Alaska Trip Plan

 I'm doing something interesting on this trip, which I have done before and may do more often in the future.  I'm hopping on the way up and the way down.  

5/21- Early morning flight to Chicago.  The scheduled landing is at 8:47.  No car rental.  I will take the Blue Line downtown to the Loop then drop off my bag at the hotel.  From there, it will be the Red Line down to the White Sox stadium.  The game starts at 1:10 so that leaves me nearly 4.5 hours until game time.  Barring a flight delay, that should be plenty of time.  I don't even care if I miss a couple of innings.  The ballpark looks decent but the team sucks.  I would have preferred to see the Cubs, but they are on the road.  I'm now committed to all 30 and this is a good opportunity to check one off. 

Figure that I'll get back around 5 PM so I'll have more than 3 hours of daylight left.  I want to see Navy Pier, Magnificent Mile, the Riverwalk, a beach and possibly the John Hancock building again.  I'll get some deep dish pizza.  I sure hope I get good weather.  A rainy day would be a bust.

5/22- Direct flight to Anchorage.  It's early but not super early.  I gain 3 hours and land around 1:30 PM.  I'll have plenty of time to explore Anchorage.  I've been there before but that 9 years ago.  Sunset is around 11 PM and civil twilight lasts beyond midnight.  Only about 1-3 AM will be completely dark.  

5/23-24- Play it by ear depending on the weather.  Normal high temperature is in the upper 50s to low 60s with a low chance of rain.  I'm staying in Anchorage for 3 nights so I can be flexible.  I want a sunny day for the best views of Denali but don't really care if it's cloudy for the Fjords and glaciers.  Both Talkeetna and Seward can be done on a day trip from Anchorage.

5/25- In what may be a questionable call, I'm stopping in San Francisco for the night.  I get in around 4:40 so that leaves about 4 hours until dark.  The plan is to take Muni to Golden Gate Park.  I could take a bus to Baker Beach for a sunset view of the Golden Gate bridge but I may not have enough time.  

Neither BART nor Muni opens until 8 AM the next day.  The plan is to walk to Twin Peaks in the morning and hope it's not foggy.  Wish I had more time in SF.  I suppose I could stay an extra day but prefer not to.  Dallas could be a fun night layover in the future but not this time.  I won't be too upset if I have to spend a night there 

EDIT: Getting from Anchorage to Birmingham in 1 day would be a royal pain.  It involves either a red eye or a super early morning departure and 3 flights with close connections.  High risk of a missed flight.  San Francisco is probably the right call.