Advertisement
Published: December 1st 2010
Edit Blog Post
Alaska has been incredible. I’m so glad that we spent the money to get up here. We’ll definitely have to come back again at some stage in our lives. And in summer next time, to get some completely different views and to see some bears!
While we had a great time in Anchorage, unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to do there. We’d anticipated doing some dog-sledding and snowmobiling, but whilst the weather was freezing there wasn’t enough snow to do those things yet. D’oh! (We did get to go dog-sledding in Fairbanks, which I’ll chat about later)
The first day that we were in Anchorage, we just had a walk around and checked out the downtown area. There wasn’t a lot going on, so we just wandered in and out of shops. They had quite a few shops with products made by local Alaskan artisans which was quite cool.
While out looking at the shops, we bought ourselves some snow boots. We got them just in time because the next day it snowed steadily the whole day! It was fantastic, I’d never seen it snow so much. I think in the end they got about 6 inches worth
of snow. (We had a great day wandering around in the snow, especially with the new snow boots! We didn’t have to worry about our feet getting wet & then freezing walking in the snow anymore! - Craig)
We had a lot of fun playing in the snow. We made a snowman, although he’s only little as we got sick of building him about halfway through. It’s actually quite a tiring job to build a snowman! We checked him out the next day to see if he was still standing, and he was! (The snowman was awesome, he had little red berries for eyes & his mouth, which made him look nice & evil - Craig)
The day that it snowed was Thanksgiving Day. Apart from playing in the snow, we didn’t do much as all the shops were closed. While we knew that most of the restaurants would be closed, we didn’t anticipate that we would really struggle to find somewhere that was open to get a bite to eat. We were walking around the town and pulling on the doors of restaurants, but nothing was open. I was getting really grumpy (which always happens when I’m
starving), so Craig went and asked the receptionist at our hotel if there was anything open. After calling five or six different places and getting no answer, she finally found a place that was open.
It couldn’t have been more perfect. It was the restaurant in a hotel just across the road from us. And they had a full three-course Thanksgiving lunch/dinner for just $25. It was so good! I was so glad that I was able to have some typical Thanksgiving Day turkey with all the stuffings. And with some to-die-for pecan pie to top it all off, I was a very happy girl indeed!
An interesting thing that we had to deal with was icy footpaths. It was so difficult walking anywhere! It was another reason why we decided to buy snow boots, they had a little bit more tread on them than our sneakers. We slid and slipped on the ice constantly, but thankfully never actually fell down. That would have been all we needed, to break an arm or a leg slipping on the ice before going skiing at Whistler!
The day after Thanksgiving Day here in America is called Black Friday, and
Anchorage
Not far to Darwin at all! all the shops put on huge sales that put our Boxing Day sales to shame. I thought that the stores opened early on Boxing Day back home - some of the stores here were opening at 3am on Black Friday morning!!
Craig and I were keen to check out the stores but not 3am keen, so we headed out at about 7am. Still a pretty good effort, I thought! And it paid off - Craig bought eight Playstation games for himself, we got two Playstation games for my brother, a Wii game and season 1 of Glee on DVD for me, all for under $400! It was incredible! (So incredibly cheap, pretty much all the games I got have only been out for a month or so at most, so it’s not like they were bargain bin old games - Craig)
When we got back downtown after going to the morning sales, we checked out a arts and crafts fair that they had at the Anchorage Museum. It wasn’t as big as the Vancouver arts and crafts fair, but there was still heaps of beautiful things by local artists. Oh, the things I would have bought if I
had more money!!
On Saturday we caught the train from Anchorage to Fairbanks. At the train station before we hopped on the train, a couple of people from the Alaska Railroads (including the CEO) came up to us and gave us gift bags with some beautiful Christmas ornaments and post cards inside. I think it’s something that they’re doing in the lead up to Christmas, as at this time of the year trains only go once a day just on the weekends.
The conductor on the train was brilliant. He opened up the baggage car at the back of the train and let us wander in and out. There we could open the doors and get some incredible photos of the scenery going past. When we had an area with great views, they would stop the train to give us time to take plenty of pictures. And we saw some moose! We saw a group of about eight moose grazing on the side of the train tracks. It was awesome. (The views on the train were so fantastic, we managed to get some really great photos. It was worth the pain for the photos too, as it was
-10 to -20 degrees all the way up so it was freezing in the baggage car, especially when leaning out the side to get even better photos. Definitely worth it though, it was fantastic! - Craig)
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the northern lights in Fairbanks. Conditions weren’t great for the two nights that we were there. We braved the cold (-30 degrees!) last night and tried to walk away from town a bit to see if we could spot anything, but we couldn’t see anything. There was a resort where you could watch the northern lights whilst inside in a glassed dome area, but unfortunately it was over 60 miles away and we couldn’t justify the taxi fares when it was unlikely that we’d see anything anyway with the conditions the way they were.
However our trip up to Fairbanks was made well worth it when we got to go dog sledding yesterday. It was incredible! One of the most amazing things that I have ever done in my life. We had nine Alaskan huskies pulling us along, and they looked like they were having such a good time. When Kathy, the lady who took us
out, was getting them all into position, they were straining at their leashes and barking non-stop because they just wanted to get going.
Craig and I sat together in the sled, with Kathy standing up at the back. It was freezing, about -20 degrees, but we both had on three big jackets plus lots of layers underneath and we were fine.
We went for a half hour trip through a dog mushing trail in Fairbanks. It’s so hard to describe how awesome it was. Flying along with snow-covered trees on either side of the trail, watching the dogs enjoying themselves, it was just incredible. (It was such a fantastic experience, one of the best things that we have ever done! It was spectacular heading through the trail, everything covered in a couple of feet of snow! Getting led through a winter wonderland by the amazing dogs! - Craig)
So now we’re at Fairbanks airport, waiting to catch a flight to Seattle. We’ll be in Seattle for a couple of days, and then we’re heading up to Whistler to meet up with Craig’s cousin Ash and go skiing and snowboarding!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.149s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0495s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Ted & Shirley
non-member comment
Hair
Craig Why go to the trouble of covering your face with a scarf the facial hair & curls keep out the cold