10 days in Alaska with 7 adults and a toddler

Every year someone in our family picks a spot and we all go as a family. It is no easy task (for me as I am the planner), but it has become a family tradition. This year, it was my dads dream to go to the 49^th State…Alaska.

So my parents and two siblings headed to Fairbanks, then Denali and would meet us in Anchorage 5 days later. My husband and 2 year old toddler headed to Anchorage and spent 4 nights at the Hilton Homewood Suites. I picked the Hilton based on the great rate I got ($110), an indoor pool (for the toddler) and the kitchen. We flew to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines. The airplanes aren’t anything special but because we have an Alaska Airlines Visa we got one of our tickets for $99 (Companion pass they issue once a year). If you don’t already have one of these cards, I highly rec’d it even if it is just to save you some airfare. In our case it saved about $500. I also kept finding lower fares on our flight (thanks to Yapta.com) so I would call Alaska and they would issue we a credit to use on the next flight. I did this about 3 times :)

We picked up our car through Alamo at a rate of about $485 for 10 days. Not bad considering it was for a mini-van because we had 3 luggage’s, a carseat, large stroller, baby carrier. I am so glad we got the larger car. The room was a plus. After we picked up the rental, we checked into the Homewood Suites to drop off our baggage and we off to Safeway (aka Carrs). Our GPS kept taking us to this place called Carrs and we couldn’t understand why until we finally saw the small print under the Carrs logo “a Safeway store”.

The breakfast at the Hilton was horrible so we just ate in the room. On Sunday, we went to the weekend market to pick up some gifts. It was a quick stroll through the market, but it was nice to get out and stretch our legs and soak up the sun. We were still adjusting to the 24 hours of sun, so we took a nap. For dinner we ate at Glacier Brewhouse. I had the crab which was great, hubby had the salmon, and our little one had the fish. He ate it all up (which is rare).

The next day we headed to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. I thought it was a little expensive but figured it went to a wonderful place and cause. Our toddler loved all the animals and we even got to see the Grizzly come out from the bushes. After a walk around the center we drove to Portage Glacier. How amazing to see these chunks of ice just floating in the water. Amazing and beautiful. We figured after that, we would head back to Anchorage because we were going to be heading to Seward later in the week. Every night we enjoyed the pool and spa at the hotel. This was a big plus!

The next day we went to the Elmendorf AFB so I could pick up a Toursaver coupon book. No such luck as they were sold out. We tried to go to the fish hatchery but it appeared that had construction going on all around it. So we just let our toddler run around and enjoy the airplanes taking off and landing. He loved it! After Elmendorf, we were told to try Barnes and Nobles for the coupon book. No luck again. I finally found one at Safeway; however we I went to book a glacier cruise using one of the coupons I couldn’t and was told I had to do it 2 weeks in advance. Since we were already in Alaska that was impossible and I returned the book because it was cheaper for us not to spend the $99 on the book and just use our military discounts. After all of that, we stopped and got a bite to eat and took it to the Valley of the Moon Park. I expected a great park and was disappointed by the old play structure. I was also nervous about the gravel that it was on for our little one. I am used to bark or plastic stuff under our play structures at home. We didn’t stay long because the play structure had too many older kids on it.

Tuesday was our last day in Anchorage before heading to Seward. My parents and siblings were driving from Denali this day and were staying the night in Anchorage before we caravan to Seward the next day. We went to the Alaska Zoo and had a great time. The animals were wonderful and the surroundings for each animal and the zoo itself were lovely. After the zoo, we headed to Arctic Roadrunner for lunch. What a cute little place and the outside area was lovely (near a river). It would have been nice to sit outside but I know my toddler would have ended up in the water.

Finally my family arrived from Denali and we had a “pool party” at our hotel after we ate at Humpy’s. It was nice to relax with the entire family and hear about their trip to Fairbanks and Denali. While in Denali they saw TONS of wildlife. Moose’s, bears, porcupines, deer’s, etc. We were a tad jealous because the only wildlife we had seen was behind fences/cages, until…..a moose appeared out our hotel window in the field. It was just eating away. It was so wonderful and my toddler loved it!

Wednesday we drove to Seward and stopped at Beluga Point (no whales) and a few other stops before we arrived at our vacation rental, the Fern Gully Retreat http://ferngullyretreat.com/ . OMG, it was amazing. 3 bedrooms, 1 bath with a full kitchen in a beautiful setting. The owner Kirsten was wonderful and I had been in correspondence with her for about 2 years over our vacation. We actually did a home exchange with them for our Lake Tahoe vacation rental. Kirsten rental is wonderful and would HIGHLY rec’d it for anyone looking for the amenities of home with amazing scenery. It is perfect for those with kids or little ones because there is a large yard and toys. I cant rec’d it enough and if we ever return, I would love to stay again. That day we ate lunch at Rays. Great, great food, especially the red snapper. Yum. Stopped at Safeway to get groceries for the rest of our week.

The very next day my parents, sister and I took the Major Marine Wildlife 6 hour cruise ($145 bought through military resort). This is also the same cruise as the 8 hour but the 8 hour didn’t start until the weekend. It is the same route just shorter because we took a high speed catamaran. This was such a beautiful cruise. We saw orcas, puffins, birds, seals, humpback whales, bald eagles, dall porpoises, dall sheep and of course glaciers. The Kenai Fjords boat was just ahead of ours and was viewing the glacier when about ¼ of it calved. OMG, it was incredible and scary at the same time because it appeared that the wave of ice was coming like a tsunami towards them. I think everyone on our boat that saw that gasp for air. What an incredible and loud site that was! I will never forget that! During our cruise, my husband, toddler and brother went to Brooks Falls to see if they could see bears. They didn’t but saw moose.

On Friday, most of the gang went halibut fishing with the Seward Military Resort ($155 each). They each caught their limit and we came home with 55lbs of halibut. My father who ALWAYS gets sea sick did not get sick once on the glacier cruise or the fishing trip. I drugged him up starting the night before each trip on natural ginger pills. He was hesitant to take anything else because he is also on other meds. I have used ginger pills when I scuba dive so I know they work. We cut up and vacuumed packed our halibut and stored it in the resort freezer. The resort has all the supplies you would need…Styrofoam boxes, vacuum bags, etc. They also would have shipped our halibut home via fed-ex overnight for $165 but we decided to check it in for our flight at a much cheaper rate.

During their fishing trip, I took my son and mother to the playground near the water/RV park. It was just perfect for him to burn off energy and I even taught him how to skip rocks. He LOVED that. Had lunch at Ray’s again- told you it was good.

Everyone was tired from our trips so Sat was a slow day. We all took naps and then headed to Exit Glacier. This is the only day that we got rain. The rest of the trip was warm and sunny.

Our last day in Seward we went to Two Lakes Park. This park was a perfect hiking trail for my little one. The two waterfalls were beautiful too. I just loved this park so much that I wish we had gone sooner.

On our way back to Anchorage we had 55lbs of halibut that had been frozen in the Seward Military resort freezer for free because we fished with them. They had suggested we store the fish with 10^th and M Seafood for the night before our flight just to ensure it was nice and frozen because we were checking it in as a baggage on Alaska Airlines. Well it was a holiday and everything was closed. By chance, when we stopped at Indian Valley Meats on the way to Anchorage someone suggested we could store it at the Continental/Delta Terminal 4 storage freezer. We did at $7 a day and picked it up the day we left. It was perfect.

The last night I got us rooms (3) at Ft Richardson military base. Figured it was just a place to stay before our flight home the next day. The rooms were nice, but HOT as hell. No A/C. We had a nice dinner at Ding How that night. Headed to the Bx at Elmendorf the day of our flight to pick up souvenirs.

All in all, our trip to Alaska was AMAZING! Such a beautiful place and I REALLY loved Seward. It reminded me a lot of the Lake Tahoe area. My dad’s dream trip was better than he ever imagined (his words). He didn’t have a “favorite” and loved Denali and Seward equally but differently. I think it is going to be hard to top this trip as far as scenery, wildlife and something for every single one of us to do from age 60 to 2 years old.

Oh and if anyone ever recommends not taking a toddler or little one to Alaska, think again. It was so amazing to experience this with him and to see things through his eyes. He really helped us slow down (literally) and soak up everything because we weren’t so rushed.