Driving to Alaska and Back: "The Alaska Highway"

I am writing this post from the utterly charming city of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Grab a cup of tea or glass of wine and get ready for another looong Alaska Road Trip recap! You can find all of my posts about our trip here.

By the way, I love writing these posts so much. Thank you for reading, wherever you are. When we are on the road or camping or exploring, I don't work on the blog, but when we both need some time to relax after a long drive, it's the perfect thing. In the background as I write this, Grace is watching a National Geographic special on TV, Willie is sleeping (and running in his dreams the way dogs do), and I'm typing away. It's raining and hailing outside here in the big wild Yukon and oh so cozy.

But I need to back up a few days.

My last post, about the Canadian Rockies, ended with us spending the night in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. Dawson Creek is known as "Mile 0" of the Alaska Highway, which stretches from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks, Alaska. It was built during WWII for the purpose of connecting the contiguous United States to Alaska (pretty wild to think that before that, there was no direct way to drive to Alaska. There just weren't roads! And there still aren't roads connecting many parts of Alaska.). Since we got out of the Canadian Rockies, we have followed the Alaska Highway the whole way, and it will take us straight across the border into Alaska.   

The Alaska Highway is the wildest place I have ever been. Just for context . . . I have been on safari in Botswana. Hiking in rural Turkey. Slept under the stars next to a volcano in Chiapas. I know I have a flare for the dramatic, but nothing (from my personal experience & travels) compares to the Alaska Highway in terms of remoteness.

It is stunningly beautiful. It weaves through British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alaska (the last of which we haven't gotten to yet, as of the time I'm writing this), and the landscape truly is "Larger than Life." That phrase happens to be the Yukon's motto (on all the street signs), and it's perfect. I'm not trying to knock other beautiful places in North America, but the Yukon and Northern British Columbia just makes anything else look miniscule. For example, I'm from North Carolina, and we have the world-famous and gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains. The fall foliage there is amazing, and the mountains are mysterious and serene-looking. While I will always love my home state . . . the Yukon's mountain ranges and fall colors make the Blue Ridge Mountains look like a toy train set version of the landscape. I just can't imagine anything that can compare to the sweeping views and VASTNESS of the Yukon. I can't describe it adequately and a camera can't really capture it, so you just have to go and see it for yourself!

Grace and I spent a lot of time today in the car wondering why we have never heard of anyone taking a vacation to the Yukon, even though it's jaw-droppingly, tear-jerkingly beautiful. We figured it's a couple of things. One, it's so very remote. And two, there isn't really anything here other than the landscape (plus Whitehorse, which is an awesome city that I have fallen in love with).

The Alaska Highway is also no joke. I can see how very quickly, the remote terrain would become terrifying if you had car trouble or got stuck after dark. Just to paint a picture for you, it is often six full hours of driving between "towns." And a "town" often consists of one gas station, a Tim Horton's (sometimes they don't even have that), a motel, and an RV park. About halfway between "towns" there is usually some type of gas station. We haven't been in any danger of running low on gas, but yesterday, right as we got about 30 minutes into our drive, the check tire pressure light came on in the car. We had a 6 hour drive ahead of us to the next town. Honestly, my heart was in my throat for the rest of the drive. It all worked out, but it's scary! I should add that while I have a Canadian cell phone plan, I have 0 cell service for 5 or 6 hours out of the day when we're driving. My phone will just say "no service" for the whole drive. There are also no street lights for hundreds of miles. I said a lot of silent prayers (not wanting to worry Grace) that we wouldn't blow a tire in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. We usually see another car maybe once ever 15-30 minutes. Okay, now I've probably convinced you never to do this drive, haha!

But seriously, I would recommend this trip to anyone with the right preparation. It's been surreal and inspiring and beyond my wildest dreams. We keep saying that we feel like we're on safari. We've seen reindeer, bison, elk, moose, coyotes, bunnies, and tons of beautiful birds. Sadly, we also saw an enormous black bear that was roadkill. But even that just illustrates how larger than life it is here--even the roadkill is HUGE. The only way you can "get it" is by doing it.

Reindeer on the highway

So you might be wondering, where actually DID we sleep at night if it's so remote? I'm going to break it down for you, which I hope will be helpful if anyone is thinking about planning a similar trip! I know I scoured these types of recap posts when I was planning ours. All accommodations listed below are pet friendly (a couple people have asked . . . we don't have Willie as a service dog or anything like that. We just stay in pet friendly places--they're not hard to find!).

Dawson Creek, B.C.: We stayed at the Stonebridge Hotel. Room service food was DELISH. Comfy, would 100% recommend. Really nice people working there. And, huge plus, an amazing and enormous *free* brekkie buffet starting at 5am. We loved that.

After Dawson Creek we drove to Fort Nelson, B.C.

I don't want to be a downer or dissuade you from staying in Fort Nelson. For one thing, there's really nowhere else to stay between Dawson Creek and Watson Lake (both of which were great stops, but they're about 12 hours apart, so you pretty much have to stop in the middle which leaves you with Fort Nelson).

We did not love Fort Nelson. Unfortunately for us it was just kind of one flop after the next as soon as we rolled into town. We stayed at the Sunrise Inn and Suites. It is pet friendly and has great reviews online which is why I booked it. I booked by emailing directly with the owner, who was very friendly. Fast forward . . . we pull up to the "inn" and no one was even there. We finally reached someone by pressing the buzzer which I guess was connected to a pager (?) and she said she'd be there soon. When she got there she was clearly flustered that we wanted to check in. She tried to call another hotel to get us a room there, said we must have "accidentally" booked a room with only one queen size bed since we have two people and a dog (I was like "no . . . that is fine with us"), and she eventually "upgraded" us to a bigger room because they obviously didn't reserve the room that we had booked in advance. But the bigger room wasn't pet friendly, so she kind of acted like it was an inconvenience that we had a dog but said it was "fine for one night." Trust me, I would have taken our business elsewhere had there been any other option in that town . . . or any other town closer than 6 hours away. Later, we realized our door didn't close properly--the lock was like hanging by the hinges and could have easily been broken into. But given that there were no other rooms in town, we were stuck. Around 10pm we were terrified when some truckers stood RIGHT outside our door drinking and yelling (this is the type of place where you can drive right up to the door of the room, there's no lobby or hallway). It just was not ideal.

Food options were also bleak. We walked across the street to a place called Gourmet Girl, which had glowing reviews online. I went in and chatted about the takeout options they had. I mentioned we were just passing through town for one night and happy to have found a dinner takeout place across the street from our hotel. I went to relay the info to Grace (who was waiting with Willie outside) and she gave the thumbs up and I went back to order. They were then like "oh we can't make the food until tomorrow." I'm sorry . . . am I living in the twilight zone? What was the conversation we just had?! I walked out and we ended up ordering some takeout from a Canadian chain called Boston Pizza . . . not my first choice but there were literally no other options. I felt like Fort Nelson was just like that in general . . . not a lot of options. I know it's the far north and there aren't a lot of resources but we have now been to multiple towns that are even more remote and had GREAT experiences. Again, sorry to be negative. Just our experience!

We later joked that the Sunrise Inn and Suites was so named because you want to leave at sunrise . . . which we did! We started off along the Alaska Highway and were immediately in a better mood. The mountains and wildlife were breathtaking. 

We stopped at a lake called Muncho Lake and fell in love! They had a super cute campground that we hope to camp at one day. I would spend a week just relaxing at Muncho Lake. It was beautiful.

After stretching our legs at Muncho Lake, we drove on to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory (with our tire pressure light blinking). After Fort Nelson, I had kind of a sinking feeling that every town along the rest of the Alaska Highway would be bleak. Happily, I was wrong :)

We LOVED Watson Lake! Such good vibes. When we got into town, the very first thing we did was pull into a car repair shop we saw. I walked up and found some very "Yukon" people (bearded . . . looking like they could weather 50 years of Yukon winters . . . you get the picture) and asked if they could help us check our tires. They sort of responded (I wasn't sure what they said) and was honestly pretty dismayed at the situation, but I should have withheld judgment because the older man who worked on our tires turned out to be the SWEETEST guy. They had a bunch of shop dogs that Willie loved. They tried to not even charge us anything for pumping up our tires! (Which I wouldn't allow of course). We had a good feeling about this town right away after that experience.

Tires refilled, we decided to go to the Signpost Forest which is a Yukon landmark. Rather than explain it myself, here's a photo of the sign at the entrance:

It's pretty famous (in the realm of Yukon travel), so I'd read it about it in advance and decided to surprise Grace by having signs made of our hometowns (Waterloo, Belgium, for her, and Raleigh, NC, for me). I tucked them away in a bag and showed them to her right as we were driving to the Signpost Forest! It was so sweet nailing them up beside each other.

I have to mention here the people working at the little giftshop next to the Signpost Forest. They were AWESOME! They let us use nails and a hammer to put up our signs, and they were just so friendly and knowledgeable about the area. The one guy running the shop (I wish I had gotten his name) has amazing photography skills, especially of the Northern Lights in the area, and he gave Willie treats. You must must stop here if you go to Watson Lake. It made our day. This is a link to the shop's website--it's the cutest little place!

After that we went to our hotel and didn't leave for the rest of the day. Haha!! We stayed at Andrea's Hotel, which was a little dated and kitschy but I would overall recommend given the remoteness of the area and lack of other pet-friendly options. And we got surprisingly tasty Chinese takeout from a restaurant right next door called the Golden Dragon! We were very charmed by the hospitality we found in Watson Lake. It's a gem of the Far North.

The next morning we set off from Watson Lake for Whitehorse, which is the capital of the Yukon. This was one of our shorter drives at only 4 hours and 30 minutes. We took in the views from the car and the time flew by.

I am not exaggerating when I say that it was love at first sight for me and Whitehorse (well, I hope it's mutual, at least). It's the coolest city. And yes, it's a city, not a town, though by LA standards it is tiny. If you've been to Asheville, North Carolina, it kind of reminded me of that. It's funky, charming, diverse, and unique. To me it also had a bit of European flair to it. It was so clean and beautiful and pure. It holds the Guinness World Record for the city with the least air pollution in the world. It's official nickname is "The Wilderness City." The Yukon River runs right through it, and the atmosphere was moody and dramatic when we arrived.

So dramatic, in fact, that we got caught in a hailstorm! Pebbles of ice came raining down on me as I hurried back to the car from picking up takeout lunch. For two people who live in LA, this was actually kind of a cool novelty . . . except for the fact that we had booked a campsite in Whitehorse as our accommodations for the night. Grace quickly made the executive decision to book a hotel room instead and I'm so glad she did. We ended up staying at the Coast High Country Inn, and it was LOVELY. We walked up to the front desk asking if they had any rooms, and they went above and beyond, booking us a spacious room with the biggest Jacuzzi I have ever seen, and feeding Willie treats the whole time. The lobby was filled with people, and Willie was seriously holding court with his little fan club around the fireplace! It was adorable. 

The Coast High Country Inn, our shelter in a storm--literally

Willie was VERY happy with our decision to stay in a comfy hotel and not sleep in a tent in a hail storm

After getting the room figured out, we explored Whitehorse a little bit! And I fell harder in love. We decided we definitely want to come back and use Whitehorse as a jumping off point for a bigger Yukon vacation. 

Adorable local bookstore

With a whole section on the Yukon + the Far North in general (heart eye emoji here)

We got takeout from the place in the photo above, Klondike Rib & Salmon. It's been featured on the Food Network a few times and is generally regarded as one of the best restaurants in the Far North! (The only reason we got takeout instead of actually eating there was because we didn't want to leave Willie). Super yummy and interesting food--we felt like Yukon locals eating food from there.

I was genuinely sad to leave Whitehorse and look forward to returning. But we weren't too bummed to leave, because the next day would take us into ALASKA! More to come soon :)

Road Trip Capsule Wardrobe + Gear

Do you want to know a little secret that shows just how neurotically excited I am for this trip to start? I'm already packed. Yep, my bags are even zipped up and sitting under my bed, ready to go. I have memories of trying to fit everything into my suitcase the night before leaving to study abroad in college, crying, stressed, and having BAD pre-travel jitters. For this trip, I wanted things to be different! While I still sometimes have a nagging feeling that I could be forgetting something important, for the most part I feel good about what I've decided to bring.

A few months ago, Grace had to sit me down for a little chat. We weren't going to be bringing large suitcases on this trip, she gently told me. 3 pairs of shoes each would be the maximum. I guess she has this idea that I'm an overpacker. No idea why she thinks that . . .

Moving on. After Grace broke the news, I started thinking right away about bringing a capsule wardrobe instead of trying to come up with specific outfits for the trip. I had read blogs about using capsule wardrobes for travel (and even just day-to-day life), and the idea really appealed to me. If you aren't familiar, this is the gist of a capsule wardrobe: you pick a relatively small number of clothing items (for a vacation, let's say 12) that are all part of the same color scheme and can be mixed and matched. Each item must go with all of the other items. You can't have a crazy shirt that only matches one of your pairs of pants. Even accessories should be pared down and intentionally chosen to go with everything. A novel concept, but it also made a lot of sense to me! I did something along these lines when Grace and I took our Europe trip last spring. That was easy because it was damp and rainy . . . I just brought a bunch of dark clothing and one big trench raincoat and basically wore the same thing over and over. If you want to read more about capsule wardrobes, the blog Un-Fancy is awesome and has tons of resources on them.

But, the one thing that has always bugged me about capsule wardrobes is that they seem to be geared toward people who wear a lot of shirt-and-pants combos. It's all about having things that match, so it's aimed at a rotation of shirts with pants/shorts/skirts. The problem is, 90% of my wardrobe is dresses. I wear dresses (or sometimes a top and a skirt) almost every. single. day. I'm just not a pants gal! It's not my style. For capsule wardrobes, that makes things tricky because you can't mix and match as much. A dress is your whole outfit, plus shoes and accessories. So with that in mind, I decided to make my own variation of a capsule wardrobe with the focus being dresses. The result is that I end up bringing a couple more pairs of shoes, jackets, and accessories than a typical capsule wardrobe calls for, because that way I have options to style my dresses (the base of my wardrobe) up or down and get more "looks" out of them. 

The photo above shows a few of the things in my capsule wardrobe for our Alaska trip. You'll notice that for my color scheme I chose neutrals with pale pink as the accent color. I'm also taking a handful of "athleisure" clothing items for long car rides and hikes/outdoor exploring. The list below is a basic snapshot of the stuff I'm bringing:

• 3 casual dresses
• 1 "nicer" dress
• 2 solid color tops (1 black, 1 light pink)
• 1 pair of black ankle jeans
• 1 pair of jean shorts
• 2 casual light/pullover jackets
• 1 medium-weight cardigan
• 1 heavier all-weather coat
• Plus things like athletic clothing, sweatshirts, pajamas, accessories, a bathing suit, etc.

Then for shoes, I'm bringing my favorite pair of ankle booties, sneakers, flat sandals, and maybe rainboots if I can squeeze them in the car without Grace noticing. Haha!

Does the above amount of clothing look VERY small for a month to me? Yes. But, we'll have access to laundry pretty regularly, and like I said, everything matches! So I have confidence that this will work. And I'm pretty proud of how much I limited myself. Having less stuff will make our trip more manageable--the car won't be as overloaded, getting our bags into our hotel or house rental won't be as much of a pain, etc. etc. And that's the overall goal.

As you would imagine and as the first photo in this blog post shows, we are also bringing a bunch of gear and stuff we'll need other than clothing. I feel like every day I think of a new thing that we need (yesterday it was bug spray). I've gone to Target every day for the past 6 days. And while I'm still convinced I'm not thinking of everything, here's a basic overview of the gear we are bringing and what I recommend based on our past experience with camping road trips:

• A good tent (we are so grateful to Grace's aunt Annie, who sent us the most incredible tent for our trip)
• Folding chairs
• Sleeping pads (we use the REI camp beds that are inflatable)
• A sleeping bag or sheets and a cover
• Pillows
• Lanterns and flashlights (and extra batteries)
• Portable chargers for cell phones
• Camera and laptop with chargers 
• Cooking gear: cast iron skillet, spatula, tongs, brushes for grilling, aluminum foil, cutting board, knives, utensils, enamelware plates and mugs, wine opener, bottle opener, can opener, scissors, dish towels and cloth napkins, candles, oven mitts (for taking the cast iron off the fire), long lighters, matches, newspaper for starting fires
• Basic kitchen essentials: oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, other most-used spices, tea and coffee
• Kettle for heating water and pour-over apparatus for making coffee
• Big bag of favorite non-perishable car snacks
• Sunscreen
• First aid kit
• Basic toolbox
• Lint roller
• Sponge + biodegradable dish soap for washing dishes at campgrounds
• Small shovel/trowel
• Trash bags
• Toilet paper
• Paper towels
• Plastic zip-lock bags (I try not to go crazy with these . . . but there ALWAYS seems to be uses for them on the road)
• Maps/guidebook such as the Milepost (for driving to Alaska specifically)
• Bug spray
• Umbrella and/or other foul weather gear (we are going to be encountering many, many different climates on this trip--from 100 degrees in Utah to possible snow in Alaska and British Columbia)
• Portable fan (my brother recently gave me the most amazing fan that can clip to the top of your tent and be a ceiling fan for inside the tent--thanks, Blair!)
• Gallons of water and water bottles
• Dog stuff: food, water and food bowls, treats, long line (basically like a 20-foot long leash that we use to keep Willie nearby when we're cooking or whatever at a campground and don't want him to wander off, but don't want to have to hold him on a leash), Lambchop (Willie's baby), flea and tick medicine if needed, blanket (Willie likes to make nests), memory foam mat (we use this in a pinch for a dog bed or for Willie to lie on while we're doing other things around the campsite), raincoat and fleece coat
• Travel documents and essentials (passports, Canada parks pass, rabies certificate for Willie)
• Laundry bag to collect dirty clothes until we can do laundry
• Personal toiletries

This list would need to be adjusted based on the type of road trip, but this is most of what we're planning on bringing with us! 

If you have any capsule wardrobe tips or tips on what gear to bring on a month-long road trip to Alaska, I'd love to hear it! Happy trails :)

Budgeting for a Month-Long Road Trip

As I shared in my post about planning our Alaska road trip, this isn't a cheap vacation by any means. I think a lot of people (including myself, initially) think that a road trip is an economical way to travel. When covering short distances, it is. For example, driving from LA to San Francisco is always going to be cheaper overall than buying a plane ticket. But when you start thinking about being on the road for several weeks or a month, it adds up SO much because you have to pay for accommodations for every single night. Also, Grace and I will be making $0 during the time we are gone--we're not using paid vacation time or anything like that. So I've had to save up about 2 months worth of rent and other bills to provide a safety net for that gap. 

If you're not planning a long road trip or particularly interested in finances and budgeting, you might want to skip right over this post. It's hard to make this stuff anything but dry. However, my hope is that this post will be helpful for someone who is starting to plan a long road trip. Below, I'm going to talk about all of the major categories of budgeting and spending that went into planning this trip, as well as a few random expenses that you might not imagine would crop up!

But first, I want to link to a blog post that was inspiring to me, from photographer Jenner Kutcher who recently spent a month in Hawaii with her husband. She writes, "The truth is, nothing is promised. What would it look like for you to set aside a few hundred dollars each month? What would it look like if you sat down and ran the numbers to see if you could make that dream happen? What would it look like for you to budget so that these dreams could become a reality? When you hear we will be in Hawaii for a month, instead of wondering how we are making it happen or questioning if we won the lottery and didn't tell anyone, understand that when you learn how to budget, save, and spend carefully, you are granted opportunities that might not be in reach otherwise!"

Yes. That is my philosophy for this month-long vacation in a nutshell. I hope this post inspires you to consider the same!

Basic Costs of the Trip Itself:

The first and most obvious cost of a trip like this is accommodations. Per night, our costs of accommodations range from free (thanks to my sweet college bff Anna who is hosting us in Portland), to $30-40 for a campsite, to around $500 for some splurge hotel stays. All in all, we're averaging about $80/night, which isn't too bad in my opinion. But there are clearly some major outliers on either side of that. In some places, we could have certainly saved money and chose not to, but be prepared that in some of the tiny towns in remote parts of British Columbia there is usually 1 dog-friendly motel that costs about $150 a night, and that's your only option. And it might be 100 miles to the next town. I'm personally not comfortable (safety-wise) with pulling over to the side of the road and sleeping in our car, but people do that for sure. So your costs could vary completely based on what type of experience you want to have.

Next, be sure to budget for fuel. We're expecting to fill up once or twice a day (Grace's car can make the drive from LA to San Francisco on one tank of gas, which is a little longer than the average distance we'll be covering per day). I've heard that in Alaska and some remote parts of Canada, gas can be extremely expensive. Gas is sold by the liter rather than the gallon in Canada, and it also is (obviously) going to be in a different currency. I found this formula for translating the price in CAD per liter to roughly the price in USD per gallon: multiply the price per liter by 3.785, and then adjust for the exchange rate (multiply the result by roughly 0.8, based on the current exchange rate).

Food and incidentals along the way. I'm not expecting this to be way higher than our usual cost of food at home (especially given that we live in a very expensive locale to begin with), but I've budgeted a bit extra than usual in this category so that we can try everything we want!

The Backend, "Real Life" Costs:

One thing I was adamant about on this trip was that I wouldn't go into any debt and wouldn't financially disadvantage myself for when we come back (sidenote: we paid for this trip 100% in cash/debit and plan to do so the entire time we are traveling. I know you might be thinking we're crazy for not utilizing credit card points or whatnot, but we are big big believers in just paying for things outright; neither of us has ever had a cent of debt in our lives and we consider ourselves extremely lucky! We love the feeling of the financial side of things literally and figuratively being in the rearview mirror the whole way--we're not the "enjoy it now, pay for it later" type of people. Also, this isn't to say that it's bad to pay for things with credit or that people who use credit cards are necessarily in debt. Take with a grain of salt, this is just our philosophy). So, with all of this in mind, a very real and not-so-fun budgeting portion of this trip has been that I have saved up enough to cover 2 months of living expenses for when I get back. I'll be starting my new job in that time, but I don't want things to be tight, so I built this safety net and I'm so glad I did. I think I will enjoy the trip 10 times more because of it.

More Piecemeal/Random Costs:

• Dog-related stuff if you're bringing a dog (so far, we've paid for: vet bills to make sure he's all set for the trip and get him on parasite prevention for parasites/ticks they have in Alaska that we don't have in LA; a doggy raincoat we had to special order (laugh if you want, but it's probably going to rain on this trip a lot and we want him to be comfortable); pet fees where applicable for hotels and home rentals; food in small bags (you can't bring opened bags of dog food over the Canadian border, so we've had to get several 3 or 4 pound bags of food which is not as cost effective); and probably other things I'm forgetting).
• Car storage if necessary (mine is about $150 for a month if you're curious)
• Canada parks pass if you go after this year (it's free for 2017 but will cost after that)
• Car servicing (Grace's car is only a year old but given that we're putting over 7,000 miles on it in the span of a month, she wanted to get it fully serviced before leaving and budgeted a few hundred dollars for that)
• Essentials to keep in the car (probably budget $100 for this--sealed emergency gasoline if we run out; non perishables food items to keep in the car; toilet paper/paper towels/trash bags; firewood and gallons of water, etc.)
• We already have a decent arsenal of camping gear, but if you are doing a camping road trip and need to buy your gear, this is a big area to budget for!
• Fees due at check-in for hotels, like valet parking, pet fees not included in the rate, resort fees, etc.

How Do I Budget?

If you're interested in the nitty-gritty, here is how I stay within budget all month long. First, of course, I make my budget. I carve out my fixed expenses (rent, car, insurance, internet bill, etc.) plus the amount per month I want to save for Alaska. Then I see how much I can spend on everything else and write out a detailed budget. Day to day, I use a modified version of the envelope system. (If you're not familiar with the envelope system, it's where you use 100% cash and have an envelope for each category of spending. When the envelope runs out, you're done with that category for the month. It's like budgeting training wheels because you can physically see how much you have left. If you want to learn more, I found this blog post about the envelope system very helpful). That said, I am not okay with carrying around everything with me in cash everywhere I go. I live in a huge city, alone. It just doesn't seem smart. So instead, I use my debit card and sometimes cash, and I have a tiny budget notebook that fits in my wallet with a page for each category and the amount for that month written at the top. With each purchase I make, I add up the new total and write it down. It honestly gives me so much peace knowing I'm totally within budget on each category! It has made me feel like I actually have MORE money and can spend more freely than I did when I was just "winging it" (which I was for a long time). For example, for August I budgeted $100 for Willie-related expenses. So far I've gone to the pet store three times and spent $16, $16, and $45. I think in the past, without a clear-cut budget and knowledge of how much I can responsibly spend, in my mind I would have been thinking, "ugh, I've already gone to the pet store three times for Willie and I feel like I'm constantly spending on him!" But now, I know that I safely set aside $100 for him and I'm well within that number. It sounds so nerdy, but I LOVE budgeting because I have no doubts if I'm ever over-spending. Also, as soon as I get a direct deposit pay check, I transfer my monthly trip savings amount to a separate bank account. Just to be candid, I've been saving about $700 per month this year for the trip and to cover two months of living expenses. I transfer that immediately so that I'm not even tempted to eat into it. I'm proud of how well it's gone!

Here's some truth: budgeting this strictly for this trip has been hard for me and not always fun. I have had to pick Trader Joe's over Whole Foods for groceries almost every time (nothing against good ol' TJ's). But the pinch is SO worth it. There's a Dave Ramsey quote that has been inspiring to me throughout this process: "Live like no one else so that later, you can live like no one else." I feel like with how much I have limited myself (I've spent maybe $100 on clothing in the past YEAR, for example), I am living like no one else around me, and that is hard. But on this trip we will also be living like no one else--able to have a whole carefree month of travel, with savings for when we get back, totally paid for in advance. That has been my motivation and it's really worked. If you have budgeting inspiration and tips, I'd love to hear it! I hope this post has been helpful, and as always, feel free to Contact me with questions.

Santa Cruz Mountains Getaway

This past weekend Grace and I took Willie on his first getaway with us! As you can see from the photo above, Lambchop of course had to come too.  (Read my Meet Willie post to learn about his baby Lammy, haha!)

This weekend was really special in a lot of ways. It's a first and a last: first road trip with Willie, and last weekend getaway before leaving on our month-long road trip to Alaska. It was also our first getaway since Casper died. The weekend felt full-circle in many senses; to me this sweet time together was our redemption song after the heartbreak we experienced the last time we took a trip. Summer is normally my favorite season, but this one has been marked by loss and has just been a difficult season for many reasons. But summer is almost over. And I have seen time and time again that joy comes in the morning.

The setting for this lovely weekend away was a little town called Corralitos, California. It is in the mountains slightly inland from Santa Cruz, which is just south of San Francisco. We rented a cabin made of river rocks that was nestled in a grove of Redwood trees. It came with its own heated soaking tub and wide front porch overlooking the mountains. The interior was small and cozy but had all the amenities. I would recommend it in a heartbeat (linked above). This was also our first experience using the website GlampingHub, and we liked it! It honestly didn't feel different from renting an Airbnb. A lot of the listings on GlampingHub fall more on the camping side of things, but this one was not. Given that we had electricity, TV, running water, and a roof over our heads, I wouldn't really call this glamping--it was more of a vacation rental. Which was totally fine with us :)

Our porch view

We had originally planned to venture into Santa Cruz, check out the beach, and do some sightseeing during the weekend. But once we got to our destination, we just didn't want to leave. The road coming in was navigable but a little bumpy, and we decided it would be a lot more relaxing to stay at the cabin for the whole weekend. I'm so glad we did.

We played about 15 games of Scrabble, napped, enjoyed the soaking tub, ate well, and talked and dreamed about our upcoming Alaska road trip. Over fresh caprese salads and local peaches one afternoon, we brainstormed packing lists and planned our last to-do items before the trip.

As much as it pains me to say it, Grace insisted that I include in this blog post that she was the overall Scrabble champion of the weekend.

Homemade French toast on the porch

Afternoon naps enjoyed by all

A little stone pathway led down from the house to a wooden soaking tub overlooking the mountains

This might seem like just a pretty picture, but there's a story behind it. One of my best friends, Caroline, gave me a beautiful bottle of rosé for my birthday this year. I brought the bottle with me on our Joshua Tree getaway, but I never got a chance to drink it because Casper died that day. Bringing the bottle with me to the redwoods and sipping it in such a beautiful setting, with Willie waiting for us in the house, was another full-circle moment.

Another really nice thing about the cabin was that it had a piano! Grace has an amazing ear for music and can pick out most tunes on piano or guitar. Some of my favorite memories from the weekend are me cooking dinner while Grace played us music (she brought her guitar, too).

For food, I brought a big cooler of stuff and cooked most of our meals. The cabin had an adorable, old fashioned gas stove. The first night, we decided to order in pizza from Big J's in Corralitos, which amazingly delivered up the tiny mountain road to the cabin. We LOVED it and would highly recommend it. On the way into town on Friday, we also stopped at the Corralitos Market and Sausage Company, where we picked up some fresh produce, seafood, and locally-made ice cream. 

We loved this getaway. While we didn't "do" much, just getting away from it all was heavenly. Also, the much cooler temperatures in the mountains were so lovely compared with the heat waves that have been plaguing LA. On Sunday morning I woke up to walk Willie, and we were literally walking through a cloud. Even at 8 or 9am, fog shrouded the cabin and surrounding trees, making it so cozy and atmospheric. 

Thanks for reading! One last photo--Willie's request.

Suggested Getaways Between 1 and 7 Hour Drives from LA

One of my absolute favorite things about living in Southern California is the amazing variety of destinations you can visit within a day's drive. In 1 day (or less) of driving, you can reach three other states, another country!, and plenty of amazing places in your own backyard. In this post I am sharing my suggestions for getaways that are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 hour drives away from Los Angeles. Keep in mind that the time in the car can vary greatly based on what time of day you are driving; my estimations here are based on non-peak hours. Some of the destinations below I have visited, and others I haven't but am excited to go one day. I linked blog posts or photos of the places that I've been!

Also, here is a great tool that a friend recently showed me: a map that shows you the area you can travel within however many miles (200-300 is a good start for a moderate day's drive) or a certain number of hours driving at a given speed. I highly recommend it as a starting point for daydreaming about road trips!

1 Hour Drives: Malibu; San Bernardino Mountains; Orange County; Catalina Island (one hour by ferry); or a Staycation within LA! There are so many different neighborhoods in LA, it can be super fun to do a staycation within your own city. Grace and I once stayed at a hotel in downtown LA that is rumored to be haunted!

2 Hour Drives: Ojai; Santa Barbara; San Diego (usually more like 2.5 hours); Temecula Wine Country; Lucerne Valley Desrt/Dry Lakebed; Joshua Tree (2.5 hours); Pioneertown; Big Bear; Lake Arrowhead

3 Hour Drives: Palm Springs; Tijuana, Mexico (but could actually take much longer depending on the situation at the border); Pismo Beach (and other towns right nearby, like Cayucos, San Luis Obispo, and Morro Bay); Kernville (where our favorite campground is); Idyllwild (I've always wanted to go there! And will soon, I hope); the Salton Sea and Salvation Mountain (I've been dying to go ever since reading Elsie Larson's blog post about it); Anzo-Borrego Desert State Park--site of one of the recent "super blooms" from this past spring

4 Hour Drives: Paso Robles Wine Country; the Mojave Desert; Las Vegas

5 Hour Drives: Lake Havasu City in Arizona; Mammoth Lakes; Santa Cruz Redwood Forest (our next getaway in ten days staying at this cottage--sooo excited!); Monterrey/Carmel-by-the-Sea/Big Sur (all super close together); June Lake (this one is HIGH on my list for a weekend getaway soon); Death Valley National Park

6 Hour Drives: Yosemite; the Bay Area (I lived here for three years, but here's one favorite photo from a recent trip back); Half Moon Bay (I took a girls' weekend here once with my mom and godmother and it was lovely); Mono Hot Springs

7 Hour Drives: Various destinations in Baja California, Mexico (Grace went to Ensenada recently and had a great time); Northern California Wine Country (Napa/Sonoma/Yountville/Healdsburg etc.); Tahoe (may be more like an 8 hour drive, but one of my favorite places in all of California); Zion National Park in Utah

If you have been to any of the places above that I haven't visited yet, I'd love to hear about it! I think if I had to pick a few favorite places that maximize experience for the drive time, I would say Ojai, Palm Springs, and Big Sur. But I love them all!

Happy road tripping :)