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!

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

Alaska Day 8 - Wasilla

The second to last day of our trip, we had a relaxed travel day back south with the goal of ending up somewhere near enough to Anchorage for us to turn in the RV on time the next morning. Jim did some fishing (no luck), we had a leisurely breakfast in our boondocked RV, and wondered when exactly a huge moose pooped so close to our RV during the night. Fishing by our boondocked RV We didn't have a campground reserved for the night, but knowing that Anchorage campgrounds are primarily super expensive parking lots, we decided to stop 45 mins north in Wasilla. The city might be best known as the hometown of Sarah Palin, and it was covered with Palin signs. We later learned that Alaska was holding elections this Tuesday (Palin lost). In more entertaining news, Wasilla is also home to the Iditarod Headquarters and Museum. The Iditarod is a long-distance sled dog race covering over 900 miles in 8+ days. The headquarters had dog houses but no dogs visible during our visit, so we looked ar...

Votes on bath layout?

I hated this bathroom so much. The drop ceiling, the vinyl wood parquet floor tiles, the plastic sheeted fake tile walls. It was very exciting to destroy it. Our original plan was to keep the sink and toilet where they were, but swap out the tub for a smaller shower in the corner. Once everything was gone, we realized we had enough room for the sink on the same back wall rather than across from the toilet. We weren't positive if we had enough room, until the shower base and sink base were delivered this week. Now, I'm thinking this is definitely the way to go. There's so much more space to move than before (it was tight when I was pregnant)! Here are some shots of the bathroom, pre-demo: The after-demo pic below is the view through the doorway (same as the shot above), with the shower and sink bases roughly in place. On the far left, the newspaper template shows the actual toilet measurements. The blue tape on the wall is where we think the beadboard will end (same height a...

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