ALASKA 2026

Just felt this 5.4 earthquake while resting in our tent. We’re in Seward somewhere near the red arrow.

Who knew there were three different kinds of twilight!

We were shuttled from the airport to our hotel downtown yesterday by a nice local who was pleasantly surprised to meet some tourists with plans slightly outside the “normal tourist fare.” We rode in his Toyota Highlander and told him about our plan to rent a camper and drive a loop through Wrangell-St. Elias and Denali after doing some camping in Seward and he asked if we were going to stick to the road system or go off roading. He said, in Alaska, you can pretty much just pull off the road and camp anywhere. He mentioned the Knik River about 30 minutes north of Anchorage and somewhere near Girdwood to the south.

When we arrived at the hotel around midnight, the sky was still bright and it felt like late afternoon on a slightly overcast day. Unfortunately during check-in at the front desk, we were informed that they didn’t have any available rooms with two queen beds. After some discussion, they found a vacated room next to an open room and hastily cleaned it and gave us the two rooms for the night. We got comped a nice breakfast for our troubles.

This morning we learned that we had to move into a double room since they were fully booked and could let us stay in the two rooms another night. They moved our bags and comped us dinner.

We spent the day walking part of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail (about a mile) and then looping back through the city with a stop at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, some lunch at AK Alchemist, and coffee and a donut at Kobuk. All in all maybe 4 miles of walking. The weather has been nice – sunny and warm. The hotel is also nice, despite the room mixup. We’re staying at The Wildbirch Hotel. We leave early tomorrow, so now it’s time for some downtime at the hotel. I’ve got Ready Player One queued up on the Kindle.

Airports are fun! Except for security. I think it’s my worst nightmare going by through that detector thing, not because I have anything dangerous, but because I fear the social interactions that come with getting pulled over. At the airport, we got some food and headed off! We’re on the plane now, boarding, and the plane just started moving. Update when we get to anchorage and how my music that I downloaded most of earlier today.

Update

So I did not need to download music because the plane had WiFi. Anyways, it’s the next day, 8:46 am. We got two different room with king size beds because they didn’t have a two queen room. Breakfast was AMAZING!!! We are having to move rooms, because our hotel is over booked, but for now, we are heading out to explore Anchorage!

That was an epic arrival view at 10 o’clock at night!

Apparently bringing a giant duffel bag full of dehydrated backpacking food calls for extra security checks. 😳 The desiccant packets were flagged green in the X-ray. Anyhow, it wasn’t a problem since we arrived with plenty of time before departure, but still a small pain to stuff everything back in the duffel. Making a mental note for future adventures.

And we’re off!

I’m being made to post this as a test

I think Jasper has been dreaming of this place since 5th grade when he worked so hard and tirelessly on his US states report on Alaska. He really went above and beyond, delving wholeheartedly into learning about all 8 national parks and so much more! He even built this amazing float that showcased the grandeur of Denali (a.k.a. Mt. McKinley). This was a tough period of time during those elementary school years coupled with a pandemic. We are so grateful his teachers understood Jasper would excel at something different than the handwritten reports everyone else was required to have. Regardless, this amazing slideshow left an impression and when we asked him where he would choose for family vacation to celebrate middle school graduation, without hesitation he responded, “ALASKA!”

That’s the name of the rental company we’re renting our camper from, but it’s also what we’re going to do in a little over 48 hours. Jasper selected Alaska as our destination this summer and we’re going to do it big. Join us for the ride!