Operation Anchorage: Success (mostly)

First of all, I took NO pictures of my trip (well, I remebered to take one but you can't see it until the end). Sorry!

So my super secret appointment that got me the trip to Anchorage in the first place was a second interview with THE major passenger airline company of Alaska. Good news.......I got the job. I will be working as a Customer Service/Ticket Agent here at the Kotzebue airport. I was torn about taking this job because I LOVE my job at the school, but the travel benefits that come with this position are just too good to pass up, so here's to hoping that I love this job as much.

After my two hour interview and pee in a cup session, Cathy and I headed out for my lesson in Alaskan Bush Shopping. First stop, Walmart and only because she insisted that the right totes for shipping were there. They call them Alaskan Bush luggage, and you never leave Kotzebue without them! I bought four Sterilite tubs and off we headed to Costco.

At Costco she told me to bring the totes on with me and set them out on a flat bed cart and shop into them, that way I would know really how much space I had. My number one priority was toilet paper. Toilet paper is so expensive here! I then proceeded to fill my three of my four totes with stuff. Once we were done in Costco we headed out to Cathy's rental car and she showed me how to pack my totes. This process included opening and discarding of much of the exterior packaging in order to create more space. Toilet paper rolls became hole filler.........stuffed in wherever there was room. Cereal was taken out of the boxes and packed in only the bag. Ziploc bags were completely removed from their packaging and stuffed into one of their own and used as hole filler. Pretty soon we had three expertly packed totes and a pile of cardboard packaging that was not going to Kotzebue.

From Costco it was on to my beloved Target. Did you know there is only ONE Target in Anchorage? And it just opened about three months ago? God loves me!

Just inside the door of this beautiful Target is Starbucks, but I was able to resist the urge and walked right on by. We only spent a short time (well short to me, but I'm sure it was quite long enough for Cathy) in Target before we headed out to meet another friend and her family for dinner.

After dinner, Cathy and I went to meet up with our Pastor and his family. They were also in Anchorage and had an extra vehicle that I could borrow for my next day's shopping adventures.

From there I headed to my Priceline.com reserved hotel. That ended up being disastrous when at 10pm I was still waiting in the lobby and sixth on the list for a clean room. I ended up calling around for another hotel, found one and headed over there and am now dealing with Priceline for a refund on my first reservation...........

Thursday I was on my own.........I headed out to find somewhere to get my haircut. I found one of the chain salons in the mall but they were not able to get me in for a few hours, so I found an independent place down the road. They were able to get me in right away and the gal did a great job. I will definitely be going back there! Then it was back to Target to finish my list. I still had a few more things to get.

Two hours later I emerged from Target and headed out to the parking lot to pack my last tote. Ooops, I bought a few to many things. It all wouldn't fit so I had to return a couple of things. Not making the cut? Two boxes of cereal and a roll of parchment paper.

From Target I was off to find myself some lunch. I had decided to nix the Applebees Honey BBQ wings for my family because it just didn't seem like a smart idea to have them sit out for the next four hours. All I could envision is food poisoning.

It was then off to the airport to check in for my flight back to Kotzebue. I had four large Sterilite totes FULL, along with a very heavy carry-on packed to the brim with overflow stuff and my personal bag. On the advice of my more seasoned friends I used the curbside baggage check, tipped the Skycap and headed inside to check in and pay for my one extra "bag". Check in was fairly simple, only one of my totes was a little over the 50 lb limit (by 2.8 lbs), but they sent it through without charging me! One hour later I was through security and headed to my gate.

When what to my wandering eye should appear:

and my in flight snack consisted of a grande, non-fat vanilla chai and an oatmeal raisin cookie.

A successful trip in the bag and since I am now an airline employee I will be able to do this more often (and next time I'll remember to photograph the whole process)!