My Itinerary

Okay. My wife has this trip she loves to make every year to New York City, made easy by the fact that Alaska Airlines flies Seattle to Newark now. She returns April 11, and I'll spend a few days with her before I leave on my hiking trip.

ARRIVING
I leave Sitka on April 15 (we've already filed our taxes!), switch flights in Seattle, get to Phoenix in the evening where I'll head straight to my airport hotel till the 17th. On the 17th I catch the morning Greyhound to Flagstaff (3 hr. ride) where I'll stay at a hotel walking distance to the Four Seasons Guides. We have a 4pm Orientation meeting the night before the hike.

THE HIKE
We depart Flagstaff at 6am on the 18th, a scenic drive to the head of the S. Kaibab trail which begins at Yaki Point, where we'll begin our 7 mi. hike down the steepest trail in the Grand Canyon. Thank goodness we're taking 2 days for the return! We get back to Flagstaff about 4pm on the 20th. I thought I might appreciate recuperating in a hotel room for the night, rather than catching a Greyhound to Phoenix. Maybe I'll have some time to scout around downtown Flagstaff, which is right on historic Route 66.

RETURNING
I catch the morning Greyhound back to Phoenix on the 21st, and spend the day there. I fly out of Phoenix to Seattle on the 22nd, and spend the 23rd in Seattle. I fly home on the evening of the 24th, and arrive back in Sitka very late. But I'll have achieved this "heroic" thing in my book of life!

So... all this booking of flights, hotels, and buses probably sounds quite complicated, right? Nope. It was made easy by this remarkable (and FREE) website, Trip It I read about in PC magazine. All you do is forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com after you create an account, and they parse the email and enter the information in your trips. What I ended up with was a printout of my intinerary, with all the hotels + check-in/check-outs, AND maps! HOW CONVENIENT IS THAT?

I booked all my hotels using Alaska Airlines hotel finder, so I had confirmation emails that I just forwarded to Trip It. I could have entered my Greyhound trips, but I didn't want to have those "set in stone." But now I have my entire trip laid out in front of me!