Ketchikan was our final stop on our brief southeastern Alaska tour, and it was a bittersweet day. As I’m sure you’ve gleaned from the previous three posts in this series, I really loved Alaska. It has shot up my list of favorite places in the world to Top Three, and I feel like at this point I’ve travelled enough that Top Three is impressive. Our itinerary in Ketchikan included two things: the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show and a visit to Saxman Native Village. This excursion is the only one that’s stayed the same since we first booked the cruise back […]

Everyone in Juneau is so nice – we’ve been lucky enough to have travelled extensively and folks are lovely most places, but in Juneau, the locals welcome you like you’re coming home. I want to open this post with that warm endorsement because even though Juneau is cold and wet most of the year, its people are absolutely remarkable and I am so glad to have met the folks I met. Our day in Juneau started a bit late – the best way to do it when you’re on vacation. We slept in, watched the early birds get off the […]

Approximately 300 years ago, Glacier Bay was a fertile valley inhabited by the Tlingit people. As the glaciers began to encroach on their homeland, the Tlingit were forced to flee their ancestral home and they ultimately created a new home – Hoonah, just east of Icy Strait Point. As the Glacier now recedes, this remains an extremely important place to the Tlingit people. The United States National Park Service is working to establish a better relationship with the Tlingit and their kinship with this land. While I could never truly begin to understand the deep connection the Tlingit people have […]

We arrived in Icy Strait Point amidst dense fog and slow, patient rain. On vacation, you always hope for sunshine, but this melancholy and drizzle felt utterly perfect for Alaska somehow and we didn’t mind. Alaska breathes. It is a slow, patient behemoth of a land that waits with utmost patience and simply… is. I’m not sure how to describe it outside of abstractions. The land is largely untouched and even for someone like myself who hails from a deeply rural landscape, it is awe inspiring. We arrived at Icy Strait Point in the afternoon. The rain persisted and so […]