Goodbye to Grandma D

I just got back from taking Grandma D to the airport for her flight back home. We had such a lovely time with her here in our home. We were able to do a lot of things that most tourists aren't able to do. Some of the bigger, more "touristy" things, were weren't able to do (whale watching tour, Tracy Arm tour, White Pass/Yukon RR, Taku Lodge, etc), and they are on the list for next time.

We tried to do the Taku Lodge thing on Tuesday. We had our flight booked and took the time to go downtown to catch our flight, only to have our flight canceled due to weather... Bummer... We were expecting a nice seaplane flight to the remote lodge, then an excellent salmon dinner (Aaron and I have done this before and it was WONDERFUL). Instead, we did one of the local salmon bakes here in town. It wasn't as good as the lodge would have been, but still tasty...

Here is a list of things we did/places we went with Grandma D: (Some of these may be out of order)
1) "Out the Road" - Drive to "Auke Rec" while we waited to pick up Noni
2) Dinner at "The Hanger on the Wharf" - just the 3 of us
3) Dinner at "The Twisted Fish" - dinner the night Aaron's parents arrived :)
4) Dinner at "The Zephyr" - Aaron's birthday dinner
5) Gelato at "Juneau Gelato"
6) Juneau Ice Field tour on our way to Skagway, where we shopped and ate lunch
7) Mt. Roberts Tram, with lunch at the top
8) Mendenhall Glacier, twice :)
9) Helicopter Tour & Dog Sled Ride (this one was just Grandma D & Aaron's Dad)
10) LOTS of shopping downtown!
11) "Out the Road" - Drive to Echo Cove, at the end of the road, north of Juneau
12) Dinner at "El Sombrero"
13) Flight to Hoonah
14) Saw humpback whales feeding off the shore
15) Dinner at "The Island Pub" on Douglas Island
16) "Out the Road" - Drive to the end of the road on both sides of Douglas Island
17) Dinner at "T.K. McGuires"
18) Dinner at the restaurant at the Breakwater Hotel (It has a name, but I don't remember what it is... It used to just be "The Breakwater", back when it was a nice, semi-fancy restaurant... Now it's turning into some stupid kind of bar/restaurant/pub type place...)
19) "Out the Road" - Drive to the end of the road, south of Juneau, to Thane
20) Dinner at "The Thane Ore House"
21) Dinner at "Donna's"
22) Beautiful Sunset viewing on North Douglas - This was last night :)
- and I'm probably missing quite a few things...

The weather has been gloomy at best, ever since Grandma D got here... It's been typical Juneau weather of mostly cloudy-overcast, with rain... Yesterday started out much the same way... After our flight got canceled on Tuesday, I expected it to be just as nasty yesterday. We were pleasantly surprised. By the time I got off of work, it had stopped raining. By the time we left the house to take her last box to the post office, we could see patches of blue sky. By the time we left the barbershop, it was clear! We took a nice, pleasant drive to the glacier, so she could see it on a nice day. Then we went to dinner, and had really good pot roast at the "local" restaurant here in the Valley. I say "local" because it is mainly for the locals. The tourists don't usually venture down here... After dinner, we took a drive out to North Douglas, where we stopped at the boat launch and walked out over the floating dock to get some beautiful pictures of the sunset. It was even clear enough last night to see stars!

Thanks go out to the Alaska Airlines staff here in Juneau. The ticket agent was wonderful, in assisting Grandma D to have her bag checked all the way to ABQ. She has a pass for her connecting flight from SEA to DFW to ABQ and we weren't sure that they would check her bag all the way since she doesn't have a ticket for her continuing flights. They also made sure that there is someone to assist her in SEA with a wheelchair, and gave me a pass so I could accompany her through security to her gate. They are awesome at accommodating you when you need assistance.

I said goodbye to her as they were wheeling her out to the plane, she got to be boarded first! I hope she had as much fun here as we did having her here. She's only been gone a half hour or so, and I already miss her. I can't wait to spend time with her again!

I hear an airplane overhead! That should be her on her way home. Have a great flight!