Airports, the Light Rail, a Space Needle, and an Olympian

So the day of traveling to Alaska did not go according to plan, but what came out of it was worth it.

We didn't arrive in Juneau at 9:40pm as previously stated; in fact, we didn't make it to Juneau at all. Due to snow and poor visibility, our flight to Juneau was canceled and we spent the night in Seattle.

To tell the story accurately I guess I should make it clear that our whole group was not traveling together yesterday. Roger and Nadeem flew out with about two-thirds of our team yesterday morning around 6am. I then flew out with the remaining members at 9am. The entire group ended up together in Seattle, but we were still supposed to be on two different routes. My group had two more connections to make before reaching Juneau and they only had one.

Before my group had to start boarding the plane and we were all just hanging out with the rest of our team, I ran to the bathroom so I wouldn't have to deal with the gross ones on the plane. When I came back to the gate a few members came up to me saying that my flight to Juneau had been canceled. At first, I thought this is some sort of really cruel joke they're playing on me just to see me freak out and brushed it off. Unfortunately, it wasn't a joke and I did slip into a slight panic mode, seeing as our luggage for the week was about to end up in some remote town in Alaska and the next flight Juneau appeared to be filling up. We ended up finding out that all flights to Juneau were canceled and thus began our scramble to find lodging for the night.

Roger was able to book us on a morning flight to Juneau for the next day and we would all be able to travel together. I then spent a good hour to 45 minutes with a Priceline representative and hotel manager in Juneau to cancel our reservations there for the night (I am no longer a fan of Priceline; William Shatner you have failed me). Our luggage ended up not being lost and we found a hotel in Seattle for the night. So after a mini-crisis with the flights, we were able to get everything together fairly smoothy for a night in Seattle.

On a side note: while waiting to hear if all flights to Juneau were going to be canceled that night, a team member came back from getting food in the terminal and said that Apolo Anton Ohno (the Olympic Speed Skater and former Dancing with the Stars Champion, for those of you who may not know) was here in our terminal. Needless to say we all jumped to our feet and ran to find Apolo. We found him handing out leis to passengers going on a flight to Hawaii; he's the new face/spokesperson for Alaska Airlines. We played paparazzi for a bit and even managed to get a picture with him as well!

So after all kinds of excitement taking place at the Seattle airport, we left for our hotel. En route, the team collectively decided that we should take the Light Rail system to see the famous Space Needle building downtown. The trip on the Light Rail was an adventure on its own and far too expansive a story to tell on here, so just ask me about when you hear from/see me.

The Space Needle was pretty awesome. We all enjoyed the views and took an ungodly amount of pictures of the Seattle skyline. Once we all got our fill of the experience, we headed back to the hotel.

We woke up super early this morning to catch our flight to Juneau and we are anticipating the adventures that wait for us there.

And I'll upload those pictures of Apolo soon. :)