It it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium

I don't think many of you remember that movie - something more current would be "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" - but that it was it felt like as I attempted to return to Juneau after a wonderful week in Louisville visiting the grandkids.  I was aware of the weather in Seattle, which is the hub for all flights going to Alaska.  It is rare that you would travel through any other airport either to or from my adopted home state.  My original flight home was through O'Hare on Thursday morning, flying to Seattle later in the day and then directly to Juneau that night, arriving home by 9:00 p.m. Alaska time.  Here is what really happened:  Flew from Louisville on an early morning fight to Chicago - no complaints!  In Chicago, I had to walk most of the airport to reach the gate for my 11:30 a.m. flight to Seattle.  Josh and I had been watching the mid-week weather on the Pacific coast, but thought that everything would be ok by Thursday.  Not so much.  Our full flight of 75+ passengers were told that our flight was "delayed" - airport speak for cancelled.  Indeed, 20 minutes after our scheduled flight time, it was announced that there would be no flights into Seattle that day, and to go to customer (no)service for re-booking flight arrangements.  I called a friend who checked on flights to Juneau out of Minneapolis or another airport, but we didn't find anything that would work.  I thought about staying in Chicago for the night, but decided to see what the airline had for me.  After waiting 1 hour 18 minutes in line, the only option I had was to fly to San Francisco Thursday night, layover there for an early Friday morning flight to Seattle, and from there a "milk run" to Juneau.  The milk run is flying into Ketchikan (or Petersburg or sometimes both), flying to Sitka, flying to Juneau with the flight ending in Anchorage.  Each of the first flight segments are about 25 minutes in the air, with another 45 minutes from Juneau to Anchorage (for those going that far).   For those who don't like taking off/landing, this itinerary isn't for you.  Other than Juneau, the airport runways are suspect at best - short, over water and between mountain ridges.  In fact, the Sitka airport runway is on a paved causeway that juts out over the ocean.  Deceased tuberculosis patients from the nearby Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital were buried on airport grounds and had to be relocated during construction. That section of the airport is still unofficially called The Mausoleum.  Safety hazards include boulders from the causeway washing onto the runway during storms, high winds because of its exposed location, and large flocks of birds that live very close to the airport.  Airfarewatchdog.com lists this runway as one of the ten most thrilling landing experiences in the world.  All was well as I heard my 4:30 a.m. wake-up call on Friday morning in San Francisco, getting me to the airport for a 7:05 a.m. flight arriving at 9:00 a.m. in Seattle, and an 11:05 a.m. milk run from Seattle to Juneau.  On board at 6:45 a.m., the flight out of SF was delayed for ONE HOUR 18 MINUTES because the plane was too heavy (per code) to land in Seattle.  When we finally left SF, it meant that we would land in Seattle at 10:30 a.m., and I might not make by Juneau flight.  Landed, ran through the airport, in time to see that my Juneau flight was cancelled due to high Taku winds over southeast Alaska.  There was serious concern that no flights would be flying there that day!  I was re-booked on a late afternoon flight, and we did board on time, watched the de-icing of the plane, and finally take-off.  Quick but bouncy flight to Ketchikan, a dicey landing in Sitka, and I heard the steward say that they may bypass Juneau due to the high winds and fly directly to Anchorage.  NO!!!  I was never so happy as when I heard the pilot say they were going to "try" to land in Juneau (when would they decide that it wasn't going to work??) and against all odds, we did.   Since I had to spend so much time in airplanes, I have a few "observations":

• The creepy guy you see at the gate will always sit next to you
• the airline magazine in the seat-back pocket will always have the crossword puzzle completed
• if you sit at the window, you will have to decide if drinking something is worth having to ask two people to move for you at some point in the flight
• why is it that only men are sitting in first class?
• the items in the SkyMall catalog look very tempting when you are in the air

Anyway, I'm happy to be home.