Alaska

When Todd and I got married in 2007, we honeymooned in Alaska.  We took an Alaskan cruise to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Victoria.  The trip was incredible!  Early May was the PERFECT temperature and it was an amazing trip.  The thought process behind Alaska was that “it’s a once in a lifetime trip.”

In the colder months, we like to talk about vacations.  We have been going back and forth as to where we’d like to go for our 5 year anniversary in May 2012.  There had been talk of France, Switzerland, Italy and Ireland.  While watching Sarah Palin’s show on TV, it made us miss Alaska and all of the scenery. 

While we were in Alaska, Todd had a rough time because of the 4 hour time difference.  He gets up anywhere between 3:30AM and 5:30 AM.  In Alaska, that was 11:30PM-1:30AM.  We’d be sleeping by 6:00 their time. That was Todd’s one big complaint about Alaska.  It wouldn’t have been a problem, but a lot of the activities on the ship were from 7-10 at night, and we missed a lot of them because I was passed out in the room (I was also motion sick for the first 3 days and the Dramamine was knocking me out!)

While in Alaska, Todd mentioned he’d like to stay in each town for a few days and experience all there is in those towns (Juneau, Anchorage & Skagway.)

The issue with going to France/Italy or Ireland is that the flights are about $1400/person round trip. A flight from Cleveland to Seattle, to Juneau, then to Anchorage and then back home would be $850/person! That is over 2 weeks. That is almost half the price!

We do much better when we go on our own versus with a group of people.  I think we could have a blast in Alaska together.  Of course, we’d probably want to rent a car so we could drive all over, and we’d probably rent out a house/cottage for the week as we usually do so that we can do our own laundry and cook our own meals.

We went to a rainforest (yes, in Alaska!) while on our honeymoon, and I will NEVER forget the trees that were bear scratching posts.  The bald eagles and hand-carved totem poles were so cool! Alaska is where I found out that I love salmon.  And the whale watching was breath-taking.  Oh, not to mention the train ride up the Yukon Territory.  We would do that again in an INSTANT!

We like to go to new places, but we absolutely loved Alaska.  There is only one thing I don’t like about Alaska, and that are the bears! But I’d just have to get over it, eh?

**After writing this, Todd found another destination he may want to go that is in the same time zone as we are in.  Peru!  Oh my goodness. The possibilities are endless, it seems.