For my 40th birthday last year, we were all set to go to Niagara Falls. That fell through due to Covid, so this year, we transferred our tickets to Alaska! Ya'll. It cost $310 each to fly to Alaska round-trip. That's IT! For a 7 hour flight! We stayed in a hotel/lodge near the airport, rented a little car, and put 700 miles on it in 3 days to explore everything we could of this gorgeous state! It was a high of about 43 each day and rainy one day but never really freezing. We were there for the transition from Fall to Winter, so there were gorgeous leaves, cool, wet trails, and snow on the mountains (and the ground in some places!) It was a great trip....I think we'll be back!
There are SO many national forests all over the state! We had fun exploring the Chugach!
Blu climbing to the top of Bryson Glacier! (I was totally freaking out...convinced he would fall through the ice!)
Quick selfie on the glacier!
Even though it was cloudy most of our time there, it was still gorgeous!
This was a nice trail through the woods that ended at the glacier!
We pulled off the road to take a picture when we saw this!
This was in the town of Seward, and these were the absolute best Snickers lattes we have ever had! Seward is a big cruise port, but since we were there off-season, we couldn't find ANY restaurants open! We finally found this cafe and had a snack! (And I won the game of Scrabble...in case you were wondering!).
Hiking near Exit Glacier!
This is Exit Glacier - the spots of blue were much brighter in person!
The bottom of Exit Glacier
Heading up Exit Glacier trail!
This was the only trail we hiked that was paved some of the way!
(Meanwhile, back home, Cason leading the Dragons out at the pep rally!)
The fall colors were incredible! We stopped to use the bathroom at a rest stop and saw a trail, so we hiked a little bit and saw a huge bridge overlooking this!
On our final day (our flight wasn't until 9pm), we drove 2 1/2 hours to the Kenai Peninsula!
Day 3 in the car!
We ate supper one night at Glacier Brewhouse in downtown Anchorage, and I got the appetizer special - smoked salmon dip with potato bread, grilled shrimp, and fried calamari! YUM.
I am the queen of "mocktails" - fruity, non-alcoholic drinks! This was a mock raspberry mojito!
Anchorage - super far away from everything!
Headed to supper on day 2!
Winter clothes!
We enjoyed a great cafe for lunch in the cute town of Palmer!
On Day 2, the weather in Anchorage looked miserable, so we drove about 2 hours north east to the Mat-Su Valley to explore the Matanuska Glacier! The drive was gorgeous and it had obviously snowed a ton the week before we were there!
We ALMOST ran out of gas, not realizing how far it is between gas stations...we were counting the miles like crazy and one of us (that's me) was FREAKING out!
Snowy trail up to the best view of the Matanuska Glacier! We were the ONLY ones there!
Pretty hike!
So pretty!
We stopped and found this tiny trail and followed it to this huge valley!
The Fall colors were so awesome!
There was a sign for "Mirror Lakes" so we stopped to check it out!
Literally every single trail looked like this!
Day 2 in the car!
Creme brûlée...my favorite dessert!
We ate at the Spenard Roadhouse one night - it was good!
Blu's favorite meal of the trip was there - the Cubano sandwich!
I got smoked salmon with fried Brussel sprouts!
Ready for another night out!
More lattes and dessert!
We could hear this little stream of rushing water from so far away!
I don't think you're technically supposed to stop and eat an Oatmeal Creme Pie in bear country, but....?
Looking up was incredible!
Have you ever been inside a tree??? (Me neither...I wasn't about to go inside there!!)
This was a pretty area where there was a nature center with several hiking trails. We saw several people with their dogs on the trail - it was the least secluded of all of them!
Yikes. When we got the trail map, it said to avoid this trail. We somehow got lost though and were unsure which trail we were on. Once again, I was FREAKING out!
This is the bottom of Thunderbird Falls - my favorite hike! I had to say I had tasted the water from the stream!
This was also our first hike - the beauty took our breaths away! (And we had Covid about 6 weeks prior to this, so maybe that amounted for some of the breathing problems too....)
So excited!
Blu took a fall on some ice and I couldn't stop laughing :)
So many of these signs, which prompted Blu to go and see just how steep it actually was!
I love hiking with this man!
Our lodge was awesome and had the most incredible made-to-order breakfast from the restaurant every morning included in the price!
So if you know me, you know I'm not really an animal lover....
It definitely felt like Alaska!
Alaskan eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and shrimp!
Breakfast views!
Blu tried a Bison Burger - he wasn't impressed!
Soooo many bear hides!
Blu REALLY wanted to see a bear. I really did not.
The hallway from our airplane into the main section of the airport - we were so excited!
Such a neat airport!
And this is what Blu looks like in every single airport!
Is it Fall? Or Winter???
This looks funny, but we had honestly just hiked a 1.2 mile trail, and it wasn't that hard but I was SO thirsty (we left our water that time) so that snow tasted so good!
Awwww.....
(Meanwhile, back home, Caedmon getting a cast put on his thumb/hand. So grateful for grandparents who helped us out this week!)
My favorite picture from the trip - taken by Blu!
This hike was pretty much straight uphill and I was dead!
Alaskan Glacier water!
More creme brûlée...same dessert, different day! ;)
Another gorgeous pic by Blu!
Shopping for souvenirs on the streets of downtown Anchorage! It was like a ghost town this time of year, and we were very surprised by how many homeless people we saw everywhere!
Still hiking!
This was the only trail that made us register before we went on it - that made me nervous for some reason!
There's no WAY I would climb underneath that glacier (have you met my dad?!), but I posed for a quick picture!
A GIANT leaf I found on the street!
Look, I'm on the glacier! (like 5 steps onto it)
So, so gorgeous!
Downtown after our awesome supper!
Yet more hiking...we hiked miles and miles and it was awesome!
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