Alaska had long been on my travel wish list but it took my little sister's internship in Anchorage to tip the motivation scale to make a short trip up there.

 

We jumped on an evening flight out of SFO and flew into Anchorage. With the sunset lasting long after midnight, we were able to catch some of the glorious colors at an outlook and still make it to town for some frosty beers and reindeer pizza. 

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We packed Day 1 full. The first part of the adventure was complete with a hike to a hand tram across a gorge. It is quite literally a tram that moves purely by hand over hand rope pulling. We also took an aerial tram up a mountain for epic views and saw a huge variety of native animals like moose, bison, musk ox, wolves, and more at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. We ended our evening with a baked Alaska and another many hours long sunset at the Crow's Nest.

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On Day 2, we roadtripped down to Seward for a 6 hour boat tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park. With unbelievable views, brilliant blue water, glaciers, whales, puffins, seals, it was absolutely worth the time and the money. Fair warning, bundle up because it's cold on the deck of the boat but you'll definitely want to be out there when the whales show up.

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Before flying home, we snuck into Snow City Cafe for brunch (it was packed even on a Monday). We caught some art and science exhibits at the Anchorage Museum and rounded it all out with some champagne and oysters at the Bubbly Mermaid.

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This Google map has more details on the play by play. It was a jam packed 60 hours and I was exhausted by the time we touched back down in San Francisco but it was well worth it and I cannot wait to go back to the 49th state.

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