Back to the Airport, via Golden Corral
Alaska Travelog #26
ANC Airport - Wed, 19 Jun 2024, 3pm
We're back at Anchorage airport awaiting our flight home. Our aircraft is already here, disembarking passengers from the inbound flight, so that's a good sign for us leaving on time in an hour. In addition the seat map continues to show Hawk and I each having a full row to ourselves. That's at least a good sign we'll have an empty middle seat next to us. But there's no chance of catching an upgrade like on our way to Alaska 5 nights ago.
Earlier today as we were at one of our roadside waterfall stops I asked Hawk what she was thinking of for lunch in Anchorage. "Well," she said hesitantly, "Probably Golden Corral." I nearly bust out laughing because I was thinking the same thing.
It's not that either of us particularly likes this buffet restaurant. It's just the best of poor choices. It's a known quantity, it has a variety menu- one of Hawk's specific requirements was "A place we're sure serves vegetables"... which you might think is every restaurant, but not so much in Alaska- and it'd be fast. And Hawk definitely got her vegetables there. I think they even had three to choose from. 🤣
When we entered ANC airport this afternoon I was surprised again at the size. I was struck by that when we landed, too. Anchorage is a city of 285,000 people. The airport is the size of busy airports in cities 3x the size. And it's busy. Especially Friday when we landed, at midnight, it was bustling. I figure some of that might have been weekend tourist traffic, but the other thing is that as big and sparse and difficult to traverse as Alaska is, if you want to go anywhere else in the state you're at least going to consider flying. It's a 19 hour drive to the state capital, Juneau. ...Maybe longer if there are delays at the ferry terminal or either of the two international borders you have to cross to get there.
ANC Airport - Wed, 19 Jun 2024, 3pm
We're back at Anchorage airport awaiting our flight home. Our aircraft is already here, disembarking passengers from the inbound flight, so that's a good sign for us leaving on time in an hour. In addition the seat map continues to show Hawk and I each having a full row to ourselves. That's at least a good sign we'll have an empty middle seat next to us. But there's no chance of catching an upgrade like on our way to Alaska 5 nights ago.
Earlier today as we were at one of our roadside waterfall stops I asked Hawk what she was thinking of for lunch in Anchorage. "Well," she said hesitantly, "Probably Golden Corral." I nearly bust out laughing because I was thinking the same thing.
It's not that either of us particularly likes this buffet restaurant. It's just the best of poor choices. It's a known quantity, it has a variety menu- one of Hawk's specific requirements was "A place we're sure serves vegetables"... which you might think is every restaurant, but not so much in Alaska- and it'd be fast. And Hawk definitely got her vegetables there. I think they even had three to choose from. 🤣
When we entered ANC airport this afternoon I was surprised again at the size. I was struck by that when we landed, too. Anchorage is a city of 285,000 people. The airport is the size of busy airports in cities 3x the size. And it's busy. Especially Friday when we landed, at midnight, it was bustling. I figure some of that might have been weekend tourist traffic, but the other thing is that as big and sparse and difficult to traverse as Alaska is, if you want to go anywhere else in the state you're at least going to consider flying. It's a 19 hour drive to the state capital, Juneau. ...Maybe longer if there are delays at the ferry terminal or either of the two international borders you have to cross to get there.