On Tuesday we began the long journey home with a flight from Gatwick to Dublin where we took the free hotel shuttle over to the Clayton Hotel.  We had booked this hotel because of its proximity to the airport, free shuttle and included breakfast.  This turned out to be a good decision given how much usage we got from these amenities.  In any event, we spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening repacking and otherwise getting ready for the next day's marathon of flights from Dublin back to Anchorage. 

Our flight back to Anchorage yesterday was, on paper, straightforward if a little busy.  We were to fly from Dublin to Boston and then on to Seattle and finally into Anchorage around midnight.  It did not go well.  The trip started off great, relaxing in Aer Lingus business class and drinking champagne (thank you Alaska Airlines frequent flier program).  We had a nice meal, a little wine and some Irish whiskey because, well, it's Aer Lingus.  We had just finished a movie when the pilot came on the intercom and announced that we were beginning to make a wide turn and heading back about an hour to Keflavik, Iceland.  Nothing serious, just a precaution as there was a minor technical problem.  The promised hour later we landed at Keflavik and sat around on the plane for a while with periodic updates, "we don't know anything yet", until finally the word came down that we were deplaning and another plane was coming to take us . . . back to Dublin.  Not our preferred direction but apparently there was not a plane available that could get us the remaining way to Boston.  After hanging around the airport in Keflavik for several more hours than advertised, the promised recovery plane finally showed up, apparently delayed because the crew couldn't get to the airport very quickly due to the highway commotion and brief airport closure caused by President Biden's visit.  It was also a very small plane (A320) and it was open seating.  Goodbye business class.  We were in full kerfuffle mode.  At least we made it back to the exit rows before anyone else got there.  However, nothing but water, tea and coffee available on the three-hour flight....we expected an open bar for heaven's sake.

When we reached Dublin about 2:00 a.m. we were told airline representatives would meet us and tell us of arrangements for resumption of our flight tomorrow.  There were supposedly two options to Boston, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon.  It was important to know which flight as it was well past midnight and the former alternative promised little sleep while the latter would give us a few more hours.  We heard other passengers talking about which flight they were assigned, however, when it was our turn we were told, "don't know yet, you will receive a text or email letting you know".  This was not comforting as we had never previously received any of the usual text or email messages about this flight from Aer Lingus.  (Spoiler alert, we never received any texts or emails.)  We got to the hotel around 3:00 a.m. and, having received no communications, tried to call both Aer Lingus and Alaska Airlines to figure out if we needed to set out for the airport in about four hours to catch the morning flight.  We were on hold with Aer Lingus for over 30 minutes before giving up.  The Alaska Airlines computer was kind enough to tell us right at the outset that our hold time would be one hour and 56 minutes.  We gave up on calls and decided to wake up and get to the airport very early where we could talk to a human.  So, setting our alarm for 7:00 we went to sleep at about 4:00.

When we woke up three hours later we tried calling again and, fortunately, everyone answered, though unfortunately we got different answers from people, one of whom told us we were going direct to Seattle rather than through Boston.  That sounded great but with other contradictory information, it was not to our minds definitive enough.  Thus we stuck to the original plan and took the shuttle to the airport where a real person not only confirmed that we were booked in business from Dublin to Seattle, but handed us two boarding passes.  It was a glorious moment.

Today's flights to Anchorage were pretty normal though it appeared our flight from Seattle to Anchorage was one of the few over that day and the next that did not get cancelled due to the Siberian volcano eruption.  It was also interesting that the crew on this Aer Lingus flight said they had heard that the reason for our precautionary landing yesterday was a "significant" technical problem.  Probably better off knowing that after the landing in Iceland rather than before.  This cabin crew took exceptionally good care of us, special desserts and more.  We made it back home tired but pleased, other than seeing the several feet of snow still in our yard.  Sadly our luggage remained behind in Seattle but with air tags in our two suitcases we knew exactly where they were and were not anxious.  We got them a day later but the golf bag was another story.  It did not appear and, without air tags (we will remedy that mistake), we had no idea.  Two days later it appeared and so we were now whole and home.  Briefly.  After all, this snow is not going away anytime soon.