Alaska Day 9 - Anchorage & Heading Home

It was finally time to turn in the RV. We'd showered and packed the night before, but got up early so we wouldn't have to rush through breakfast, coffee, and our final RV cleaning. We left a few items in the campground bathroom hoping to donate them to a good home, and cleared out the rest. An hour's drive and gas top-off later, we arrived back at the RV rental place exactly 1 minute before our return time. We anxiously awaited their approval (no extra charges, yay!), then hopped on their free shuttle to the airport, where Jim and Mary had an early afternoon flight.

We made it! And found a stick!

We McBs had another 10+ hours before our flight home, so grabbed the Anchorage PeopleMover bus straight from the airport to downtown. We ended up with about 3 hours before the drizzle turned into rain, giving us enough time to eat a picnic lunch at the Elderberry Park playground near the water, walk through a bit of the Coastal Trail, see several monuments and city parks, wander through the downtown streets, and encounter a lot of homeless people (Zadie: "Why is that guy yelling at us?"). After a stop for snacks and coffee at the Kobuk Bakery (mmm, fireweed glazed donuts), we jumped back on the PeopleMover to the airport.

Beautiful day?

This cute park was a memorial for victims of violent crimes. 😬

We could've made a little more of this time and visited some sites, but we were ready for some downtime by this point. Few hours of chillin' in the airport, some lame airport dinner, and we were ready for our red-eye.

Zadie was a little more energetic than Ruth.

Thanks to Alaska Airlines for this kid book station.

We landed in Dallas just after 7:00 a.m. and lucked into standby seats on a 9:00 a.m. flight back to Raleigh. Happy fam to make it back home without a long layover. And that's a wrap!

Goodbye, Alaska!

Have I mentioned that Bill rocks?

The original clawfoot tub now has a new faucet and a shower!, which gives us a full working bath upstairs. We first thought the tub would require professional reglazing, but it turns out that some sanding/painting on the outside and a serious cleaning on the inside was all it needed. Shower conversion kit arrived last week and Bill set about the super-fun task of removing all the old parts and hooking everything up. Boy, does he love plumbing! Old faucet and previous "shower", a short length of garden hose with a plastic sprayer on the end: New faucet (which is so bright and shiny, pic doesn't do it justice, love it): Ready for shower curtains and final touches: It did take 5 trips to Lowes and 3 trips to Home Depot IN TWO DAYS (damn those old, non-standard plumbing sizes), but it works! In other news, I think the second color on the hallway is going to work (first one = too beige), so Bill will start on trim this week. Full final before and after pics are here .

Before & After - Front Door

Quite the transformation with the new color scheme! Since our house is located in a historic district, the colors had to be approved by the historic district commission. Front Door After The colors and products used here are (not affiliate links): Door - Sherwin Williams Cajun Red ( link , a pretty red-orange in real life, looks slightly more brown here) Siding - Sherwin Williams Rookwood Blue Green ( link ) Trim (white) - Sherwin Williams Pure White ( link ) Trim (teal) - Sherwin Williams Still Water ( link ) Porch floor - Sherwin Williams Pewter Tankard ( link ) Brick foundation (not shown) - Sherwin Williams Rookwood Dark Brown ( link ) Mailbox - Ecco E4 in Bronze ( link , available via Amazon and elsewhere) Similar Craftsman-style Door With Dentil Shelf ( link ) Front Door Before

Next Trip Coming Soon!

Today's post was written by my 7-year-old daughter, Zadie: Hi, I'm going to tell you about our trip to Costa Rica that we are going on in 12 days also I'm the youngest daughter of the person who wrote this blog so the day after school gets out we go on our trip. It will suck. I don't even get a day to relax before our trip. At least it is not like another of our trips when we had to wake up at 3 am. But we still have to get up at 6 am. When we get there, our house only has three bedrooms so I will have to sleep with my sister and I don't want that and she does not want that. But at least we get a tv and our own beds. Oh and the planes we take there are one to Charlotte which is less than an hour long and then one to Costa Rica which is 4 hours long. I don't know the activities so bye. PS - I hope you liked my writing because I cannot see half of the letters on my mom's keyboard so this was hard to type.

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