Alaska | Fulfilling a Bucket List Trip

Hello, Friends!

I hope you are enjoying the beautiful October days and venturing outside at night to look at all the stars. Don’t you just love the October night sky?

We were so bummed when they moved away.

When Jeff and Carrie told us they were building a new house in Lake St. Louis, I tried really hard to just be happy for them. And I was, but mainly I was sad. I knew things would never be the same and that we would miss them so much-in our church, our community and our everyday lives.

These weren’t casual acquaintance that we spent a bit of time with occasionally. We had spent HOURS of our lives together, so this felt kind of personal. Maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but you get the idea.

Here is a bit of backstory……Are you in a life group? Small group? Home Bible Study? Whatever you call it, a gathering of Christian brothers and sisters has been one of our dearest blessings for a long time.

Our first group of friends, which Jeff and Carrie were part of, met together almost every Sunday night for about 8 years. That is a lot of Bible study, prayer, discussion, agreement and occasional disagreement, and FOOD-really good food. We shared lots of joy and sorrow with one another and it was special. Eventually, life circumstances changed and our group dissolved. No matter how tightly I tried to hold on to the familiar, I couldn’t stop all the “moving on’s”.

And a good thing happened! We intentionally stayed in touch with everyone and even though we don’t see one another often, we still consider them to be among our closest friends. And when we do get together, we have so much fun! It isn’t the same, but it is just fine.

Bucket Lists!

When Richard and Tami, Jeff and Carrie and Brad and I decided the time was right to take the trip to Alaska we all had on our bucket list, we knew it was going to be a trip to remember! We love meeting new people, and we were tickled when Dennis and Dottie, friends of the Fords, joined our group.

Carrie did the legwork (Thanks, Carrie!) found the perfect trip, and we all signed up with Just Cruises. I envisioned months of mental preparation as I read books about Alaska, watched documentaries and learned all about the areas we would see. That didn’t happen so Alaska was one big surprise!

Alaska Cruise Through Inside Passage

Our trip started on land and ended with a cruise through the inside passage. Here are some of my highlights and tips!

Day One

Brad is a recovering nervous traveler. He had a HORRIBLE deep sea fishing experience many years ago that involved the Coast Guard and a helicopter, so we had never taken a cruise. In a former job early in his career, he had the chance to go in a small plane to look at farm ground and the pilot was a bit of a daredevil. It was NOT a PLEASANT flight for Brad, and ever since that horrible experience, he has hated flying.

I was so proud of him for fighting his fears and agreeing to do this trip. Not many people would willingly sign up to do something that might make them physically ill, really, really ill. But he did! That is the draw of Alaska! We paid the big bucks to get “the Patch” to prevent motion sickness to cover all our bases. Ironically, Brad only wore it briefly while Mrs. Loves-to-travel, had one on the whole cruise. One episode of “this might be nausea” was all it took to turn me into a seasick-fearing baby!

The patch did its job, but you should know that a side effect is horrible mouth dryness and by the last night of the cruise, I woke up 3 times with my mouth so dry I couldn’t swallow and I had to get up for water. That dry mouth was disgusting, but I was glad I had the protection. More on that later.

Day Two

Anyone out there hate to pack? We were gone for almost 2 weeks, so I knew that I couldn’t do what I normally do and wait until the night before or morning of a trip to throw things in my packing cubes. I did quite a bit of mental stressing about what to bring and what to leave at home.

Packing for Alaska

All the advice for Alaska says to prepare for all kinds of weather, including waterproof gear and winter coat, hat and gloves. And swimsuit and clothes for 2 formal dinners on the ship. WHAT???? I ended up buying a new lightweight winter coat that folded into a tiny little package, a raincoat and some waterproof leather boots. I was glad that I had all of them.

Alaska is very casual and honestly I wore the same jeans multiple days and was dressed in so many layers to stay warm that I could have worn the same shirt, too! No one knew if I had a cute outfit on or not. I hate being cold and with a long sleeved shirt, hoodie, puffer vest and sometimes a sweater, winter jacket, gloves and hat, I was toasty warm. I threw in a couple of comfy dresses and was all set!

I loved how casual and outdoorsy and naturally beautiful the females were in the 49th state. Make-up and jewelry are totally optional! As soon as we got off the plane and stepped into the airport, I knew this place had its own special, rugged vibe.

Day Three

That isn’t a beach, it’s mudflats.

Anchorage, Alaska

As we were flying into Anchorage, we could see what looked like a very black sand beach. We learned on our trolley tour of the city that mudflats separated the Pacific Ocean from regular land. They were very wide and very deceiving. I could imagine innocently walking out onto them for a stroll, not realizing that they turn into QUICKSAND when the tide changes. STAY OFF THE MUDFLATS!

Did you know that Alaska is twice the size of Texas, but the population is only around 700,000? The majority of the people live in or around Anchorage, the largest city in the state with a population of 294,000. And I thought Jasper County was wide open spaces!

If you require lots of your own space, you could surely find it in this beautiful state. You probably can’t own much of it though because a huge percentage of the land is owned by the state or federal government. Numbers aren’t my jam, but I’m sure Brad could tell you all about it!

I wish I could describe the feel of Anchorage. My first impressions of it as we drove to our hotel were not that good, but that all changed later in the evening when we learned more about it from our trolley tour guide. It isn’t like any place I have been in the lower 48. The buildings look sort of rustic, it isn’t fancy, and it has a wilderness feel to it. I enjoyed learning a bit of the history, seeing the GORGEOUS flowers, noting the place where the Iditarod begins each year, and eating Halibut from the nearby ocean and fresh blueberry pie with a yummy homemade crust!

Also there was a Nordstrom downtown, so it can’t be too wild and wooly, right?! I wish I had taken time to visit the store to see if it carried merchandise more appropriate for the Alaska lifestyle…that would have been so fun. At least to me!

Did you remember the great Alaska earthquake? It happened on Good Friday in 1964 and was the second strongest earthquake on record, 9.2 on the richter scale. Fortunately, the death toll was very low when it could have been catastrophic. Our guide told us that a big high school bb game was scheduled to be played that day, but when 2 moms got up in arms about the game happening when the kids should be in church, the game was canceled. So the gym was empty instead of full.

Go moms!!!

Most of the deaths occurred in California as a result of the tsunami which followed. So weird.

Anchorage is built on the biggest faultline on earth that circles the globe and is called the Ring of Fire. Holy Moly! Google it!

Another interesting Anchorage fact…the high school is very diverse and has 100 different languages spoken. I find that amazing!

The flowers in Alaska are unbelievably beautiful! The long, long days result in lots of photosynthesis and many blooms. I LOVED it! Our guide told us that Anchorage citizens plant over 80,000 flowers each spring including baskets that were hanging everywhere with flowers the colors of the state flag and flower beds with dahlias the size of dinner plates. The land of the midnight sun is very friendly to plants!

Fireweed Flowers

One of the flowers that was growing everywhere is Fireweed. The plant is used as a kind of gage of where they are in the season, and is said to be a predictor of how much snow will fall. However tall the Fireweed grows, that is how much snow an area will receive. It is a very hardy wildflower.

This plant is definitely celebrated, and we even had fireweed ice cream!

I wouldn’t recommend it, but I’m sure some people enjoyed it tremendously. Just not me. I’m still glad I tried it!

Day Four

Following our trolley tour, a great meal at the 49th State (highly recommend), and a long travel day, we went to bed in broad daylight around 9 p.m. in the Captain Cook Hotel, a very nice place. I filled my diffuser with lavender and cedarwood, my favorite sleepy oils from Young Living, and we slept like babies.

We had a delicious breakfast the next morning feeling more like our true selves (travel takes a toll, people!) and started to get better acquainted with our travel buddies. The laughter commenced!

Loading the bus for our LONG ride to Denali National Wildnerness area, we got out of the city and started to see this beautiful state. We drove through Wasilla, made famous by Sarah Palin, and learned that little town uses more duct tape than any place in the world- Resourceful people!

Also, people in Wasilla commute to work in Anchorage every day in their AIRPLANES. I got the distinct impression that Alaskans have a plane about as commonly as farm families in our community have a gator or 4 wheeler. Kids as young as 14 have pilot licenses and fly to town to buy groceries.

Fun Fact: Wasilla used to have the last grocery store for 300 miles as you headed north. Now there is ONE north of Denali before you get to Fairbanks. Now, that would require a LIST!

If we had our own plane, I could easily go to Target in Champaign! Wouldn’t that be fun? What do you think, Brad?

All the bus drivers on our trip were soooo friendly and FULL of information. We spent a lot of time on various forms of transportation because the only way to see such a HUGE state is to travel, and our guides added lots to our enjoyment.

Day Five

Denali National Park is a must see and we all loved it! Princess has its own Wilderness Lodge and we stayed there 2 nights. Everything about our trip was planned for us and the pace was perfect-a great mix of “go” and “stay”.

The Denali Dinner Theater was fun and we learned some interesting facts about the brave and adventurous people who first summited the mountain and about life in the wild and wooly early days. Dancing and music and laughter and good food are great teaching tools!

I love hearing people talk about their every day life, so the Husky Homestead Tour the next day was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Even though it was a rainy, dark, damp day, I could have listened to the kids speak all day-especially when we moved inside where there was a nice wood fire in the stove.

In July.

We learned about Jeff King, a civil engineer turned husky handler, about how the dogs are trained for the Iditarod (and learned the best dogs are not the Disney movie star Alaskan Huskies, but more homely crossbreeds) heard the Balto story, and cuddled puppies. One of the native Alaskan young men shared his stories of training for dog sled races and my admiration of the dogs and the riders jumped about 1000 percent. Determination in humans and animals is amazing.

We can do hard things! I am so fascinated by the unique ways kids can grow up. I’m very thankful that our kids had the opportunity to live a “farm” lifestyle, which is becoming more and more rare. This young man had an even more rare “raising” than our boys and that will serve him well!

I say, “Be a weirdo!”

Day Six

The next leg of our adventure was NOT for the weak spirited! We boarded a SCHOOL BUS that had been refurbished with slightly more comfy seats and entered Denali National Park for a SIX HOUR tour.

Gulp. But once again, the only way to see Alaska is to see Alaska and this park is huge. Even in all that time, we only glimpsed a fraction of it-it is true protected wilderness with only one road, and it isn’t even all paved. The public is only allowed to drive into the area about 15 miles, so to see what you can, you must board a bus or hike.

I have mixed emotions about that since it is land that belongs to ALL of us, but the powers that be forgot to ask me my opinion! There are porta potties and gift shops set up in tents but that is the only nod to civilization. It was kind of awesome, really. I’m already shifting my mindset about it all!

After hours of bouncing our way to the point for the best view of the Denali summit, the clouds were in and we could see NOTHING. Did you realize that only about 30% of visitors actually see Denali, , the highest mountain peak in North America at over 20,000 feet? We had no idea that it spends most of its time hidden in the clouds!

Oh my goodness. The lessons that taught me…good things are there, sometimes we just can’t see them….good things are sometimes just out of sight….beauty can be hidden, but it is still there…..beauty is revealed in its own time..what you are looking for will be revealed when the time is right.

Even though we didn’t see Denali that day, we saw lots of wildlife and other BEAUTIFUL vistas! God is sooooo creative and good to all of us. I enjoyed pondering that our Father created beauty for HIS EYES only that NO HUMAN may ever see. And nature is putting on a private show for each of us every day if we will just put our phones down and look up. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

That night, we got bad news from home about Tami’s cousin and a member of our church family. That news took a moment to settle but I think it made us more determined than ever to soak up all the gloriousness of this adventure. Life is short and we never know. So we had better squeeze the joy from every opportunity.

Day Seven

The next morning, we had a yummy breakfast and boarded a coach bus to our next location, Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. Personally, I loved this lodge the best even though our room could have done with a little updating. The lodge itself and the grounds were just lovely, and the sun came out and that changes everything! No more gloomy cold and our hopes for catching a glimpse of “the mountain” were rising by the moment.

We enjoyed time in the treehouse which was featured in an episode on HGTV, a lecture by an adverturous woman who spends her summers on the summit providing support for mountain climbers, living in a tent built on ice and snow after digging down many feet so she isn’t left 12 feet in the air as the snow melts during the summer months. Is that crazy or what? I can not imagine the bravery required!!! I don’t even like to spend the night alone in our air conditioned house with the doors locked.

That evening we attended a “concert” of beautiful pictures of the northern lights set to classical music. So cool! And did I mention how creative God is?

The hotel staff thinks of everything, and even provided a service to text if the northern lights or the mountain appeared. Following my usual pattern, I didn’t stand in line to sign up, but our friends did, so the next morning, we got the message that DENALI was visible in all her glory! It was beautiful and awe inspiring and a total God moment! We took gobs of pictures, but I finally just put down the camera and soaked it all in with my actual eyeballs. The pictures in no way show the beauty and majesty of this mountain and her neighbors.

I laugh remembering that I wondered if I would know when I saw Denali. Trust me. You KNOW!

This beautiful view was visible for most of the rest of the day as we traveled to Takeetna, a little village that was a MUST SEE full of Alaskan quirky, a beautiful river, interesting shops and a chance to visit with locals. Perfect!

Julia Roberts and her family, the Phillips, Fords, Gowans and Shulls all visited there this summer!

The remainder of this day was spent on a lovely train speeding our way to Whittier and our ship for the cruise part of our trip. Can you say fun?

Day Eight

As I mentioned above, Brad and I have never cruised, so we were boggled by the size of the Golden Princess cruise ship, the lines as we went through security to board, the cute little rooms which made me feel like we were camping in Pearl, our vintage airstream, and the overall luxuriousness of the whole great big boat.

Since I’m not a fan of buffet style eating-GERMS- I was glad to see the handwashing stations at the beginning of the buffet lines and the staff standing there to reinforce the need to wash hands before getting food. I had heard stories of people eating 24 hours a day on cruises, so I didn’t know what to expect. Because of said buffet lines, I managed to keep that under control until we dined in one of the lovely ship restaurants where we ordered off the menu. We ate dinner there several times and the food was dreamy-good and beautifully presented with wait staff that spoiled us no end.

The nightly entertainment was top notch and I loved it! The comedian was hilarious and the company was superb. We had so. much. fun. And even got educated when I dragged Brad to lectures about Accupuncture and Chinese Medicine and an Art Auction. Did you know purchasing original artwork and jewelry are both big deals on cruises? I sure didn’t!

Just in case you are wondering, I purchased neither!….

Day Nine

Part of cruising is selecting excursions. We went all wild and adventuring for our main trips off the boat. We wanted to get up close and personal with glaciers as much as possible. Since I didn’t really research Alaska, I had the wrong idea about glaciers in general. Maybe you do, too, so here are some glacier facts:

• Alaska has approximately 100,000 glaciers. (A far cry from the 10 or so I imagined. Bless my heart!)
• Glacier National Park has approximately 1000. We saw several including the Hubbard, Mendenhall and Davidson up close and personal.
• The glaciers started during the ice age and most are shrinking today.
• There is a new glacier forming near Mt. St. Helens following the eruption in 1980.
• When a hunk of ice falls off a glacier, that is called calving.
• An iceberg is 90% underwater.

Day Ten

Skagway, Juneau and Ketchican

In Skagway, we took a very interesting train ride on the White Pass Railroad learning all about the Gold Rush. My hat goes off to the men and women who were desperate enough to improve their lives that they were willing to risk what they did to find a nuggest or two of gold. I’m too big of a chicken to risk life and limb, but perhaps desperate times called for desperate measures.

Our first glacier excursion involved taking an old Coast Guard boat being driven very speedily across open water by Sarah and entertained by Nick who regaled us with tales of living in Alaska, making us laugh, making me a tiny bit nervous, and making the trip lots of fun. When we got to shore, we suited up and got in big kayaks and paddled our way to the Davidson glacier. We were able to walk up relatively close to it, see icebergs up close and personal, and taste glacier water. Quite an experience for this farm wife!

We also did a float trip in Juneau on a river that was very close to the Mendenhall Glacier. It was just beautiful, had enough baby rapids to make it interesting, and tour guides to make it educational. We learned that lots of kids from the lower 48 head to Alaska for a GAP year or years after they graduate from college and before starting grad school or their careers. They certainly are not following the playbook our generation did. And who is to say which way is right?

Fun Fact: Juneau can only be reached by air or boat. And it is the capital of Alaska. Isn’t that out of the box thinking?

All the cruise ships stop at Skagway, Juneau and Ketchican and each of those little towns has its own special vibe. In Ketchican we visited the Saxmna Native Village and Totem Pole attraction, and it was basically a dud. I wanted to love it, but I just didn’t.

I did however, love Ketchican! It is so cute and we had a God moment there. We ventured into a store that advertised native Alaskan goods. The totem poles were beautiful and the people friendly. It took me a moment to notice that there was Christian radio playing in the background which was exactly what my soul needed after not having a chance to worship on Sunday or to have my quiet time each day. We had the best connection with the people who worked there and loved learning about their every day life. We had the most important thing in common-we all loved Jesus!

Day Eleven

The rest of our adventure included several hours of rough sailing, closed upper decks, walking around the ship with our “cores” engaged to keep from wobbing over, and thankfulness that the cruise was almost over.

We woke up the next morning as we were pulling into Vancouver, British Columbia. Even though I really wanted to spend some time in Vancouver, we had opted to fly straight home. However, I was very happy that our bus driver had time to give us a quick tour of Vancouver on our way to the airport. I really hope to go back one day!

This was a trip of a lifetime and it was a joy to take it with people who mean so much to us! If you ever get the chance to visit Alaska, by all means DO IT!

If you have any tips to share with my readers, please do! It is so helpful to know what has worked for others. Tell us everything!

P.S. I forgot to mention the Salmon! We saw sooooooo many Salmon that it was unbelievable. They are hatched in natural streams and then migrate south to the northwest, and then come back to where they are born to lay their eggs and then they croak. A happy accident? I don’t think so!

P.S.S. And the airplanes parked in backyards with a shared landing strip….

P.S.S.S. And the whales we saw frolicking from the ship! I could go on and on and on!