Snapshots of Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska // Whales & Glaciers // July 2015

Come with me, back to Alaska! This day in the state was just gorgeous... so so gorgeous, see more pictures and read more details here.

Here are some photos of our time on the boat watching whales and glaciers.

(because I don't have/don't know how to use a mega awesome camera... I added little arrows to some photos, that way you can tell what you're looking at! The second one is obviously KC... so there's no arrow there... bahaha)

So so scenic, and a lot of fun! 

Since we spent most of the day on the water, we missed trying out many restaurants or visiting shops... but it was a great day. Since we did this all in July, this day was kind of my "birthday present". :) We had a blast on the boat, we got to see so much wildlife in the wild... go figure! The sheer number of whales we saw was incredible. So amazing to watch... just wow. I'm really glad we did a longer tour and saw the glacier as well. What an incredible thing to see in person. I have a cool video of it calving... but I can't quite figure out how to rotate it... lol.

Eat: Whatever is on the boat! Not bad, but not exciting. We had lots of hot chocolate once we made it out to the glacier! Brrr... 

See: The view! The view! The view! The wildlife and whales!! Seeing a glacier in person and watching it calve. Can you guys believe how blue all of the ice looks?!

Shop: None to speak of... 

Do: A Whale Watching / Glacier / Wildlife tour.

Favorites: Whales, duh. & glaciers, and the views.... 

New Experiences: Seeing glaciers. Seeing sea lions, various birds, otters etc. in the wild. Touching ice from an iceberg. Seasickness (sorta kinda, read below). 

Random Information: Toward the end of the trip the boat was going pretty quickly. I definitely don't have "sea legs" but I've never felt woozy on a boat before either! I bought some "natural" seasickness meds just in case, took one and felt fine. LOTS of others were not so fortunate. BUT the team on the boat was SO knowledgeable, giving tips, medications, crackers etc. to folks who were struggling. They really knew what they were doing and kept everyone pretty comfortable. I spent a decent portion of the end of the trip at the back of the boat watching the horizon. KC was a trooper and held on behind me, keeping me from freezing. #truelove It was cold, but not actually that cold aside from being right by the glacier.

Have you been to Alaska?

Have you ever been whale watching? Or seen a glacier in person?

Anybody prone to seasickness? 
Previous Alaska Posts: Seward & Kenai Fjords National Park, Wasilla & Talkeetna, & Anchorage.

Coming Up: The Reality of Whale Watching and eventually some Florida posts.

XO,

Alexandra

Snapshots of Seward & Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska // July 2015

Ah, Alaska. So gorgeous. Well, if you've been seeing my other posts about Alaska, and you've been wondering where all of the scenic views were... they're in this post. & a few to come...

Pretty Right... ?! 

Seward was small, scenic, and homey. Since we spent most of the day on the water, we missed trying out many restaurants or visiting shops... but it was a great day. Since we did this all in July, this day was kind of my "birthday present". :) If we go back for work or something else someday I would want to check out more of the town and the sea life center... among other things. :) I think they also had an Iditarod museum... after meeting the puppies in Wasilla, and dog sledding on our honeymoon... I want to know all about dog sledding. :) 

Eat: Whatever is on the boat!

See: The view! The view! The view! The drive from Anchorage to Seward has been named one of the most scenic drives in the United States. The wildlife and whales!! The small town atmosphere, complete with a humpback whale mural.

Shop: I was really bummed that none of the shops had hours, or were open before or after our boat tour. We'd finally found a bookstore in Alaska.... : / 

Do: A Whale Watching / Glacier / Wildlife tour.

Favorites: Whales, duh. & glaciers, and the views.... 

Random Information: Seward hosts something every July 4th weekend called The Mountain Man Marathon. What started as a bar bet to see who could run up and down the mountain the fastest has turned into a yearly marathon. People go missing, get hurt, and run in the wild. So... the town was PACKED with tourists just before we arrived. And heading back to Anchorage had us stuck on the highway for at least an extra hour. But at least we had the view, and music to keep us entertained. ;) 

Have you been to Alaska?

Have you ever been whale watching? Or on another wildlife/nature type tour?

Previous Alaska Posts: Wasilla & Talkeetna, & Anchorage.

Coming Up: Whale Watching at Kenai Fjords National Park, Glaciers at Kenai Fjords National Park, & The Reality of Whale Watching.

XO,

Alexandra

Snapshots of Wasilla & Talkeetna, Alaska // July 2015

I hope you all had the loveliest Labor Day Weekend! We had a laid back but fun weekend, and I may have made another wall collage....

Anyhow, on to the travel stuff. :) I recently posted my pictures from our time in Anchorage, while we were in Alaska we also took one day to drive North, and another to drive South. Normally for us, a day of driving 8 hours or so is "nothing" and we can get 3-4 states away from home. We're road trip pros. In Alaska, driving anywhere takes forever and a day. Alaska is two times the size of Texas after all. So when you look at the map, just know that from Anchorage to each of these places would be the same dot, yet 2-3 hours in between. 

On our trip North, we visited Wasilla, where the Iditarod Headquarters are located, and Talkeetna, a hippy, outdoorsy, flight base town where a lot of planes shuttle people out to Denali. Wasilla seemed like a fun halfway point to Talkeetna, and since we had gone dog sledding on our honeymoon, we thought it would be fun to learn more about the dogs and the Iditarod. Talkeetna does not recognize traditional local government, and has named a cat their "mayor". No joke. His name is Mayor Stubbs and he is 15 years old. Clearly something I needed to see. :)

In the photo of us above Denali and the National Park are behind us... not that you can see them. : / 

We drove about half way up to Denali from Talkeetna, it was another 2ish hours to get all the way there. Though it wasn't dark, we weren't crazy about driving farther away from Anchorage since we were staying there for the night. The view was gorgeous, next time maybe we would go all the way out. It's hard to say. We aren't the most outdoorsy of travelers, so that seemed like a pretty extreme place to try first.

Our day North of Anchorage was quirky, scenic, and filled with furry friends. The towns were small, and quaint. I am glad that we got to see the documentary on the Iditarod, it was really eye opening and interesting. The people at the headquarters were SO nice. In Talkeetna we didn't really meet anyone who seemed very interested in us. The waitress at The Roadhouse was super abrupt... and almost rude. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it wasn't very welcoming.

Eat: We ate at The Roadhouse, mostly because of the abundance of breweries in Anchorage, which is probably good, most nights our coworkers wanted to eat at breweries. The food was good and the pie was excellent, the service was not, but maybe we caught them on a bad day. I don't even remember where we ate lunch...

See: The view! Mayor Stubbs, Husky Puppies, Denali National Park.

Shop: There were a few gift shops in Talkeetna, lots of local art and photography. The Iditarod gift shop was cute. It had lots of books that seemed like they would have been really interesting. Nagley's just for the experience, it's part grocery store, part drug store, part antique display... it's a lot of things going on. It was where we found Mayor Stubbs. 

Do: Iditarod Headquarters (free!), you can even pay a really small fee (like $10) to ride with the sled team. In the summer they have wheeled sleds, in the winter there is snow... obvs. We skipped out, having done it before, but these are real sled dogs! See the puppies, and the documentary/memorabilia inside. Nagley's Store. Denali National Park.

Favorites: Husky puppies... clearly.  And the documentary, after 30 minutes I felt so much more educated on the Iditarod and sled dog life. It's very interesting.

Overall this was not my favorite day of the trip, Talkeetna was oddly unfriendly and it was very overcast that day. Though I would definitely recommend the Iditarod Headquarters. :) 

Have you been to Alaska's upper peninsula before?

Have you ever been dog sledding?

Previously: Anchorage

Up Next: Seward & Kenai Fjords National Park

Thank you for reading!

XO,

Alexandra