Anchorage, AK

At the end of our Alaskan visit, we spent an evening and afternoon in Anchorage, to make sure we arrived in the area with no complications leading up to our flight home.

 

A Wyland whale wall!

We were both happy to spend a day exploring Anchorage, though, I would say you don't need much more time than that to get a feel for the city (assuming the focus of your trip is to spend more time playing in the outdoors). It was drizzly and chilly the entire time we were in Anchorage, so we stuck to indoor activities - apologies that this post doesn't do a great job of showing what downtown Anchorage looks like or telling what the city has to offer! The first part of the day we spent at Bear Tooth, a favorite local movie theater where you can get beer and snacks to go along with your meal.

Later, we explored the Anchorage Museum. This was a favorite museum of mine throughout the whole trip -  it was well-curated and showed a lot of recent art along with a lot of information on the state's vast history, which was particularly interesting to us because of Taras's Russian heritage. The exhibits were well done and we were able to join in on a free guided tour.

Walking around, Taras was excited to find mountain ash berries - he remembers eating these when he grew up in Russia. He kept insisting I try a berry, promising they weren't very tart. Finally, I caved and then immediately spit it out... it was very, very tart. :)

We ended our day with pizza and beer at another favorite local spot - Moose's Tooth. The pizza and beer were so good!

Alaska showed us such a wonderful time - we can't wait to get back sometime for another (longer!) visit. You can see all of our Alaska posts here.

FOLLOW US: ALL THE THINGS | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'

Homer, AK

We drove all the way down to Homer on the Kenai Peninsula, a town known as both "the end of the road" and as the "halibut fishing capital of the world." 

Our stop through town was brief - the weather had turned particularly chilly so we kept most of our exploring to looking out the car window. But even though our time in town was short, we could tell that a good time could easily be had here, with many restaurants, excursions, and cultural options to keep a visitor (or local!) busy.

Homer is also home to the Homer Spit, which is the longest road to go into the ocean in the world. This 4.5 mile multi-use trail allows for great viewing of the area's scenery and wildlife (and is the true end of the road on Alaska's Highway 1).

My favorite thing to come across was what seemed to be an old boat junkyard, where a lot of abandoned boats have gathered. We photographed these boats for way too long - neither of us could get enough of the gritty, old boats against the background of the grey sky.

See more Alaska posts here.

FOLLOW US: ALL THE THINGS | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'

Kenai Peninsula | Roadside Views

We left Seward and drove west to explore more of the Kenai Peninsula. Our final destination was Homer, but we stopped for the night somewhere along the way. The drive was beautiful, with forest, mountain, and water views everywhere we looked. We mentioned a lot of times how similar Alaska seemed to Montana, except larger and even more remote.

One rule we learned quickly on our road trip, especially in national parks, is to pull over when you notice a lot of cars pulled off on the side of the road. This rule holds true on the back roads of Alaska. Shortly into our drive, we pulled over behind a long line of cars. We made our way across the street, where we looked down to see a bear frolicking in the water, seemingly trying to catch his salmon dinner. He played in the water for a bit, going under a couple times, and ultimately coming up with a mouthful of fish (and then he barked like a dog and exited the water!). Honestly, the bear seemed so playful and fun that I forgot for a minute how dangerous these animals can be!

The next day as we were driving back past the same spot, we spotted these two fishermen! It was crazy to see just how closely man and bear coexist in Alaska.

It wasn't an unusual sight to see fisherman walking down the road like this.... maybe they were going from one fishing location to the next?

Pictures hardly show how beautiful Alaska is. Around every corner there was another beautiful view to see - truly, and outdoor enthusiast's paradise.

It's hard to tell with this blurry picture, but this was a fresh water well coming out of the mountainside, just on the side of a main roadway. Taras noticed a couple cars pulled over to refill their bottles so he went to get us fresh water, too!

See more Alaska posts here and more nature posts here.

FOLLOW US: ALL THE THINGS | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'

Kenai Fjord National Park | Landscapes and Glaciers

As I mentioned in my last post, we went on a boat excursion out of Seward to see wildlife and glaciers along Kenai Fjord National Park. It was unbelievable to see so much wildlife, but the scenery and glaciers are what really took my breath away.

The tour we picked was six hours long, and we were warned ahead of time that the waters would be choppy. I'm prone to motion sickness, so I was sure to have ginger candy and peppermint on hand to help with the sickness. Despite my preparations, I still spent parts of the ride in a little discomfort (but it was definitely worth it!).

The boat left from Seward and took us on a scenic ride out to Holgate Glacier, passing a lot of wildlife, many mountains, and a couple of smaller glaciers along the way. The wind was intense, making the temperature even more chilly - most passengers rotated their time between being outside and being inside the enclosed boat area.

When we arrived at Holgate Glacier, we were in awe as our boat stopped in front of the massive glacier. They turned off the boat motor and requested that all of us be quiet. An odd request, it seemed, but soon enough we understood why: if you're quiet, you can hear the glacier crackling! We even got to see part of the glacier's ice fall off into the water (the boat staff scooped up some of the freshly-fallen ice to make margaritas for the boat ride back!). The glacier ice was an unbelievable blue color and the whole experience was truly spectacular.

On the way back home, we witnessed what the locals call "cloud failure," which means we saw some sunshine! The sun didn't stay out for long, but it was nice to warm up for a few minutes and it was a treat to catch a rainbow as the sun went back into hiding.

See more Alaska posts here, more nature posts here, and more national park posts here. 

FOLLOW US: ALL THE THINGS | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | BLOGLOVIN'