We spent all day Friday preparing to depart for the tundra. Packing the coolers, scrubbing the children, gathering sufficient snacks for the trek.

We somehow forgot about the 495 bridge closing and the fact that it would create traffic havoc on the way to the Philadelphia Airport. Consequently, we took route 13 instead, got to the airport with minutes to spare, and almost missed our plane.

There was a single moment of levity in the midst of that storm.

The kids love travel. Travel creates opportunities for escalators.

And elevated walkways.

And crowded airplane aisles. You have probably forgotten how fundamentally exciting these things can be. Kato has not.

Once on board, the kids dived into the safety manuals, refreshing themselves on the location of the exit rows and the oxygen masks.

Then promptly fell asleep.

There has been an astonishing amount of sleeping thus far on our journey. Which probably means that there will be an astonishing amount of the opposite in hours to come.

There was sleeping on the floor of the gate in Seattle.

And more sleeping on our flight to Anchorage.

We arrived in Anchorage around 1:30am local time. The sun was still in the process of setting.

The children were in terrifically good moods, but Robbi was being a total blister. Note that the sleeping continued on the August front.

While Alden, August, and Robbi continued with the sleeping, Kato and I explored the mostly empty terminal, visiting Cinnabon before paying a visit to the world-record-holding grizzly bear. He is so tall and so fierce that even stuffed and behind glass he is to be avoided.

Ditto his polar brethren. It was 3:00am when this photo was taken. Note that the sky is still refusing to darken entirely.

Here’s the current state of things. Kato is playing games on my phone, I am catching up on blog posts, but the other three are (quite sensibly, I’d argue) sleeping.

We’re two hours into our 14-hour layover. We’re not allowed to go into the fun part of the airport (with the Quiznos and etc.) because of the need to hang out with Iggy, who can’t be checked back in for another 10 hours.

And so maybe I’ll write some more blog posts for you people. I don’t want you to suffer over the next two weeks of my internet asylum.

The kids and I will return on July 13. Robbi is staying for another week to fish and pack up without her pesky progeny under foot.