I started my long-awaited vacation on Monday, June 19. That evening I met my friend Nina at the SF airport where we enjoyed a light dinner. We then departed San Francisco and flew for about 5 hours to the city of Anchorage.
On our first day, we drove for about 4 hours to visit the Portage Glacier. We stopped intermittently to walk. Everything was so beautiful that we couldn’t stop taking pictures
On the second day, we visited a sleddog kennel. We met Martin Buser, a three-time winner of the “Iditarod“. This famous race takes place every year on the first weekend of March and attracts participants from all over the world.
In the afternoon we drove to some very high peaks and saw the historical Independence Mine which stopped working in 1951. Unfortunately, I was not able to walk to the little museum to see the history of this mine because there was a lot of snow and ice, and I was a little bit scared to walk.
We then drove to the Matanuska Glacier, and everyone was very excited to walk and touch the ice.
In the evening we stopped in the city of Glenallen, seemingly located at the end of the world. Our hotel was surprisingly nice and comfy.
The next day (after a miserable breakfast) left very early and drove to the port of Valdez. It took us about two hours and a half of a very difficult drive through the mountains to reach that city where a cruise ship was waiting for us.
We took a 6-hour Columbia Glacier Cruise to Wrangell-St Elias National Park and saw one of the largest tidal glaciers in the world. It rained all the time, and it was extremely cold.
After the boat trip, we went to a fish restaurant, which was not very good and very expensive. We were back at the hotel late and very tired.
After a long 3 hours drive, we reached the city of North Pole. We stopped at a very cute shopping mall to buy some souvenirs and visit the Santa Claus House, and then we drove to Fairbanks.
Surprisingly, it happened to be a very nice city with shops, restaurants, and a nice University campus. We then went to a Moldavian restaurant where we had a very good meal. Great blinchiki and tea.
Our next stop was the wonderful city of Seward. In the morning we took a 6.5-hour cruise along the Alyaskin Bay in 9 Kenai Fjords National Park and had a very good lunch on Fox Island.
It is a very beautiful town with a harbor of the Kenai Fjords, a lot of shops, restaurants, a museum, a library, and some cultural buildings.
The water scenery was spectacular. In the evening we walked around the city, and we were surprised to discover how nice it was. We also had an excellent fish dinner.
On our last day of the trip, we went to visit the high-elevation Exit Glacier. The weather wasn’t nice, it was drizzling and cold but we still enjoyed walking around the city. We also visited the Sea World Center.
On the way back, we stopped at the Conservation Center to watch the fauna of Alaska. We then drove to the Alyeska ski resort, where we rode the gondola to the top of the ski station. Brrrrr, scary…
I also want to acknowledge our tour guide. He was extremely knowledgeable and sincerely cared for every person in our group. I also want to mention that we had the same experienced bus driver for our entire trip.
Altogether, it was a wonderful adventure and a pleasure to explore Alaska, one of the most beautiful states in America.
Tamara
PS: be sure to watch pictures of our trip