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Created by Kara
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Alaska on a Budget - 2009

A trip from July 23, 2009 to August 15, 2009, travelling to Seattle, Bellingham, Ketchikan, Saxman, Sitka
Trip Tags:Adventure, Bed & Breakfast, BudgetMore  

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Adventure, Bed & Breakfast, Budget, Dining, Hostel, Museums, Outdoor Activities, Road Trip, Sightseeing, Summer
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Planning made easy...

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My third trip to Alaska in three years…

Since I arrived back from my short winter trip to Alaska in March 2008, I’ve been thinking about heading back up in the summer of 2009. I am on a budget like a lot of folks, so I started saving for this trip during the summer of 2008.

There are a number of activities & adventures on my life’s ‘to-do’ list that I desire to achieve and Alaska seems like a great place to accomplish them.

- Ride & sleep on a Ferry (maybe see a whale or two)

- See the Southeast Alaska ; Ketchikan , Sitka , Juneau , Haines & Skagway

- Relax in the Hot Spring

- Go whitewater rafting

- Glide on a zip line through the trees

- Go deep sea fishing (for halibut, however, I would settle for any kind of ‘huge’ fish

- Drink a cold Alaskan Amber Beer and Midnight Sun Beer

- To spend more time at Denali National Park , hopefully see some wildlife & Mt. McKinley again

- Maybe hike on a glacier?

- Spend more time at some of my favorite locations again; Homer, Seward

- Spend time with my co-worker in Anchorage and meet her baby

This time the planning was easy & quick since I knew what resources to reference; The Milepost, Eyewitness Alaska Guide Book & the internet.  Image

I planned to use my frequent flier miles to fly & to save on that transportation cost. However, I was thinking of starting the trip by taking the Alaska Marine Highway starting in Bellingham , WA and finishing the trip in Anchorage , which would lead to a direct flight home (which I prefer.) I learned that one can not use your frequent flier miles one-way, it had to be round-trip. So I simply changed the itinerary to fly round-trip from Minneapolis to Seattle & back. My best friend lives in Seattle and the chance to see twice within a few weeks would enhance the trip more, plus she would be the first person I’d call to tell her how the trip went! I contacted her to find out if we could stay with her and if she would drive us up to Bellingham , WA – wasn’t a problem.

Then I navigated around the Alaska Marine Highway reservation website to book my ferry rides. I realized if you want to stay & sightsee at a location like Ketchikan, you must get off the ferry and take another one to the next destination. It’s not like a cruise ship where they dock for a day and sail at night. The ferry stays at port for a designated time frame and then continues to its next destination. The duration of the first portion of the trip was determined by the ferry schedule.

I learned from my first trip to Alaska to book early for deals & guarantee space. We booked/reserved the following on Jan. 25, 2009

- All Ferry rides w/ berth accommodations with the Alaska Marine Highway

- Redeemed frequent flier miles with NWA round-trip from Minneapolis to Seattle

- Alaska Airlines Flight, one-way flight from Juneau to Fairbanks (with layover in Anchorage )

- Alaska Airlines Flight, one-way flight from Anchorage to Seattle , WA

- Alaska Railroad from Fairbanks to Denali, then Denali to Anchorage

- Rental car in Ketchikan , Sitka , Juneau , Fairbanks & Anchorage

We waited until the end of March to book the rest of our hostel stays and adventure activities. The trip is now finalized!  I organized & coordinated this entire trip. The Type A Personality in me created a trip-tik with schedules, correspondences, confirmation numbers and had it bond so it was organized completely and it stayed in my backpack throughout the entire trip as a reference guide.


 

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Talk about this trip (10)
my dream is also to travel to









i almost had my dream come true. i wish the best for those who can afford to go. someday, perhaps I can afford to go. until then, please enjoy this beautiful and wonderous place for me.
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Fourth trip coming up in August and will probably be last as age 77 arrives a month prior to our departure. Will be arriving in Anchorage, picking up a motorhome and heading N. then back thru Glenallen, Chitina, Valdez, Anchorage Whittier, Seward, Hope, Soldotna and Homer, then back to Anchorage. Debating about fishing trip as 60 lb. Halibut and Ling Cod were tough on old shoulders back in '08. As I say about Vegas - All should go once!
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I was station at fort Richardson in 1950 for two years went back in 1998 and could not believe how that city and fort grew was total lost for words.
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My paternal grandmother has a family tree that goes back byond 1600, among some English royalty I discovered that a great grandfather of mine (not sure how many "greats", I want to say 3), Henry Seward, owned Alaska until he sold it to the US.. I could kick him for doing that, not only would I be finacially stable to some degree but I'd more than likely live there and it's always a a dream of mine to go there even before I knew about him. I want to see the glaciers (before they are gone), take one of the ferry/cruised to see the glaciers and whale watching, see the mountains and all the snow, the Northern Lights. I am from Long Island, NY, I can barely see the stars since the are blocked by the lights of NYC, my favorite season is winter which until the last few years was never really much to talk about. We used to get about 1-3 "storms"of maybe 3-6 inches, last yr I believe we had 3 BLIZZARDS and over 5 FEET of snow all winter, I am ready for ALASKA!!!!!
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Hi Kara,

I noticed an Alaskan photo and a couple links later, came to your story and photo album.

Your cover photo: "8 11 09 Beautiful view along the East End Road (East of Homer)" is very nice. Horizontal layers of sunny green plants in foreground, topped by soft lavender (?phlox) blooms, contrasted behind that with narrow, spindly evergreens, then soft but rich blue waters, then faded distant dark blue/purple mountains, rising to white snow and clouds, layerd still above with wispy blue sky. It's one of several scenery pics by other photographers, I'm considering for my dining room wall, the the residence I bought and moved into several months ago.

Took a lot of pics in Alaska myself when I was there. Have some good ones. You covered some top areas I missed. I covered some top areas you missed. And we both covered some of the same spots.

My 2 wk trip in Sept 2001, with my nephew who was just finished with college but not yet employed, got interrupted in mid stream, by 9/11. So I never made it over to Juneau-to-Skagway area. We found other interesting places to go instead, and wound up on some of the same places you were in Seward, the Russian/Kenai River, etc.

I too considered moving to Alaska. But it's better suited to younger folks, than retirees. And once you get in there, it can be hard to get out, financially.

Okay with you if I use your photo for my wall? I can share some of mine with you if you like. Not sure how you can contact me, since I'm not familiar with this particular site. But I'm a member of a couple Yahoo Groups, and you can get my email from there. One is The OSS Society, where I'm an author and historian; another is Yamaha PSR Group, about music keyboards.

Bob A
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a trip to alaska is never complete until you take a drive to homer and go halibut fishing,go in late august or early september and you can also watch the whale`s jumping in the gulf of alaska and the bearing sea.
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alaska is awesome i lived there for a short time 1 yr in anchorage and 3 in sitka both have unique sights but for me sitka is the special place --the people are great and so helpful sights are fabulous and so is the fishing -i am going again in sept of 2011 but will probably the last trip i will make but if family was closer i would live there forever--i love it
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My husband, daughter, & I are planning a trip to Alaska the end of June. We plan to fly to Anchorage, take the train to Denali, spend some time there, then go on to Fairbanks, rent a car & drive back to Anchorage to fly home. Any suggestions as to where to stay in Denali, or about the train, Fairbanks, or anything in general?
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Kara so happy for you.Thanks for all the tips.Have Alaska on my bucket list after northern Ca and Oregon.
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So cool that you are living your dream Kara! I hope to make a trip to Alaska in the near future. It has always been on my places to see in my lifetime. Wishing you the best!
Bruce
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Thu 07/23/09 (day 1) - Seattle
Fri 07/24/09 (day 2) - Seattle, Bellingham
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Tue 07/28/09 (day 6) - Sitka
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