Alaska, America's last frontier with a 737K population was purchased from Russia by then Secretary of State, William Seward, for $7.2 million in 1867. With its rugged landscape and climate, Seward's purchase was widely criticized at the time as junk until the gold rush of 1900s. Today, 25% of America's oil and 50% of its seafood comes from Alaska, but economic performance is ranked 49th (2nd last in the U.S.) Despite its vast surface area that is the equivalent of California, Texas and Montana combined, most of Alaska is uninhabited.
Day 1, July 14th and 15th: First day of travel and Johanna was teary eyed at LAX because she didn't want to go. I received complaint messages from her weeks prior to this trip and all the way leading up to. Chief among her complaints was lack of opportunity to spend time with her friends this summer because of her 3.5-week trip to Sweden and this 8-day trip. Highlights of her complaints that began in Sweden:
"It's just gonna be horrible for me [Alaska trip] which will make it horrible for everyone else.....I'll go to Alaska without complaining anymore only if I get money to go shopping when we get back.....Can I stay at Bita's or something because if I go I'll have way less time to spend with my friends and if I don't hang out with my friends anymore I won't have any so only take me if you hate me and want me to lose all my friends....Also I don't wanna sit next to a random smelly person on the flight....Wait if I go to Alaska instead can you pay for my fast pass if I go to knotts?.....Why the actual would I want to go to a random glacier and land where everything is cold like it's summer.... Everyone knows I hate vacation....I'll lose all my friends because of you....I hate planes....and vacations....and stupid Alaska...and I would rather die than go....I didn't even wanna go to Sweden...If you force me to go that's being a selfish and bad parent and that's not good for you...."
We arrived in Anchorage at 12 a.m. Saturday, picked up our $220/day (highway robbery) car rental and drove to our first room rental, Ingra house hotel, that ended up fitting the profile of a hostel with shared bathroom/shower. No way Jose, none of us are taking a shower here. Our room barely fit 3 small beds - I took the middle one. We must've been by a highway as the sound of cars driving by was at the limit of our tolerance. Expedia reviewers rated this junk 7.8 out of 10. Google rating was 2 stars out of 5. We rated it a generous 2 out of 10.
We woke up around 8 a.m., washed up, packed, checked out and left for breakfast in rain. Elin picked the #1 gluten free breakfast diner, Snow City Cafe, where they serve Alaskan reindeer sausage. The wait was 2 hours, so I'm guessing this place is #1 with or without gluten. We had an amazing breakfast and left for Girdwood, a resort town south of Anchorage and a 45 minute drive to our 2nd night stay at Alyeska North #400, next to a ski slope with chair lifts. These types of cabins are called ski-in, ski-out which means no transportation to the slopes are needed. The room was much nicer and larger than Ingra House, with it's own bathroom, shower and kitchen. There was a long bed connected to the wall and close to the ceiling that slept two people on opposite ends. That's where the kids slept. For an early dinner, Elin and I ate at a food truck called Girdwood Izikaya (Japanese food in case you haven't guessed it). Johanna elected for Subway (and the next day too). Back at the cabin, Elin and I watched Alone, which is a wilderness survival competition reality show. Since much of Alaska is wilderness, this show had special meaning. Then, lo and behold, at 10:48 p.m. a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the Alaska Peninsula which was 460 miles southwest of us, triggering a tsunami warning. I learned later Alaska natives received the warning on their cell phones, but I guess tourists were left to enjoy all that Alaska has to offer. Luckily, the tsunami was only 0.5 feet.
Day 2, Sunday, July 16th: Elin and I ate breakfast at The Bake Shop across the parking lot to our cabin. This place was very popular and lotsa patrons walked in after us. Elin left first as I lined up to order grilled cheese for Johanna. We checked out of the cabin and left to the port town of Seward, population 2.6K, for our next 2-night stay - major cruiseliners dock here.
The 2-hour trip was on highway 1 that hugs the Gulf of Alaska, with gorgeous scenery of water, mountains, large trees and greenery.
More than half-way to our destination we stopped at a mini mart called Estes Bros. The vanilla and chai latte were surprisingly delicious. The girl behind the counter was a student at Seward High School. She drove one hour to school and back every week day. This high school has a total of 145 students and its two buildings are without windows (we took the picture below on our second day there).
After we arrived at our hotel, we visited the Alaska Sealife Center, built in 1998, largely from the Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement fund. The head honcho there was a 1,900 lb. Stellar Sea Lion who had a lot to get off his chest apparently:
Around 2:30 p.m. we ate at a highly rated hole-in-the-wall place called Firebrand Barbecue. The entire eatery fit in this picture. This place definitely lived up to its reputation. I had pork ribs and Elin had pork belly to the tune of country music the entire time.
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| Firebrand Barbecue - highly recommended |
Day 3, Monday, July 17th: Johanna stayed in the hotel while Elin and I visited the Exit Glacier, but not before we were devoured by mosquitos en route the hike up 3,000 feet elevation. I had all of my body covered with clothes except my head, and that's where I received multiple bites, mostly on the side and crown of my head where I thought my thinning hair provided adequate protection. I hope one day technology eradicates mosquitoes (and flies too) who contribute nothing useful to the ecosystem. Buttholes!!
On our way back, we saw a police car and ambulance racing up the road to, as I learned a couple of days later from the online version of Anchorage Daily News, rescue a collapsed Michigan teenager on the trail Elin and I had just traversed. Unfortunately, the teenage boy died of a cause yet unknown.
The rest of the day was spent dining at a local restaurant - I had a hamburger with gigantic onion rings - and later Gelato.
At a minimart down the adjacent street to our hotel worked a twenty-something chicagoan cash register clerk with a couple of nose rings. She had moved to Alaska 3 years prior, and held two jobs working 14-hour days "because there was nothing else to do there." This was her last summer in Alaska as she planned to move to Australia via a work program. Elin bought matcha on two consecutive days at that cute minimart.
Day 4 Tuesday, July 18th: We left Seward for Whittier, a tiny town 2 hours north of Seward and 60 miles south east of Anchorage with a whopping population of - wait for it - 200 and change. Almost the entire town lives in a single building, a former army barracks built in 1974. In the summer, the population adds out of state crews who run the glacier cruisers, precisely the reason for our visit. One such seasonal migrant was a woman named Hope who is a high school English teacher in North Dakota and on her first cruise duty.
To reach Whittier we had to drive through the longest combined vehicle-railroad tunnel in North America at 2.5 miles, the one-way, Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel with a $13 roundtrip toll.
The tunnel opens once every 30 minute for 15 minutes in one direction, which means if you miss your planned opportunity, you're up shit creek for an hour before your next opening. And that's almost what happened because our journey from Seward was interrupted by major roadwork of the dillhole kind and stoppages in what appeared to be a complete rebuilding of a section of highway 1. Two days prior as we traveled the opposite direction there was no evidence of this unwelcome major construction project. As a result of these delays, I hightailed it to the tunnel with plenty of time to spare.
Below is a picture I took from the Anchorage museum Elin and I visited on day 6 that chronicles the history of this tunnel built by American world war 2 soldiers during the war.
Once past the tunnel, we reached our cruise parking lot in a couple of minutes and checked in for our 6-hour cruise. The 3-hour version was booked when we made reservations the day before. The only reason why I agreed to this cruise is because on the promotional brochure, the first words were, "No seasickness guaranteed", but I still wore my scopolamine patch because even a little motion sickness is as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit.
The cruise ship was a high speed catamaran with speeds reaching 40 mph. Early after we set sail, I began questioning the wisdom of my decision to confine myself to a vessel for 6 hours. I mean, how different can a glacier look from another worth visiting 26 of them?? I experienced first-hand the oft used expression "that ship has sailed". Here's the best video I recorded from this excursion - a big chunk of ice around the opening of the waterfall broke off and fell to the water below with a thunderous sound a little after I shot the video:
We returned to Girdwood in a cabin with zero privacy. This was a studio turned into a one bedroom with no inside walls to the ceiling. The slightest unflattering sound out of any orifice would be easily detectable by any inhabitant anywhere in the cabin, even to those hard of hearing. The bathroom was separated from the rest of the cabin with a curtain, and the walls were 20 inches short of a connection to the ceiling. Talk about the need for highly covert operations there.
Day 5 Wednesday July 19th: Rainy Girdwood and more Subway for Johanna. Elin and I visited Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where we met this anorexic moose:
And this black bear. All animals here were unphased by the rain pouring down.
We found it ironic that a rescue center that rehabilitates reindeer also sold reindeer dogs in a bun.
Every restaurant we ate breakfast or lunch at was surprisingly good given our limited options in such a small town; Basecamp, Hightower Pub.
Day 6 Thursday July 20th: Back to Anchorage with mostly bad or marginally acceptable food, and quite surprisingly unpicturesque downtown; a bit reminiscent of our trip through Santa Cruz a few years ago.
We torpedoed through the Anchorage museum, but not before the following painting with a peculiar title caught my attention:
Our Airbnb was the highlight of the finale of our trip, with the exception of a train and its obnoxious horn tooting every hour:
Another event worth mentioning is dinner at Whiskey and Ramen; Japanese food
All in all, we (Elin and I) rate this trip 6-7 out of 10, and considering the high cost of everything, we would've been better off somewhere outside of the U.S.
