We had a nice lazy morning. Our flight doesn’t leave till 6pm so we don’t have to rush, which is such a luxury. Breakfast at the hotel included the ice cream bar again. That’s just so crazy to me! Weirder than the station where you could grill your own fish over charcoal.
We went back to the arcade and tried to play the rest of our money but we just couldn’t. So we ended up giving the rest of our coins to a boy that was there. Lincoln wanted to play put-put so he and Ty did that in the rain. While Ryder and I went back to our room and I talked to the airline for 45 minutes trying to fix our flights home. Our original flight from Seattle to Anchorage wasn’t supposed to leave till 3pm and we arrived at 10am. So we originally called and got Ryder and I on an earlier flight, they only had room for two of us, but put Ty and Lincoln on standby. However, they apparently didn’t do it correctly and Ryder and I were left in limbo with an incorrect flight. It was escalated, and escalated till thankfully after 45 minutes they were able to fully correct our booking and got us confirmed on the noon flight out of Seattle.
We left around lunch time to make sure we had time to check out a nearby Pokemon store for Lincoln.
This place was totally overwhelming, with loud music, and tons of people. There were like no cards either?! It’s 90% stuffies, then 10% other Pokémon franchised stuff. We finally asked someone and figured out that they keep a few card decks behind the counters. It took a bit of google translate to help both sides but we made some purchases after much angst and deliberations.
Got the rental van dropped off and they brought us to a weird level of the airport. So we had to schlept all our bags up 3 different elevators since we had such big luggage carts we couldn’t combine. It took forever to check us in, not sure if it’s because we had ski bags, we had changed our flight from Seattle so technically, Ty and Lincoln had different flights from Ryder and I, we had 3 different trainees helping us, or just a bad combination of all of these things. But we were happy it all seemed to work out and we got in line for security. We were ready for the lounge, and some food!
The lounge was something Ty had been looking forward to. He heard you could order sushi! Well we couldn’t find that, and it was super crowded and a bit confusing to figure out. But in the end, we ended up with some yummy pasta, drinks all around, and snacks so no complaints.
Ty managed to get us all upgraded seats on this flight. Which anytime you can lay down on a long flight is heavenly!
We made it through customs and got checked back into our flight home. Ryder and I had confirmed seats and Ty and Lincoln were still standby. We grabbed some food, and got to our gate just as it was boarding. Ty checked in and it was a totally full flight. I’m not sure how it worked out, but amazingly Ty and Lincoln made it on our flight and I even got to switch seats so I was with the kids in one row! Small blessings! This change allowed us all to get home by 3pm vs 6pm. The funny thing about time change is we left Japan at 6pm on Monday and we arrived in Anchorage at 3pm on Monday. So before we even technically left Japan!
My mom was able to pick us up and brought us some food. She’s amazing! Lots to unpack and wash after this trip. Lincoln fell asleep by 5pm waiting to take a shower. We woke him for a shower and dinner then he went right back to his floor and fell asleep by 7pm again.
The cats are beyond excited we are home. They’re overwhelming us with needing attention and we’re loving it. It feels so good to be home!
