Bangkok, Alaska

We set out to Bangkok on our “honeymoon” yesterday, with good friends John and Jeri and Clyde’s sister and father along for the adventure.

Clyde had scored us great exit row seats, we had agreed to operate the doors in case of emergency, and we had feasted on a coach class meal of Unfortunate Chicken with Sodium Sauce. I had watched not one but two zombie movies on my iPad. And my half-Ambien was just making me feel half-sleepy when the announcement came:

Right up front: we’re fine. We’re fine! Due to extraordinarily strong headwinds — or, at leas, that’s Delta’s story (and they’re sticking to it) — our plane ran low on fuel, and the pilot decided we would divert to Anchorage, Alaska, to refuel.

Problem is, by the time we got to Anchorage, our flight crew had been (by law) on duty too long for the flight to simply take off again. So Delta packed us all on busses, ferried us to the Captain Cook Hotel, comped us all a room, and set out a dinner of salad, fajitas, and fresh fruit in an unused hotel banquet center. 

Because we’re an international flight, any checked luggage had to remain on the plane, of course. So each of us also received a blue vinyl “overnight kit,” containing a SkyTean nightshirt, a single-use tube of toothpaste, a single-use toothbrush, a blunt disposable razor with built-in shaving cream, and, of all things, cotton swabs. (The swabs, I think, are for swiping at the blood that spouts from the nicks made by the blunt disposable razor.) 

So here we are, in Anchorage, in October. The night is cool and clear, with bright stars and forty-two degree air. Given that we’re all dressed for the tropics, we elected not to walk the (deserted) streets in search for Deadliest Catch crew members. Instead, we spent an hour chatting amongst ourselves, window-shopped the hotel’s (closed, locked, and darkened) shops, and got a much better sleep in Captain Cook’s comfy beds than we would have ever gotten in our exit row seats.

So: a little side trip. We’re healthy. We’re happy. And I’ve always wanted to see Alaska in October.