat at Chinatown, I would definitely recommend the noodle or the wonton soup, very filling for $8.95.
The flight from San Francisco and Anchorage took 4 hours, we boarded at 8:15 PM, I pointed out to my daughter Vanessa that the stewardess was an Alaskan native, very pretty Eskimo Indian features, tall and very pleasant. I later overheard this stewardess speaking tagalog to one of the passengers and found out she wasn’t an Eskimo lady but a Filipina. Tells you how much I know about other cultures.
While on the flight, I sat right next to a gentleman who was going salmon fishing in Sitka, after exchanging a bit of conversation, he slept most of the way. I have to caution travelers who travel with children and mature women, this flight is 1 hour shy of a Hawaii flight, moving about the cabin wasn’t a pleasant experience with not enough leg room and fully booked flight we were all on top of each other. Those of you who travelled long flights know what its like, you just make the best of it, take frequent bathroom breaks because for some unknown reasons, sitting for extended time your bladder cant hold water for more than 2 hours, 3-4 trips would be an average for this length of travel.
UA offered free drinks on flight and free headsets to watch the movie northbound. We arrived in Anchorage at midnight, it took another hour before we got out of the terminal, I called the hotel who sent a shuttle to pick us up, much to my surprise, the shuttle driver, Onassis, is a Filipino from Cebu my mother’s island and we both spoke Visayan.
If you want to find out about the cheapest way to see a city, talk to a transplant native, Onassis has been in Anchorage for 10 years, from the Philippines he went and got a job there as a banker (his day job and works partime as a shuttle driver), of course he took my business card regarding travel and pointed out that there was a city trolley tour.
We checked in at the United Airlines curbside baggage check-in because of my mother-in-law who needed a wheel chair. The porter immediately weighed my daughter’s suitcase (since it was the biggest one), and it weighed 58 lbs. The porter instructed my daughter to move some of the contents out to meet minimum weight of 50 lbs. She transferred her cosmetic bag into Sandy’s and her weight came in just under 50 lbs. We paid the $15 per baggage charge and proceeded to the gates.
For those who do not travel as often as we do, keep your driver’s license and boarding tickets on hand while going through Airport Security, remove shoes, metal belts and jackets including blazers, separate laptops from the case, bagged liquids no more than 2 ounces, cell phones & keys. I forgot my belt, while going through the metal detector I beeped the hell out of the machine, of course I had to be frisked, an experience that is quite embarrassing and at the same time funny because I wasn’t the only one, on the other side of the glass screening room was this 80 year old woman clearly far from a suspected terrorist.
I also forgot to mention that my mother-in-law decided to walk with her cane through the security, even the cane had to be checked-in as well, how far we have come as far as beeping up security I found to be hilarious.
After the security check we proceeded to the gate, luckily the walk for my 86 year old mother-in-law wasn’t that far, the flight to San Francisco was booked solid, UA was selling upgrades to available business and first class seats, knowing this I did not even attempt to ask for an upgrade because there were 4 of us who needed to sit close to each other. On the 1 hour flight to San Francisco, I handed my business card to a lady who works as a marketing rep for a Sacramento Pharmaceutical company and who obviously travel frequently. She got so excited to find out that we are travel agents she asked for 3 more of my cards and handed it out to 2 other passengers on the plane.
We had a 6 hour layover in San Francisco, this was my 2nd time at this airport and my first time to have a long layover so we made the best of it, we arrived around 2 PM and our flight leaving at 8:00 PM. At the main terminal hub, they had shops and even Starbucks as well as other fast food services. We decided to have Sushi for snacks and parked our hand carries on one of the Eating areas’ table.
Sandy, Vanessa and Mom went shopping at the bookshops and the gift shops for about 3 hours while I started this trip report. Around 6 PM, we decided to have dinner and agreed on Chinese food because we were in San Francisco known for the largest Chinatown outside of China, I was pleasantly surprised the wonton soup I ordered tasted just like the ones you eat at Chinatown, I would definitely recommend the noodle or the wonton soup, very filling for $8.95.
The flight from San Francisco and Anchorage took 4 hours, we boarded at 8:15 PM, I pointed out to my daughter Vanessa that the stewardess was an Alaskan native, very pretty Eskimo Indian features, tall and very pleasant. I later overheard this stewardess speaking tagalog to one of the passengers and found out she wasn’t an Eskimo lady but a Filipina. Tells you how much I know about other cultures.
While on the flight, I sat right next to a gentleman who was going salmon fishing in Sitka, after exchanging a bit of conversation, he slept most of the way. I have to caution travelers who travel with children and mature women, this flight is 1 hour shy of a Hawaii flight, moving about the cabin wasn’t a pleasant experience with not enough leg room and fully booked flight we were all on top of each other. Those of you who travelled long flights know what its like, you just make the best of it, take frequent bathroom breaks because for some unknown reasons, sitting for extended time your bladder cant hold water for more than 2 hours, 3-4 trips would be an average for this length of travel.
UA offered free drinks on flight and free headsets to watch the movie northbound. We arrived in Anchorage at midnight, it took another hour before we got out of the terminal, I called the hotel who sent a shuttle to pick us up, much to my surprise, the shuttle driver, Onassis, is a Filipino from Cebu my mother’s island and we both spoke Visayan.
If you want to find out about the cheapest way to see a city, talk to a transplant native, Onassis has been in Anchorage for 10 years, from the Philippines he went and got a job there as a banker (his day job and works partime as a shuttle driver), of course he took my business card regarding travel and pointed out that there was a city trolley tour.
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