Jack Flaherty 8-18 Media

Editor’s Note: This is Part 3 of Jack Flaherty’s family trip to Alaska to visit his grandparents. This picks up with the family’s arrival by airplane to Alaska.

The walk to exit the plane was super tight and crammed. But then we got to the airport. It was smaller than the one back in Minneapolis, but bigger than our home airport.

We used the bathroom after being too afraid to go to the toilet on the plane. We then started to go to the place where we were going to meet my grandparents.

All around the airport, some signs said, “The Great Outdoors!” and “Kids, go outside!” I go outside plenty, thank you very much.

The walk to get out of the airport to the rental car check-in was slow, but it felt like heaven to stretch my legs. Then we found the rental car place and saw my grandparents. We said hi to them, and they were wearing Northern Michigan University T-shirts, except Grandpa, who had a plaid shirt over his.

We went to the rental car table, and Mom and Dad checked in.

“So…” Grandma said as we found ourselves a little chair. “How are you two?” I looked at Andrew, expecting him to answer, and he looked at me like he expected ME to answer.

“We are tired,” I said.

“Fascinating,” Grandma said.

Then my mom and dad came back from the table.

“We got our car,” Dad said.

Then we walked to the parking garage. It was very similar to the one back in Minneapolis. Grandma and grandpa went to their car, and we went to our rental car.

The rental car was a Subaru. The car itself was black. It wasn’t what I’d hoped, but it was fine.

We started by going to a hiking trail. The view of the mountains was incredible. They were right in front of us. To me, the snow on top of the mountains looked like milk had been dumped on it.

Then we came to the hiking trail. It was cool. The river that we crossed using a bridge that stretched over it like a rubber band was pretty. Sadly, though, there was no salmon.

The trail itself was a little boring, but then we came across a lady who said she talked to a man who saw a moose. I hate those kinds of animals. I get moose, deer, reindeer and antelope all mixed up. We never saw the moose; we saw its droppings instead.

We walked back to the parking lot and came to the souvenir shop. Inside the shop was the famous chocolate fountain.

“Can I drink it?” I asked, but my mom said absolutely not, because the chocolate was probably very dirty.

There was a statue of a polar bear on its hind legs next to us. We took a picture next to it. It was definitely a terrifying animal. The bear had its mouth open like it was roaring. Its paws were in the air as if it were going to scratch us across the face, but instead, I high-fived it.

We took a look around and headed out to the car. We then went to get groceries, because we were going to be in an apartment with nothing but some water and leftover food from the order we got for the flight.

We got some random pasta, macaroni and cheese, cookies, milk. Yeah, I don’t know everything we got, really. We then started the drive to our apartment.

Part four of the Alaskan adventure is coming soon!

Jack Flaherty lives in Marquette and enjoys relaxing and reading. He wants to be an author, a pilot and an architect. He loves watching planes and flying in them. Jack also enjoys seeing huge buildings, such as skyscrapers and museums. He enjoys eating pizza, cookies, cupcakes and brownies. He also loves video games, board games and card games.