For years my family and I dreamed of traveling to Alaska. We always wanted to go by cruise. The plan was to fly to Seattle, Washington and take the cruise up to Alaska. Unfortunately because of COVID, we were not able to go by cruise. Another thing I have always dreamed of was to travel in a big group of friends. This trip unintentionally fulfilled that dream. My family and I traveled with 4 other families! Totaling 19 people!
Here is a group picture of us in matching shirts:
Our trip started off at us meeting at the IAH airport. We were all ecstatic! Some people were meeting each other for the first time ever not knowing how close we'd all get during the trip.
Above is a picture of me at the Anchorage Airport :)
Once we landed in Anchorage, Alaska, we all took pictures, got our rental cars, and headed to the world-famous restaurant '49th State Brewing'.
I have to say everyone loved this restaurant and even wanted to go again on our last day. I totally recommend this restaurant!
I had ordered the Alaskan King Grilled Salmon. I also tried the famous Halibut fish and chips and well as the Spicy Cauliflower appetizer. In my opinion, the Spicy Cauliflower was the best!
Below is a picture of my salmon!
That night, we discovered just how bright it is at night. The sun set at around 11:30 at night and it was still light out after that! To us Houstonians, that was mind boggling.
We stayed in the Alyeska Resort in Gridwood, AK. The resort had signs everywhere warning visitors about bears possibly trying to come into the resort. I thought that was cool as I've never heard of bears willingly coming close to humans before.
The next morning we woke up at 4 in the morning (Alaska time) to catch our train in Anchorage. We drove to Anchorage from Gridwood and boarded the Alaska Railroad train.
Here is a picture of me before boarding!
Above is a picture of the train and my ticket!
The train ride was long but extremely beautiful. On the way to Seward and back, we all took naps for a part of the ride. We saw mountains, lakes, plants, wild animals, snow, ice, and everything else you think you might find in Alaska. I really liked going on the train because it's not really a normal way of transportation (at least in Texas).
Below is a picture of me and Saathvik in the train!
At Seward, we had to rush off the train and speed walk to the boat. We went on an amazing Glacier Cruise with Major Marine Tours!
I loved this experience! We saw so many animals such as Puffins, Seals, and Whales!
We saw so many whales and they were so beautiful! We never expected to see wild whales and that too strategically finding food! At the end of this trip, we all became experts on how to spot whales and predict where they'll come above the water! One cool thing is that when the whales showed themselves, no one had their phone out! We were all just enjoying the view instead of looking through a screen like we would normally do. One thing about the cruise I wasn't fond of was how cold it was. The deck outside was extremely cold and windy. As a Texan, I wasn't too happy about it.
Here is a picture of me (shivering) with my parents.
The glacier we went to was so beautiful and totally worth the 6 hour long (cold) cruise.
Above is a picture of me in front of the glacier! It's so pretty!
The cruise crew members broke off some ice and made margaritas out of them! This was a once in a lifetime drink so I had to try it of course!
Here is a picture of me eating real glacier ice! It tasted soo fresh. Totally recommend trying some :)
Above is a picture of the Virgin Glacier Margarita!
6 hours later... we got back to the dock and had to, once again, speed walk to the train to get our tickets and board. The train ride back, everyone took naps, walked on the train, and looked at the beautiful scenery.
Everyone except the dads got off at the Gridwood station and took a shuttle to our hotel. The dads got off at Anchorage where the cars were to pick them up and drive them back through the scenic route.
The next day, we took our time taking pictures at the beautiful Alyeska Resort and it was not a packed day. After breakfast, we headed toward Talkeetna where we had the Glacier Air Landing Tour with Talkeetna Air Taxi. On the way there, we made a few stops at scenic places and stopped for lunch.
We got to Talkeetna Air Taxi just in time for our flight. We had to be split up in 2 planes such our group was so big and each plane could only hold 10 people. Our view of Mount Denali was absolutely beautiful. The plane ride was also so smooth and nice. The view throughout the entire thing was amazing. This excursion was easily my favorite throughout the whole trip.
Above is a picture of the view from the plane. The tallest peak in Denali.
Above is a picture of the plane I was on.
When we landed on the Glacier, all of us had soo much fun having snowball fights (we even got our pilot a few times), taking pictures, and just playing in the snow. At first, I was shocked because the glacier was way different than I thought it would be. There wasn't slippery ice, there was feet of snow that our legs would sink in. And the best part is (especially for Texans) it wasn't cold! Like at all! It was really nice weather AND you were still able to play with snow! That is the dream.
Below is a picture of me on the glacier!!
Below is a group picture of all of us in front of the plane.
That night we had Mountain High Pizza Pie. The parents all were at downtown while the kids spent time together at the Hideaway. The Hideaway is a cabin with 9 rooms and we booked the whole place. I loved the Hideaway, it was great place to stay. They accommodated us really well! I totally recommend this place if you ever visit Talkeetna.
Above is a picture of me at Mountain High Pizza Pie's Pizza Wings.
The next morning, the parents had all gone out for a few hours for a photoshoot. Meanwhile all the kids just hung out around the house and I made breakfast. Once the parents got back, we all got ready, checked out, took pictures in front of the Hideaway, and left toward downtown again. We took pictures at a great spot where we could see Denali. We then went shopping in the gift shops.
We then tried Fireweed Ice Cream and Northern Lights Ice Cream at a popular Ice Cream store. I though both flavors were very light but still good and unique.
Then we went to the famous food truck Spinach Bread. We all loved Spinach bread. I tried their Spinach Bread, Rhubarb Blueberry Crumble, and Brazil Limeade. More details about these foods on my brother and I's podcast 'Raju Radio'! 100% recommend going to Spinach Bread if you visit Talkeetna.
After we had our lunch, we started our drive to Denali.
That night we stayed at the Denali Rainbow Village RV Park Motel. For dinner, we got recommended "Carson's" by a local so we headed to the towne center and did a lot of shopping before eating.
The next morning, we woke up early to head to the Denali Bus Tour pick up spot. We did this bus tour with Tundra Wilderness Tours. The bus ride was around 7 and a half hours long. But it was absolutely worth it. We saw wild moose, bears, and more animals. We also had a beautiful, clear view of Mount Denali.
Here is a picture, taken by my dad, of 2 wild bears.
During the Bus Tour, there was a few stops. In one of the stops, they had real horns that had molted off animals.
Above is a picture of me holding a horn. I chose this specific horn and pose because it looks like a Loki horn!
Here is a family picture in front of Denali that we took in one of the stops.
After the bus tour, we went to get lunch (there was only 2 options). Some of us went to Subway, while the others had Thai.
Then all of us headed back to Anchorage. We went through Hatcher Pass and we all loved it. It was lightly raining but we all enjoyed the view and loved taking pictures at all the different spots.
That night we stayed at The Lakefront in Anchorage. We loved the hotel the minute we stepped inside because there were so many taxidermy animals! It was so cool!
Above is a picture of one of the animals. If you look closely at the black plaque, you can see that the Jonas Brothers mounted them! I think that's so cool!
We were all so tired so we all went to bed and woke up the next morning not ready for our last day. We had their free breakfast and went out to the lake to take pictures. The lake was actually an airport. There were planes doing water take offs and landings constantly! It was so cool to witness it.
Then all the moms and I went to WalMart to buy matching shirts for all of us. After a few hours, we finished our shopping and headed back to the hotel. Once we got back we all headed to Humpy's for lunch.
Everyone wanted to go to 49th State Brewing again because they loved it so much. I wanted to try something different and Humpy's is also very popular. Honestly I loved Humpy's just as much as 49th State. If you go to Humpy's I highly recommend trying their crab nuggets. They were absolutely amazing.
After lunch, we headed to Whittier. To get to Whittier, you have to go through a tunnel that is one-laned. It's also the longest tunnel in North America. It's longer than 2 miles. In Whittier we tried to do a hike but we had to turn back half way because it was too muddy. After around 2 hours we headed back toward the tunnel. This time we had to wait for our side to get through the tunnel. After a little bit, we headed back through the tunnel toward Anchorage. When we were close to Anchorage, we stopped at a gas station to change into our matching shirts and took pictures at a scenic spot.
After taking pictures, we headed straight to the airport where we dropped off our cars and sadly, got ready to go home.
Other Pictures I just HAVE to add:
Go Bridgeland Bears! I saw this at a gift shop in the Denali Towne Center
These 2 drinks are from 49th State Brewing. The second one is a virgin Mojito.
This is a picture of the 49 Star American flag as Alaska is the 49th State. I saw this at the 49th State Brewing.
This a Strawberry Acai Refresher from Starbucks at IAH. I got this right before boarding and I loved this drink!
I love this GIF that google created! My dad took these pictures of me in Downtown Talkeetna.
Here are some pictures of me and my buddy Arjun :)
Lastly, here's a picture of Saathvik. This was taking at 49th State Brewing at 9:30 at night look how bright it is!
I hope you guys liked this blog! I really enjoyed writing it as Alaska is still fresh on my mind.
Check out Raju Radio to hear my brother and I talk about this trip!
- Dhriti <3