Had a fun time getting from Seattle to Sitka in June...the saga finally ends!

Even though I live in portland, I still like to drive up to seattle for flights sometimes. Ends up being a toss-up as far as time goes most of the time. Of course, this time I-5 was closed northbound slightly north of vancouver WA, so that added another half-hour to the trek. Otherwise uneventful parking at the super-duper discount place and getting the shuttle. Everything goes fine until we are about to board and I get a text from the fishing buddy: "Watch out for FOG!" uh oh! Turns out Sika had been seeing quite the fog bank lately. Flight was a multiple hop special with stops in ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau and a few more before an anchorage terminus. They decided to roll the dice and we made it to ketchikan uneventfully, but then things got fun....Had a grand total of 3 missed landings in Sitka before they finally gave up and skipped that bus stop and sent us off to Juneau.

Sat next to a Prudhoe Bay oilfield worker who was flying up from Phoenix to anchorage (a few more "hops" down the line). Finally touch down in Juneau to see a sea of poor souls hoping to go to Sitka, some stuck for several days with all the fog. Managed to snag a seat for a 10 pm departure that night but it was only another half hour before it was preemptively cancelled. After yet another protracted phone conversation with alaska, was not able to get any assistance under the midnight sun besides a seat on the 10 pm flight the next day. Had to trek all the way to the city for a hotel as the airport ones were booked by other sorry Sitka souls. Best I could manage was a $220 a night best western with no AC...of course Alaska is having a heat wave in sight of the glacier. No food open that late so dinner was a biscoff left over from the airplane...gourmet!

Figured it was worth a shot to not end up in Sitka at midnight the night before I am supposed to get up at 4 am to go fishing so I called alaska around 8:30 am and a seat had magically opened up on the 10:30 am flight. Finished the booking while madly putting on pants and brushing my teeth and grabbed a cab to the airport. Miraculously made it and had a breakfast sandwich before catching the plane.

Anyways, I of course filed a claim with chase travel insurance and after about 10 rounds with them wanting "just one more document!" I finally got a check for $300 in the mail....4 months later! Not exactly the best start to my trip but it beats going to work