Bucket List Destination: Alaska
Alaska was intense. A whirlwind of exciting and terrifying due to the vast comparison to my hometown all the way south in Florida, and the uncertainty of Eric and I on how to travel throughout the state. Because we decided to travel to Alaska during the winter season, it was a whole lot more difficult to travel without a rental car as every other mode of transportation was shut down due to winter storms and intense snow fall. So, we managed to do what we could without pressuring ourselves to do and see everything. We booked our tickets and headed out on our week long journey landing in Anchorage, Alaska.
Travel Tip: Check your connecting flights and make sure there is enough time to get to each flight. Eric and I had to sprint through the Atlanta Airport, which is HUGE, I might add. And we didn’t make it in time and had to wait HOURS to get on the next connecting flight to Seattle.
Also,
1. Pick exit seats so that your legs don’t go numb mid-flight,
2. Don’t check in a bag (because we would have lost our baggage in the midst of the late arrival to our second flight if we HAD checked it,)
3. Buy one of those airplane pillows with a flat back so that you can sleep with your head propped correctly,
4. Don’t layer up on the flight. It’s freaking hot in the plane when you are traveling in winter storms.
5. Check what time security ACTUALLY opens at each airport. Not all airports are open 24/7. (Ft. Lauderdale’s security didn’t actually open until 4AM and we were there at 3AM for no reason.)
6. And, lastly, if you can, fly first class for the long stretches because it’s worth every penny when you’re not squished between people who are all snoring, snacking, or hacking in your personal space.
Anchorage, Alaska
Don’t get me wrong, South Florida isn’t the most safe place and so, it’s very hard to scare me as I walk through a city. With tales of the crime rate, we landed in Anchorage a little weary of the stay as it was a temporary spot before we headed to the country in the northern part of Alaska. We landed in the airport studded with white capped mountains on all sides, grabbed a shuttle (to which all of the main hotel chains and even some of the local hotel spots maintained a shuttle schedule from the airport), and headed to our evening’s stay which was little to be desired and just as scary as I had hoped it wouldn’t be.
Alaska had just trudged through a week long winter storm that ended the day before we landed, and it’s remnants were prevalent through our journey. What we didn’t know is that some of the effects would be felt in our very own hotel room. We chose the Puffin Inn, a little local hotel right outside the airport, for our first night as it was cheap, temporary, and we only needed the one night of sleep before we headed back to our connecting flight the next morning. Where it’s cheap usually warrants a level of understanding that it’s not going to be some fancy space, but what we didn’t realize was, in Alaska, cheap also meant exposed to the external elements. And as Floridians, we weren’t prepared with enough layers to get through the night without shivers wreaking our body.
As we were planning on flying back into Anchorage before our flight home, we had booked the Puffin Inn for our last night’s stay in Alaska, and quickly canceled our booking in the early morning the next day after our first stay. Saving money on a vacation is always great, but sleeping in negative degree weather isn’t something we ever wanted to endure again.
Fairbanks, Alaska
Our flight to Fairbanks was far different than our flight to Anchorage as it was relatively cheap to fly first class and so I upgraded our flights so that my 6’2’’ fiance had enough leg space to enjoy the flight instead of endure the flight. With our early landing time, we had enough time in the day to experience some of Fairbanks before we settled into our week’s lodgings. Heading out first to lunch, I yelped the best eats in town and we landed upon Blue Roof Bistro, and it was AMAZING. A quant little joint with gourmet menu options, and some banging sweet tea (my little southern heart was happy).
That evening, I had made a reservation for us at the Chena Hot Springs so that we could participate in the Ice Museum tour and dip our toes in the hot water while we attempted our first night of Northern Light chasing. Chena Hot Springs is far up the mountains in Fairbanks, Alaska, and lended itself to a scenic drive. When we got there, the Ice Museum tour was ready to roll with about 20 guests waiting patiently outside for it to start. While we definitely had the proper garments for winter, we weren’t quite prepared for the intensity of the chill inside the museum. It was FREEZING. The museum shows off the working space of the ice sculpturist, which I found to be the most interesting part of the whole tour as he had sectioned off his work space with blocks of ice that held beautiful flowers within. The rest of the museum was interesting, but not really noteworthy, ending with a sugary apple martini to try. Though, Eric and I are always up for something, we aren’t much for going to places just for the sake of checking them off of the destination sightseeing list, and this was one of those we probably would have forgone for a couple more minutes of nap time bliss.
The Chena Hot Springs is this lagoon style jacuzzi pool that sits in the center of the Chena Hot Springs Resort. Complete with lockers and showers, it was set up much like a local public pool. We LOVED this experience as it was just genuinely neat to be in such a cold area while sitting in the steam of the spring.
Don’t forget to pack a bathing suit. I forgot mine and felt like a sausage in a Walmart bathing suit. ANYWAYS, the hot springs were delicious on my cold cold body. It was just all the way around relaxing.
Some tips if you’re going:
1. Eric’s engagement ring slipped off in the water, and that water is HOT and not so clear. My ass was previously not planning on getting my hair wet to prevent icicle locks later. But alas, I had to dip to the bottom about a thousand times to find the sucker because Eric’s a giant and his body only knows how to float. Sigh.
So, don’t wear jewelry.
2. They give you towels there, but they are for tinier, non-American folk, bring your own.
3. Bring sandals. You are going to be walking into the resort layered up because of the snow. So, you’ll have to get changed into your suit in the locker rooms. (Mind you, everyone seemed to be just fine walking around naked in there. Lawd. Be prepared mentally.)
4. Bring something for your wet clothes to go into afterwards. They had this cool little gadget on the wall outside of the locker rooms that “dried” your things, but still.
5. Lastly, whatever you do, don’t eat there. Eat anywhere else, BUT they’re insanely expensive for the WORST food. You’ve been warned.
Because we didn’t see the northern lights from the hot springs, we decided to check out the best areas for viewing them. We found a little park tucked in the back woods of Fairbanks where there were no city lights to ruin the view, but we didn’t see anything our first evening there.
I booked us a reservation to both snowmobile and dog sled as Eric had wanted to try both. I, in fact, did NOT drive. I kept my title as “Passenger Princess”, but 15 miles with Rod’s Alaskan Guides was not only incredible, but breathtaking. They were going to put us with a group of young girls and a family, but the owner took one look at us and handed us off to her son, who let us go balls to the walls for an hour until we ended our tour on the Chena River which was so frozen over that a semi could drive over it.
Tips, if you plan to go! WEAR A LOT OF LAYERS. They will let you borrow things, but if you already have them, it’s better that way. So pack a snow bib, a neck gaiter, and thick ass gloves. (My fingers froze.)
They gave us heated helmets and the hand grips were all heated so other than needing to borrow all the layers to ride, this was THE BEST EXPERIENCE!
After running around on sleds and snowmobiles, we were starving. So we found this little diner not too far away which had some of the most incredible eats, mine being the chili. 10 out of 10 would recommend sliding through here at least ONCE on your trip.
Souvenirs
Eric and I aren’t shoppers, and therefore, we aren’t souvenir people either. But we are definitely tattoo people. So we both got a little tattoo at one of the local tattoo places of the mountains. BUT, if you are wanting souvenirs to bring home, we actually really enjoyed grabbing some things for our littles at the local Walmart (remember, I forgot my swimsuit….). They had a bunch of neat things to bring back home as well as not crazy silly t-shirts that our pre-teens would actually wear with “Alaska” on them.
Denali National Park and Reserve
This drive was actually more incredible to me than the park itself. We took the time to drive two hours from Fairbanks to Denali so that I could surprise Eric by visiting the sled huskies that are kenneled inside the park. Eric is a huge dog person, and huskies are his favorite. So, we packed up our vehicle with snacks and made the trek to the mountainside. As the snow storms were in full force, everything was covered in layers of snow. So after walking through the kennel to visit the pups, we decided to take a trail part of the way before Eric almost fell off the mountain side trying to entertain us on our hike. Because it was so cold and so snowy, we hadn’t seen any wildlife while we were there, which was rather disappointing. So we trailed back to the park office. They did offer snowshoes for further hiking, but we were simply not bundled up enough for that kind of action, and decided to head out and find food.
Everything around Denali was shut down for the winter. And I mean, everything. So it took us a while to find gas for our car, and when we looked around, we spotted a random pub in the middle of no where. To say how good this place was, it was insanely tasty for being a little hole in the wall stop. They had one waiter busting ass and running shop, but honestly, it truly didn’t matter because the food was chef’s kiss. So good.
Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights
Ok, so, it took us three nights of venturing out to Chena Lake to actually see the northern lights. Following an app that showed us when we would most likely see the lights, we waiting hours each night. It wasn’t until our final evening, in -11 degree weather, but clear skies, that I was researching how we were failing at this particular task. I was getting antsy after three nights of trying and we were flying out the next day. It would have been extremely disappointing to be in Alaska and NOT see the Aurora Borealis. I read article after article, when I skimmed past this little tip, “The Northern Lights are hard to see with the naked eye. Try viewing through your phone’s camera lens.” So, I rushed to open my camera app and slid my view to the open skies and low and behold, there they were. So TIP: follow an app, and LOOK THROUGH YOUR PHONE! They were incredible and only showed up for about 15 minutes. So grab photos while you can! Oh, and don’t take off your gloves. I almost lost some fingers that night trying to get a photo of Eric and I.
Anchorage’s Breweries
We decided that we had seen everything Fairbanks had to offer and flew back to Anchorage a day early to bar crawl through Anchorage’s top breweries for our last hoorah in Alaska. We were absolutely impressed with the food compared to Fairbanks eats. Glacier Brewhouse was our first stop of the day. We grabbed a flight of their best brews and a bunch of starters. Every bite was incredible as well as every sip.
After lunch, we hit up:
As we reached the end of our trip, we took the scenic route around Anchorage to the wildlife viewing at Beluga Point. The ride alone was just stunning, but even as we stopped to just look around, the mountains maintained their magnificence as the sun spread across the water and over the peaks. Everyone should try to see Beluga point whether it’s whale season or not because it was one of my favorite stops of the whole trip.
Other things to do in Alaska:
Though we did not have enough time during our trip to do these items, they are still worth trying!