First Experiences From our Family Vacation to Alaska

Wow!  That sums up our family vacation to Alaska in one word!  All of our planning really paid off, and we had a fantastic trip!  Alaska is beautiful, unexpected, unique and full of fun for the whole family.  I heard the expression “that was a first” more than once!  Now that we are home and trying to get back into the swing of things, I wanted to share a quick post with some photos of our fantastic first experiences.

(This post contains affiliate links for you convenience.  See my full disclosure policy here.)

This post is part two in our series on family travel to Alaska.  Be sure to read the other posts to help you plan the best family vacation ever!

• Tips for Planning Your Family Vacation to Alaska
• First Experiences From Our Family Vacation to Alaska
• Fun Things to do With Kids in Alaska
• Where to Eat in Alaska – Kenai Peninsula

I’ll start with the food.  There is no better time to sample some new food than when you are traveling.  The runaway favorite of this vacation was the reindeer sausage.  We generally don’t make a habit out of eating from food carts on random street corners, but this is where the best reindeer sausage came from!  We ate there three times…

Reindeer sausage from the food cart on 4th Street downtown Anchorage.

It’s pretty hard to travel to Alaska and not eat some fish and seafood.  We didn’t have any problem anyways!  We had fish and chips for a few meals, but our favorite was the halibut tacos that we got at the farmer’s market in Homer.  Fresh and flavorful!  Plus, it cost only $6.

This was breakfast, paired with a glass of rhubarb lemonade and just maybe a slice of blueberry pie…

We spent two nights at a bed and breakfast (that was a major first) near Seward, and enjoyed the most flavorful and fancy breakfasts ever!  Breakfast was a three course meal and that’s something that just doesn’t happen at home!

Pretzel Eggs…Baked eggs with pesto in a pretzel roll cup

Nutella filled ebelskiver. This was a favorite for the kids.

This trip was all about fishing for my husband, and we now have a freezer full of halibut and salmon.  He took two fishing charters out of Homer, and did a guided fishing trip on the Kenai River.  Fishing in Alaska was a first, and a return trip is already in the works!

The salmon catch for the day!

If you are driving anywhere in Alaska, this book is an invaluable resource.  It will tell you what you can expect along EVERY mile of the roadways in the whole state!  Click the image for more info.

One somewhat adventurous thing that I’ve always wanted to do is to go river rafting, so I did!  I took the girls on a 14 mile float down the Upper Kenai River.  There were a few rapids, but we didn’t lose anyone overboard!

Our two hour float down the Upper Kenai River was an awesome way to see Alaska!

My kids are major dog and puppy lovers, so we couldn’t leave Alaska without visiting some sled dogs.  This was a fun and unique way to spend a couple of hours.  Plus, the puppies couldn’t have been any cuter!

Dog sledding in Seward…just needed some snow!

People always say that you have to see the glaciers before they are gone (especially in Glacier Nat’l Park), and I have to agree.  We hiked to Exit Glacier in Seward, and we also took a boat tour of the glaciers out of Whittier and were very impressed by the sight of all the glaciers.  They are really beautiful and I can’t even imagine how much larger they were just 50 or even 25 years ago.

Up close to Surprise glacier, and waiting for it to calve into the water.

My youngest loves driving through tunnels, so she was excited that we would be going through the longest highway tunnel in North America.  That’s 2 1/2 miles of a narrow road and darkness.  To enhance the experience, you are also driving on a one way road over a railroad track.

The entrance to the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel.

We were in Alaska for 9 days and only saw darkness once.  Yes, we arrived in Anchorage at 1:30 in the morning…everyone loved that.  The kids never got tired because of all the sunshine, and more than once, 10 pm came and we were outside doing something.

Skipping stones at 10 p.m., no time for sleep!

I saved the funniest first for last…

What? Only 4 people?! I guess a small pool is better than no pool.

We stayed at some nice places while in Alaska, but one place just happened to have a pretty small pool.  It was still fun though!

We had a blast while in Alaska!  There is still so much more of the state that we have yet to see, so I’m sure a return trip will be in our future.  Stay tuned for more detailed posts about our amazing adventure!