Takeaways From Driving to Alaska and Back

September 2017 was the best month of my life so far. I almost feel bad saying that because I have been lucky enough to take so many great trips in my life, and vacations with my immediate family have always been my most special times. But in terms of really exploring and adventuring, I've never been on a trip like our drive to Alaska and back, and I can only hope that I ever will again.

So now that I've recapped each stop of our trip (see all of my Alaska trip posts here), I want to share some thoughts about what we loved, what we would do differently, and what we took away from the wildest experience we've ever had. And, I thought it would be fun to share some "stats" from the trip and other random things.

Ever since I've known Grace, she has a tradition of asking "rose, bud, and thorn?" at the end of a day, or of a trip, or of a year, etc. For those who've never heard of this, it's basically a conversation starter where you ask what the person considers the rose (best part), bud (something you're looking forward to), and thorn (low point) of a particular time. Throughout the trip, we would check in with each other and ask "rose, bud, and thorn?" of the trip so far. In a whole month of exploring the most beautiful places I've ever seen, getting engaged, and spending so much quality time with each other and our pup Willie, we REALLY could not choose just one rose for the trip. But, in case you're curious, here were a few of our roses, buds, and thorns (not many) from our month of driving to Alaska and back.

Roses: getting engaged (of course!), going to the Bubbly Mermaid champagne and oyster bar in Anchorage, our date night in Vancouver, our glamping trip in Telkwa, seeing Lake Louise and the Canadian rockies, sleeping in the sweetest rustic cabin in the Yukon, the fish & chips at Fast Eddy's restaurant in Tok, Alaska, our cozy night in Whitehorse, Yukon, Fire Island Bakery in Anchorage, and overall, as cheesy as it may sound, the time we spent together. There were some mornings when we set out for a 6 hour drive, podcasts downloaded and playlists ready, and then we would arrive 6 hours later realizing we never listened to any podcasts or music because we just talked the entire drive. We love talking about anything and everything. After Grace proposed, we had even more to talk about because we started doing some dreaming and planning for our wedding. I'm really glad we had hours in the car to discuss every aspect of that, because now that we're back in LA I feel like we are already on the same exact page with wedding planning and our vision for that day.

Buds: mainly, starting a whole new season of life in LA. I started a new job, we are in the thick of planning and finding a place and date to get married, and lots more. We are also so excited to go back to some of our favorite places in Canada and Alaska one day. 

Thorns: There weren't any huge thorns at all from our trip, and I am so so thankful. I was pretty nervous during a lot of our drives that we would have car trouble and be stuck out in the wilderness, but we were lucky and that never happened. We did however get a chip in Grace's windshield that turned into a huge crack, resulting in the windshield needing to be replaced. But after driving 7,300 miles through the wildest parts of the continent, I consider that we pretty much came out unscathed. The one other thorn I can think of is that I got sick at the end of the trip. Just a cold, no big deal, but I hate getting sick on vacation.

If you've read my post on packing for Alaska, you might be wondering whether my packing list ended up working. Mostly yes! I was super glad I did a capsule wardrobe for the trip and I was happy with my options for clothes every day. There were a few things I wish we'd packed, though, and a few things I brought but didn't use. Here's a breakdown:

Things I Wish We'd Had: Dry shampoo (sometimes showers were hard to come by), extra phone charger (we lost one and then had one break, so having backups would have been nice), more long sleeved layering options, and more cold weather clothing in general. When I packed for the trip, we were going through a 100 degree heat wave in LA, and I think mentally that made me pack less cold-weather gear. But, it was COLD in Alaska. 28 degrees at one point! We were fine, but I kind of got sick of the same coat every day, so I wish I'd brought more options for cold weather. If you happen to be planning a trip to Alaska in September, know that there likely won't be snow on the ground but it does get chilly.

Things I Packed But Didn't Use: Multiple pairs of sandals (this goes with the cold weather thing), and an umbrella. It did rain, but I just opted for a raincoat with a hood instead of juggling an umbrella and our bags and Willie's leash. It just didn't make sense to use one. I used pretty much everything else we packed, though.

Things We Were Especially Glad We Had: A warm coat and raincoat for Willie, a laptop (we debated whether to bring one and I'm really glad we did), a couple of blankets, our own pillows, and Canadian dollars. I cannot tell you how glad I was to have a few hundred Canadian dollars in cash with us before we even crossed the border. It really came in handy! I carried more US cash than I normally do, too, and I liked having that. It's just convenient for travel sometimes to have cash.

Another thing I've mulled over since getting back is what we learned. I did SO much research before the trip, but I knew that I wouldn't really have any idea what it would be like until we did the drive ourselves. Here are a few things that I learned and things that surprised me.

Finding gas was not a problem. I worried so much about this before our trip. I'd read that you can go for hundreds of miles without passing a gas station, that many go out of business, and that they don't keep regular hours. We had absolutely no problem consistently finding places to fill up the tank, so I never actually worried about that for a second on the trip.

The Alaska Highway is the wildest place I can imagine. I truly feel like the Alaska Highway is a glimpse of heaven on earth, in the sense that the vastness, beauty, and proportions of the Yukon and Alaska just blow everything else out of the water and ruin your sense of proportion and scale. I've never seen anything so shockingly wild and beautiful in my life. I was not expecting that and can never forget it now.

We got tired of camping. As people who love camping, I'm embarrassed to say this, but we chickened out of camping a few cold and/or rainy nights and ended up renting a hotel room or cabin at the last minute. Even though I'm glad I can say we camped in a tent in Alaska for one night, I'm not sad that we didn't do it more. We quickly learned with the long days on the road that we needed to be comfortable in the evenings. If the weather is nice, I can be totally comfortable in a tent. But where the weather got bad, being warm and comfortable became our priority, more so than having the "authentic" experience of camping.

While we felt like the only people on earth for a lot of our trip, we found comfort in knowing how many others have gone before us. We saw/interacted with other people pretty rarely on our trip, which was a cool and different experience given that we live in a huge city. That said, we saw evidence everywhere of other travelers who had done the same trek. The Signpost Forest in Watson Lake (read my post recapping Watson Lake here) was the perfect example of that, because we saw signs up from people on their Honeymoons or people who had come back almost every year to write their names and the date on their sign again. Along the Alaska Highway, people would often spell out their initials with white rocks, which was a fun wilderness version of graffiti to see. And, I know a couple of people personally who have done the trip, so it was fun to connect with them about all the places we saw. If you're reading this and interested in driving the Alaska Highway and getting to the 49th state by road, I HIGHLY recommend it and would love to help in any way I can. Feel free to Contact me.

Last but not least, here are some fun stats from our trip:

Temperature range (in Fahrenheit): 113 degrees in Nevada to 28 degrees in Alaska

Wildest weather: Hail

Wildlife we saw: Buffalo, antelope, coyote, bear, moose, small things like squirrels and groundhogs, bald eagles, loons and other interesting birds, reindeer/caribou, elk, regular deer, swans, and tons of livestock on farms along the roads like cows, horses, and llamas. 

Favorite albums we listened to (for the most part on the trip we listened to full albums at a time rather than playlists, just so we could really get into a particular favorite musician and see the full album for what it is): Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits, Emotion by Carly Rae Jepson, Miley Cyrus's new album Younger Now, Rumors by Fleetwood Mac, Pageant Material by Kacey Musgraves, Lust for Life by Lana Del Rey, and Wilder Mind by Mumford & Sons. 

Favorite Podcasts: S-Town (I know it's been out for awhile but we hadn't listened to it before the trip. If you haven't, I highly recommend it), Generation Why, Lore, Up and Vanished, Someone Knows Something, and What's the Tee with RuPaul and Michelle Visage.

Place We Most Want to Go Back Right Now, If We Had to Pick One: Me--Anchorage; Grace--Anchorage (I made Grace pick without telling her what I chose, and I picked the same one! Grace says her second choice would be Telkwa, and my second choice would probably be Banff/Lake Louise).

That's it for now in terms of recaps of our trip! I hope you enjoyed reading the series. I loved writing about it and going back to all these amazing places in my mind. Time to start planning the next one :)

Driving to Alaska and Back: Vancouver, Portland, and Northern California

As we rounded the corner into our last few days of the trip, Grace and I started feeling a little sad that our long awaited journey was nearing its end. But, we were also really excited for the last four stops of our trip: Vancouver, British Columbia; Portland, Oregon; rural far northern California (near Yreka); and Berkeley. Looking back, I'm glad we saved the Pacific Northwest for last, because it was a bit more familiar to us than the beginning of our trip, when we were going to all new places every day. We treated ourselves to a gorgeous suite in Vancouver, we stayed with my best friend in Portland, and I used to live in Northern California for three years, so it was a nice comfortable victory lap for our trip. I mentioned in my last post that Grace and I found ourselves getting more tired on the second half of the trip, so staying in comfortable and/or familiar places was perfect.

After checking out of our hotel in Williams Lake, we hit the road to Vancouver. It was a big change from the rural logging roads and wide open spaces of the days prior. Pretty much the entire way showed at least some signs of civilization, and once we were about an hour out from Vancouver, it was urban sprawl. We arrived around 4pm in Vancouver and made our way over to the very trendy neighborhood of Yaletown, where we had a hotel reservation. Driving through the city felt pretty weird, because we hadn't been in city traffic in almost a month. The closest "big city" we'd stayed in was Anchorage, and it was pretty tiny by comparison. But we were excited to experience Western Canada's biggest city, and we were enchanted by it right away.

Deciding where to stay in Vancouver was one of my most difficult planning decisions, simply because there were SO many great options. For a lot of our trip, I just picked the prettiest or nicest option in the area that was dog friendly. And I was usually deciding between three options max. In Vancouver, there were so many different neighborhoods and hotels to choose from. I knew we wanted to splurge on a really nice place in Vancouver and experience the city right, and from doing some research (and just going with my gut), I decided we should stay at a more "boutique"-type hotel. I also considered the Fairmont, which looks lovely, but it's bigger and more resort-like. I wanted a beautiful but smaller hotel that was situated somewhere we could easily walk from and experience the city.

I ended up choosing the Opus Hotel, and I'm SO glad I did. I had read that Yaletown is one of the coolest neighborhoods in Vancouver, and Opus is the only boutique hotel in the area. That helped narrow things down. It's also on the Conde Nast Gold List and has won some awards from Travel + Leisure, I think. It seemed to fit the bill for a "splurge" night to treat ourselves, and it was so wonderful.

From the minute we checked in, we were treated like royalty. Glasses of champagne appeared seemingly out of thin air at the check in desk, and the people working there could not have been friendlier, especially to Willie (side note: at a hotel like this, they usually either don't allow dogs or charge an upwards of $150 fee for them. At Opus, it was only $30 extra to have Willie with us!). 

I decided to book us a Balcony Studio, which is on the top floor with a great view, a HUGE bathroom with heated tile floors, the comfiest bed ever, and as the name would suggest, our own balcony. We also had a separate sitting area with a couple of sofas around the TV, which Grace appreciated as she likes her creature comforts to unwind after a long drive :)

Willie enjoying our pristine beautiful bathroom

Our view

Vancouver is a cool city. I wish we'd had a week there to really explore it, but we made the most of enjoying Yaletown. Right across the street from our hotel is a row of businesses called Mainland Street, which is a converted warehouse district. At one end is Yaletown Brewing Company, the oldest brewery in the area which includes a pub and restaurant. All along that row of shops are really interesting restaurants, shops, ice cream, coffee, etc. We decided to go out for the evening to try a few places in that row, and it was SUCH a fun date night. First, we went to Yaletown Brewing and tried some of their freshly made beer.

We also got some fried pickles there, which is one of my favorite foods. It was a great people watching spot, and we felt like locals sipping our beer and reflecting on our trip so far.

Next up, we wanted to get a light dinner, so we strolled along Mainland Street reading menus. I was craving sushi and we ended up seeing a cute little place called Bistro Sakana Yaletown. We loved it! We got some pan-friend vegetable dumplings to start along with some local British Columbia wine. Then we decided to try some of the sashimi that the chef recommended and it was awesome. It ended up being one of my favorite meals of the trip.

Last but not least, we wanted to get ice cream and stopped in a place called Mister. Grace got creme brulee ice cream, which they actually bruleed in front of us with a flame torch! It had a sugar crust just like real creme brulee, but then it was ice cream underneath. So cool. I chose the Thai Iced Tea flavor of ice cream and it was UNREAL. It also came in a charcoal ice cream cone which I was unsure about, but it was very tasty.

I already cannot wait to go back to Vancouver. To me it exuded Pacific Northwest charm, coziness, and friendly (and BEAUTIFUL) people. But I was also excited to get on the road the next day, because we were en route to PORTLAND where one of my best friends lives!

That's us, in Anna's dining room in her adorable house in Portland with her precious dog!

The drive was easy, and we completed our fourth and final border crossing uneventfully. Once we got to Portland, it was such a happy reunion because my best friend Anna lives there! We met in my first week of college and were pretty much instantly best friends. We have so much in common and I just adore her. After graduation, she moved to Portland, and I've gotten to visit her a few times and fallen in love with the city. Grace had never been, so I was very excited for her to see it! I hadn't visited in about a year and a half so I hadn't yet seen Anna's new house or dog or met her boyfriend. It was so nice to hang out at home with them and catch up.

Anna's house is very darling

And our dogs got along great! Too great, almost, because they were a little overly obsessed with each other. Anna has a sweet rescue named Cinder, and I'm pretty sure she and Willie are pining for each other now that they're apart . . . too cute.

Portland has some of the best food EVER, and Anna took us to a new place I hadn't tried yet. It's called Nostrana, and they have the most amazing happy hour starting at 9pm. The happy hour menu is basically just smaller versions of all of their regular food, and they have super inexpensive house wines too. We got three pizzas, two huge salads, a pasta, and breads and it was all DIVINE. I am hungry now even thinking about it. It's some of the best pizza I have ever had . . . seriously. If you are in Portland, go there!!

The next morning we also got great bagels from Bernstein's Bagels, which is walking distance from Anna's house. I love a good salt bagel more than almost anything, so I was so happy to find them there. We were sad we didn't have more time in Portland, but later that morning it was time to hit the road to our home state! Yes, we crossed the border into California later that day--so wild to be back! (Though we still had a long distance all the way down to LA).

Driving at sunset in far northern California

That night we stayed on a ranch in a little town called Fort Jones, which is near Yreka. We were able to rent a tent camping spot on the ranch through Hipcamp, which we've used before and loved. Here is the listing for the ranch where we stayed.

Even though we were back in California, it was pretty chilly that night, and unfortunately right about that time I started showing signs of coming down with a cold. Ugh! The last time Grace and I took a big road trip, I also caught a cold. Taking care of yourself on the road is hard and it's definitely something I neglect, which I think is why I end up getting sick after being on the road for long. That's something I want to focus on in the future. Luckily, it didn't end up being too bad of a cold and only took me about a week to get over.

Back to the Hipcamp--it was lovely. We slept in our own tent, but the property includes indoor bathrooms that you can use, and we were very comfortable. They also had some ranch dogs that were very friendly and cute. I had never been that far north in California before, and I'd love to go back. It's really wild and beautiful.

When we woke up on the ranch it was the last full day of our road trip. Tomorrow, we'd be home. It was so hard to believe and I think we both felt a mixture of being really sad that our grand adventure was over, but also excited to get home and settle into a routine with life and enjoy the Fall together. I was so happy that we were staying in Berkeley that night, because it's such a special place for both of us. I lived in Berkeley for three years while in law school, and it's where Grace and I went on our first date, one of the places we first brought Casper after adopting him, and so many other memories. We were able to find an Airbnb within a few blocks of my old apartment, so it was a really sweet night in my old neighborhood. We ordered takeout from Saturn, a vegetarian diner that we LOVED during my time in Berkeley. Willie had never been to the area, so it was very cool walking him around my old jogging routes and showing him a little bit of the town that is such a big part of who I am. 

When we stepped outside to go get dinner, we saw this sunset, and Grace said "look, Berkeley's putting on a show for you."

Me in front of my old Berkeley apartment! It's the place that I lived in the longest of anywhere since I was 17--so so special.

All in all (and being sick included), I couldn't have asked for a sweeter or more restful end to our Alaska trip. I am still processing everything that happened and everything it all means to me, but I'm excited to write a separate post with my big takeaways from the trip SOON! I hope you enjoyed this last installment of our trip recaps. I love writing them!

Driving to Alaska and Back: Yukon and British Columbia

I am FINALLY back for another installment of my LA to Alaska Trip recaps! I am woefully behind on blogging and have been itching to write more about our trip. We're back in LA now, and after a few days of catching up on sleep and seeing friends for the first time in a month, I've gotten a moment to update Have Dog, Will Drive. I'm going to do at least one more recap after this, and I'll also be writing a post about what we learned from the trip and what we would do differently + keep the same based on our experience.

Today, I'm sharing photos from our drive from Tok, Alaska (where I left off in my last post) to Williams Lake, British Columbia. We took a totally different route back to LA from the drive up, so these were all new destinations for us! I'm really glad we planned the trip that way, so we got to see more of North America.

The day after spending the night in Tok, we crossed the border back into Canada. Like all our other border crossings, it was uneventful. Still no questions about Willie OR any requests to see his rabies certificate. I agonized about that before the trip--so unnecessary! But you live and you learn.

Our destination for the first night back in the Yukon was Haines Junction. We were mesmerized by the snow-capped mountains surrounding it. With the foliage, it really felt like quintessential Autumn up there. So beautiful.

The area of the Yukon where Haines Junction is located is right along Kluane National Park. Unlike the much more well-known Banff and Jasper, I had never heard of Kluane before planning this trip. But now, I'm shocked that I hadn't, because it's one of the most stunning places I've ever seen. That's the thing about the Far North--so few people make the trip that there are virtually unknown WONDERS of the world up there. I feel so lucky to have gotten to see it.

We rented an adorable cabin through a family-run bed & breakfast called simply, The Cabin. It was such a thoughtful and special place. We were the very last guests of the season, and we couldn't have felt more welcomed. A husband and wife run the place together along with their very sweet doggos. The cabins do not have electricity or running water, but they have propane heat and lights (so old fashioned and cool--you turn on the lamps with a match), as well as a huge container of glacial runoff water that turns on and off with the twist of a tap. So while it's not "real" running water through pipes, it's not that rustic either. There is an outhouse to go to the bathroom. And, there's this view:

This was the view from our back porch. Those snow-capped mountains! It was surreal.

The colors took my breath away.

We cooked a yummy soup and grilled cheese on our little propane stove and slept long and hard. One thing we really noticed on the drive home was how TIRED we got. During the first half of the trip, we were so excited to be going to Alaska that we seemed to have boundless energy for driving every day. But on the second half, fatigue really set in. It wasn't terrible, but it's just something we noticed. If you are planning a similar trip, you might consider adding in some rest days during the return trip, because I do think it's normal to be a bit more tired.

After Haines Junction, we headed to Nugget City, Yukon! The name is a reference to the gold rush history of the Yukon. We had originally booked a campsite, but it was cold and rainy when we arrived, so we decided to upgrade to a cabin (this scenario became a theme of the return trip).

The cabin was comfortable but BEYOND kitschy (in the best way) and it made us laugh. Keep in mind this is truly the middle of nowhere; we didn't have cell service for around 3 days straight during this period in the Yukon and northern British Columbia. So we were glad to have a roof over our heads! Here's a little glimpse of how awesome/hilarious the decor was in our Nugget City cabin:

(Taken from my Instagram story)

We relaxed and actually watched the Emmy's on TV that night eating some takeout from the restaurant next door to our cabin.

The next day's drive was one of the prettiest of the trip. It was also a little nerve-wrecking as it was VERY isolated and rainy, making it especially unappealing to have any car trouble. Luckily, we didn't. This was also the day that we left the familiarity of the Alaska Highway and turned south down the Cassiar Highway. We had read that the Cassiar was especially rustic and remote, and it was. That said, the road conditions were very good. It looked like a lot of it had recently been repaved, so I think some of the reports I saw of rough road might be outdated now. The reason we took the Cassiar Highway was just so we could see more of British Columbia and experience a different route than the drive north.

The fog was wild; like a ribbon weaving through the landscape

Raincoats for everybody!

Our destination that night was Bell II, British Columbia, home of the Bell2 Lodge. In the winter, it's a major heli-skiing destination, but it has a lovely chalet village year round. We stayed in a super cozy chalet (again, upgraded from our originally-booked campsite) with a wood-burning stove. The grounds of the resort were beautiful and we had a great dinner that night from the restaurant.

Willie was very comfortable living the chalet dog life

Given that you can drive for hours and not pass anything else, it's kind of amazing that a resort like this can exist out in the middle of nowhere. They generate all of their own electricity and run their own plumbing and water supply. It was a bit pricier to stay there because of this, but you won't find anything else like it in the area.

Next on our itinerary was Telkwa, British Columbia. I'll be honest and say that when I booked that night, it was kind of just because I saw Telkwa on a map and it looked to be a good stopping point. It's really rural, so I didn't have super high expectations going in. But Grace and I ended up being blown away by Telkwa and now think it was one of our favorite nights of the trip.

First, on the drive between Bell II and Telkwa, we saw FIVE bears on the side of the road! First we saw one by itself eating breakfast, then we saw a mama and baby, and then we saw two more randomly (and were driving by too quickly to notice whether they were by themselves or not). Because seeing wildlife was one of the things we were most excited for on the road trip, this was SUCH a cool day for us.

Bear crossing the road right behind us!

We pulled over and rolled down the window and got into a staring contest with this bear. It was AMAZING to see one so close!

Then, our day got even better once we rolled up to our accommodations for the night.

Enter the most glorious glamping experience there ever was. Oh my goodness, did we LOVE this place. The name of the site was called Fort Telkwa Riverfront Accommodations. It's an RV park on one side and then they have these tent-cabins along the river. The really surprising thing is that they do not advertise photos like the one above at ALL. We had no idea it would look like this when we pulled up. I booked it just based on the location and the description that they had tent shelters with heat. Not that it's all about money, but for a view like this in the LA area and for the "glamour" of a safari-tent-esque experience, you would be charged $300. This place was $60 and included fresh chopped firewood. There was really great heat and electricity in the tent, and the WiFi was so good (fiber optic) that we could stream movies from inside the tent! Also, the people are THE friendliest around. I could rave about this place all day long. There isn't a bathroom in the tent, but there's a huge bathhouse right beside it with hot showers, a sauna, and nice clean restrooms. We were in heaven.

Sunset & snow-capped mountains over the river looking out from our tent

Cooking some local fish over a fire at our campsite

Sauteed veggies and pan-seared fish--delicious and simple camping meal

We did not want to leave! It was just so beautiful and peaceful. Hearing the river rushing by at night was sublime.

The next day, we drove to Williams Lake, British Columbia. I'm embarrassed to say I don't have a single photo from this day of our trip! It was pretty uneventful--this was really just a convenient stop and a place to sleep before getting to Vancouver the next day. We stayed in a Best Western, which was comfy and dog friendly. One thing I really liked about the hotel was that the pet friendly rooms had a back door that opened right up to a green space to walk your dog, so you didn't have to go through the lobby for doggy bathroom breaks. Such a smart setup! I wish I could offer more in terms of recommendations for Williams Lake, and it seemed like a nice little town, but we were exhausted and didn't really see anything but the hotel. It was also around this time that we noticed a decent sized crack in Grace's windshield, which must have come from a logging truck hitting the windshield with a pebble or something. So we had to deal with that (and ultimately will have to replace the entire windshield--just part of the cost of a trip like this!) and didn't venture out that night.

The next day we woke up very excited to get to Vancouver! I'm going to pause the recap here and save Vancouver, Portland, and Northern California for the next one. Thanks for reading!

Driving to Alaska and Back: ENGAGED in Alaska!

It's true!! Grace proposed on Thursday, September 14, at sunrise. If you are on either of our social media, you probably saw that we shared the news the next day. Today I want to share the WHOLE story, in addition to a recap of our time in Alaska. We really fell for the state (the little bit we saw of it), and we are already talking about returning for anniversaries in the future.

Alaska was a dream come true. It is so wild. We thought the people were really friendly too. I wish there were a smarter-sounding way to say this (haha), but I have never been somewhere so HUGE in my life. The landscape was dramatic and serene at the same time. If you haven't been and ever get a chance to, I really recommend seeing it for yourself. All of that said, there's a ton of the state we didn't even see! With our timeline of taking about a month off of work (or in my case, in between jobs), it wasn't possible to explore the whole state, but we dipped our toes in. We can't wait to see more of it in the future.

We got engaged toward the end of our time in Alaska, so first I'm going to share about our first few days and then tell the story of Grace's surprise proposal. 

The last time I updated the blog we were in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The next day we crossed the border into the US/Alaska and drove to a little town (really just a highway junction) called Tok, Alaska, to spend the night. Crossing the border into to the US was super easy, just like it was into Canada. So far we haven't gotten any questions about Willie or his dog food and have never had to wait at a border. Fingers crossed that continues!

In Tok, we had a reservation at Sourdough Campground. We had booked it because of the stellar reviews we found online, and because there isn't a lot else in Tok. It was a decent campground but overall we were a little underwhelmed, especially because it was totally empty. As much as we like serenity in nature, it was a little eerie to not have other people around. Also, we didn't realize that they didn't have fire rings available, which led to this for dinner:

We set up camp and really bundled up, because it was supposed to be COLD that night! And it was. The name of the campground ended up being very fitting, because in Alaska a "sourdough" is a person who has weathered Alaskan winters. While I am sure if any true Alaskans read this they would be hysterically laughing at the thought of us being sourdoughs after weathering one night of above-freezing temperatures . . . for us it was pretty nuts! 

We were totally okay though and still got some sleep. It really helped having a natural hot water bottle (Willie) in the sleeping bag with us.

The next morning we pretty much hit the road right away, because we were so excited to get to the destination of the whole trip: Anchorage! 

The drive was so beautiful--one of my favorites of the whole trip so far (I was going to say favorite, but I don't think I can pick just ONE favorite!).

We were googly-eyed for Alaska at this point. I've probably said this on every blog post about this trip, but the pics DO NOT do it justice! Alaska is unreal.

Once we got into Anchorage, we pulled up to our adorable Airbnb cottage!

We've stayed at a lot of Airbnbs, and this was one of my favorites ever! It was set in a fairy-garden like setting in a cute neighborhood of Anchorage, just a 10 minute drive anywhere in the city (it's not a big city). And about a 25 minute drive down to the coast or to Kincaid Park (which is where Grace ended up proposing!). Our Anchorage house was absolutely perfect for relaxing, cooking at home, and just as a home base for exploring the area. I wish we could have stayed for a couple of weeks.

Ignore the table cluttered with all our stuff, but the kitchen/living room was such a great space

Mini greenhouse setup in the bathroom

Chicken coop in the backyard! Willie was super curious about them.

We loved that they had a "guest book" in the form of a chalkboard wall

And we added our note!

When we got to Anchorage, we were both very tired from the drive and really just chilled out for the rest of our first day. We went to a nearby local market called New Sagaya City Market, which was so cute and Alaskan, and got some ingredients to make a simple dinner at home.

The next day we were determined to drive down the coast to Beluga Point, which is a little park-like area on the coast that Beluga whales are supposed to be common. Baby Beluga was my favorite song as a little kid, so I wanted to see if we could spot a white whale. No such luck, but it was incredibly gorgeous and so worth the drive nonetheless.

It was SO windy, so we didn't stay long, but it was breathtaking there.

After poking around Anchorage a little more, we decided to go home and make hot chocolate because it was getting rainy outside. We also played a round of Monopoly: Alaska Edition, which our Airbnb host had. It was actually so fun; I hadn't played Monopoly since I was a kid.

That night, we decided to go out. Little did I know, but we were about 12 hours from getting engaged. It's funny looking back because I feel like we had a major engagement celebration BEFORE we actually got engaged! We went out to a bar called the Bubbly Mermaid which was one of our favorite places we have been on the whole trip. All they serve is champagne and oysters (literally . . . they have no beer or liquor and no food besides for oysters. I love it). We really treated ourselves and got tons of oysters and a few glasses of delicious bubbly. It would have been the perfect way to celebrate getting engaged, but I actually kind of love that we went the night before. Grace obviously knew what was about to happen, so it was just special to go all out and later realize we were already celebrating.

The oysters are served three ways: raw, cold (with various toppings and preparations), and hot (baked). We ended up getting a few dozen in all, they were SO amazing!!

We also had a few oyster shooters, SO yummy. This one was our favorite even though it was really unexpected--a raw oyster, Stout, Worcestershire Sauce, and mignonette. Amazing!

Just such a cool place that I would recommend to any champagne and/or oyster lover (I am most definitely both). 

Also that night we drove by the edge of Anchorage, which is sort of a wilderness area/ecological preserve that is beautiful and pretty wild even though it's right next to the city. It is called Kincaid Park, and it is over 1,500 acres. I had read that it's one of the best places in Anchorage to see moose, so we had been wanting to go before we left town. But it was raining when we drove by that area, so Grace suggested we come back in the morning to go moose spotting. "Sure, sounds great!" was my response--not suspecting anything whatsoever. Little did I know Grace's plan was to find a beautiful and special but also "organic" moment the next day to propose. She didn't want to plan something way in advance, because we'd said from the beginning that we wanted to leave our time in Alaska go-with-the-flow and she figured I would be suspicious if she had something scheduled.

That next day, September 14, also happened to be our four-year "anniversary" of dating. I should probably back up here and give a little CliffsNotes version of "our story" for those who don't know, so that Grace's proposal makes more sense in context. We met in college in 2012 but really got to know each other in spring 2013, which was our senior year. My best friend (who was randomly assigned as college roommates with Grace's best friend) actually set us up. Because we were both planning on moving to California after graduation (we went to college in North Carolina), we ended up talking and then visiting each other in California, even though I lived in Berkeley (for law school) and Grace lived in LA. We went on our first date in July 2013 and decided to be a couple in late summer/early fall of that year. 

Then we dated long-distance (Berkeley and LA are a 6 hour drive apart) for 3 years while I got my law degree. It was such a sweet season and we have always said and believed that while we wouldn't have chosen to date long-distance, it really grew us in important ways and made us great communicators with each other. One of those things we communicated and quickly realized we had in common was that family and one day getting married was really important to us, and that we didn't want to live together while we were "just dating." Disclaimer: I always hesitate to share that aspect of our story because it's SUCH a personal decision and so many of my dear friends do live with people they are dating. I shouldn't even need to say this, but that's an equally worthwhile choice :) However, waiting to live together was important to Grace and me for a variety of personal reasons.

All of that said, we had a peace and confidence pretty much the entire four years that we dated that we did want to marry each other. We didn't talk openly about it very often, because I wanted to remain present in the season of dating that we were in, but when it would come up it was clear that's where we were headed. But we had never said words like "I want to marry you" out loud or anything like that. I guess we are a little bit old fashioned in that way, in terms of saving certain conversations for their season. But through some thinly veiled (pun intended) discussions over the years, I basically told Grace that I wanted her to determine the timing and, when the time was right, initiate that season of being engaged and eventually married. Again, for a lot of personal reasons, that was right for our relationship. There were most definitely times when I wanted to take back the reigns, but now looking back I think Grace chose the most perfect time to start this new season.

Now that that's out of the way, back to the proposal story! We woke up early on the morning of the 14th and drove to Kincaid Park before sunrise because we really wanted to maximize our chances of seeing a moose (you're probably reading this thinking . . . why are they so obsessed with seeing moose?! We just love seeing wildlife in general, haha). We parked and started walking. Looking back, I can totally see that Grace was on a mission on this walk, because she was power walking and not complaining at all about doing some uphill hiking, which is not normally her favorite thing. She's more of a leisurely walker. But honestly I didn't think much about it at the time because it was early in the morning and I wasn't that focused. Willie was with us sniffing and exploring along the way. After walking for a few minutes, we came to a beautiful wooden pedestrian bridge going across one of the park roads below.

It was totally deserted and purple-hazy in the early morning light. As we walked up to it, Grace suggested that we take a video here for our trip video, which seemed like a great (and totally normal) idea to me at the time.

This is another place where I need to back up and explain. Throughout the Alaska road trip, Grace has stopped at every new location we get to and taken a short video on my DSLR holding up a sign saying where we are. She has a little dry-erase board and will write on it our locations such as Helena Montana, Banff Canada, Dawson Creek B.C., etc. Then Willie and I stand in the background and wave while she holds up the sign to the camera. At the beginning of our trip she explained she wanted to take a video every day and stitch them together at the end, so we'd have a little capsule of everywhere we went. I thought it was a cute idea and it had become a normal part of our daily routine at this point. But, even though we'd been in Anchorage for a couple of days at this point, we still hadn't taken our video with the Anchorage sign because we figured we'd do it at some point before we left town. So when Grace suggested we take our video here on the bridge, I thought it was perfect. She set up the tripod (she has a little foldable one that she had carried with her from the car for this purpose) on one side of the bridge while I stood with Willie on the other side. Right around that time, we noticed two huge moose with full antlers standing under the bridge! We were super excited. Grace then put the camera on the tripod and wrote on the sign while I was looking at the moose. I assumed she was going to write "Anchorage Alaska" (or maybe "moose spotting in Anchorage" or something like that), and wasn't paying any attention. She got the camera rolling and held up the sign to it. I was standing behind her on the other side of the bridge so I still couldn't see what it said. 

Then after a couple seconds, she walked over to where I was holding Willie and showed me the sign. "Did I spell this right?" she asked.

Don't worry, I didn't whip out my phone in the moment--I took this photo later, haha!

Cue my mouth hanging open and apparently (according to Grace, I don't really remember this) a bunch of repeating "are you serious?!" I always thought I would cry when that moment came but I was SO surprised that I didn't at all! My brain just had not caught up to what was happening but before I could gather myself Grace was down on one knee asking if I would marry her and putting a ring on my finger! (Full disclosure, she accidentally tried to put it on my right hand at first). And of course, I said yes. A few times.

It was such a surreal, beautiful moment, and I think we scared away the moose because they were gone when I looked back! Willie was oblivious. My head was still spinning but all I knew was that I was SO happy and sure. I also started asking a ton of questions right away. Does my family know? Did you have help coming up with this plan? Where have you been hiding the ring this whole time? And it was so fun finally getting to hear all of Grace's answers. For those curious, my whole family had known for months, and several of our friends were in on it too. To be honest, I think it was pretty stressful for her keeping this secret while we have been spending 24/7 together on this trip, as well as keeping the ring safe and hidden, so she was VERY relieved that I said yes and that she didn't have to keep a secret anymore. She said she didn't sleep the night before, she was so nervous. It was around this time that we realized the camera was still rolling! So yes, we have a full video of the proposal which is pretty special. Props to Grace for planning that so organically. And she's still going to be making that video with all of our locations, plus the proposal part--stay tuned after we're back!

The spot where it all happened!

A little bit about my ring: I LOVE it!! I had always seen myself wearing a simple, classic diamond engagement ring. Grace and I had exchanged zero words about a possible ring (other than me knowing that she wasn't interesting in wearing an engagement ring herself), so it could have gone pretty badly I guess . . . but lucky for me, Grace gave me a gorgeous family ring that has been passed down for (at least) four generations! Hearing about how Grace's mom had traveled to bring Grace the ring, had it specially cleaned, and gotten an insurance policy for it was so sweet. I am beyond thankful and feel so embraced into the Baldridge family. I hope it's not tacky to share a photo, but here you go:

At this point, it was only about 8 in the morning, so we had the rest of the day to relax and celebrate! We called our families first and then went out for a delicious brunch at a place called South, which a friend from law school had recommended to me the day before (thanks, Lydia!). It was SO good, we loved it! Of course it helped that we were in the best mood ever, but objectively the food was really great.

Grace creepin' in the background--such a good bloody mary.

The rest of the afternoon, we pretty much just relaxed and hung out at home while calling more friends and family to share our news! It was a really sweet day. It also made me so grateful that we got engaged while on vacation, because we've had a lot of time to make phone calls and soak it all in! We have felt so very loved and lucky over the past few days.

For that night we already had a reservation at a restaurant called Simon & Seafort's because it was our four-year dating anniversary and we wanted to go somewhere nice. The food was delicious and the restaurant has a to-die-for view of the ocean. We overall really liked it. However, it was kind of an older crowd and I felt like the Bubbly Mermaid from the night before was more our speed, but Simon & Seafort's was definitely an atmosphere befitting just getting engaged.

The next morning, it was (sadly) time to leave Anchorage and start our trip home! But first, there was something really important we had to do. We knew pretty much right after Casper died that we wanted to scatter some of his ashes in Alaska, because we planned the trip for him. We never anticipated that he wouldn't be (physically) joining us. We had talked on the road about exactly where to scatter them, and we mulled over going to a pretty place or near the water. But ultimately, we realized we should scatter them in the garden of the house we rented. Casper was such a homebody, and he would have absolutely loved just hanging out at that house with us while we drank hot chocolate and played board games. We said some words and shed some tears and hugged and scattered some of what we have left of Casper on that cold morning. It was a big range of emotions in 24 hours. But it felt good and right, and with full hearts we hit the road for the "and back" portion of our trip. Before we left town, we made one last stop at Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop, also a recommendation from a friend. I am SO GLAD we did, because I had the best scone of my entire life there. We also grabbed some sandwiches to eat later on the road, and they were delectable.

And we set off for home as an engaged couple! We were retracing our steps from a few days before, but it seemed even more beautiful going the other direction. We pulled over on the side of the road for some photos and ended up seeing a bald eagle fly overhead.

Our destination for that night, like the night before we reached Anchorage, was Tok. But this time, we decided we did NOT want to camp and brave the freezing temps! So, we stayed at Young's Motel, and it was comfy and totally fine for one night. The Four Seasons it was not, but it was clean and felt very safe, so we were happy! Also, we ordered from the restaurant attached to the motel and had the BEST fish & chips! 

The next morning I woke up to it being 28 degrees. We were so very glad that we did not camp. When I stepped outside, it smelled like Christmas trees, and I remember feeling like Alaska was just the most magical place. But it was time to set off for the Yukon on our journey east and then south. I'll post another update once we've traveled a few more days!

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 :)

Driving to Alaska and Back: The Canadian Rockies

This is the second recap of our road trip from LA to Alaska and back. You can find all my posts about our trip here. 

After leaving Montana, we drove to the Canadian border at the Sweetgrass-Coutts crossing. It was extremely low key. I don't have any photos from crossing the border because I didn't want to raise suspicion or anything, but I wanted to describe our experience because I know I was super nervous prior to crossing. I had never driven through a border and didn't know what to expect.

It was the easiest thing ever. It look 3 minutes. We handed over our passports, they asked us to take off our sunglasses, and they asked us whether we were students and what our jobs are. We had come prepared with copies of Willie's rabies vaccines and small sealed bags of dog food in case they didn't let us take opened bags of food across the border, but all they asked was whether we were planning on leaving him in Canada. Haha!! No, we told them, he'd be coming with us into Alaska and then back to the mainland US. Basically, they just wanted to confirm that we weren't importing a dog; that we were just passing through.

Once in Canada, things actually felt pretty different right away! For one thing, the speed limit signs were in kilometers. That was confusing. Right after crossing the border we stopped at a rest stop for a bathroom break, and I was very surprised that when I walked inside an attendant was waiting to answer questions about Canada and offer free maps. The stereotypes about Canadians being really friendly was SO true (and has continued to be throughout our time here). The Canadian accents are also STRONG and I didn't anticipate how foreign I would feel. They can 100% tell I'm from "the States" (as they call it). Everything in Canada is just so clean and nice. It's awesome here.

After a quick stop in Calgary for more groceries, we made it to our campground in BANFF NATIONAL PARK!! Somewhere I had been excited to see for a very long time. And it did not disappoint.

We had reserved a spot at Two Jack Lakeside Campground (pictured above) about 9 months ago. It's so popular (and tiny) that you have to book that far out to be able to get a spot. Ours was right on the lake, with its own little footpath down to the shore. This was our view:

I was pinching myself that we got to sleep right beside this. We had site #24, which I had read online was the best site in the whole campground, and I have to agree! It was heaven.

Because it's the dry season, campfires were banned in Banff while we were there. We didn't have a lot of nonperishables (we bought some food that ended up going bad because we weren't able to cook it, but it wasn't the end of the world), so I made a "scavenger's dinner" that was actually pretty tasty.

The next morning, we woke up feeling cozy in our tent and so excited to explore the park!

Conveniently, we were staying in Jasper National Park the night after staying in Banff, so our sole itinerary for the day was driving the Icefields Parkway. It links the two national parks. It is known as one of the most beautiful drives in the world, and I don't think I have ever taken a prettier one myself. I was just mesmerized the whole day.

Along the way, we wanted to stop and see a few lakes, waterfalls, and other sights. At first, I felt like our day might be shot because at our very first planned stop, the parking lot was totally full and they weren't letting anyone in. But it turned out to be kind of a fluke because we didn't have that experience at any of the other stops on our route. We were far from the only tourists, but it was less crowded than US national parks in my experience.

Every twist and turn of the Icefields Parkway would have views like this. Just wow!!

Our first stop of the day was at Lake Louise, which is one of the most famous places on the Icefields Parkway. It's where the photo at the top of this post was taken. Here are a couple more that I took, just for good measure (I can't stop looking at pics of it, even though they don't do it justice):

Yes, the water REALLY is that color. It's because it's glacier-fed (from what I've been told). It is even prettier in person.

Next, we cruised along the parkway for awhile before stopping at Peyto Lake. Peyto is nestled deep in a valley, so the only way to really see it is to hike up to the Bow Summit to get a good view. This was the most strenuous hike of the day by far, and we were out of breath by the end. But it was so worth it.

It was ridiculously pretty. 

After Peyto, we decided to stop on the side of the road to picnic. There isn't a ton of traffic on the parkway (or at least there wasn't in early September).

There really isn't a bad view in Banff. You can look anywhere and it's stunningly beautiful. We just soaked it in as much as possible :)

Sometime after lunch, we passed into Jasper National Park. It is contiguous with Banff, so you wouldn't know you were in a different national park except for the sign. The landscape looks the same. Soon after getting into Jasper, we saw a glacier . . . such a cool bucket list moment for me! This one is called the Athabasca Glacier.

The snowy slope looking area in the background is the very tip of the glacier, also known as the "toe." A camera can't really pick up how HUGE it is, but it was truly amazing. We couldn't stop staring and just almost laughing in disbelief at how cool it was to see one.

Our next stop was Grace's favorite overall, and definitely one of my favorites too. It's called Athabasca Falls, and it is one of the most incredible waterfalls I have ever seen (and I've been to Victoria Falls in Zambia!). Once again . . . pictures don't do it justice. But here are a few favorite shots from the falls:

Even just compiling all of these photos now for the blog, it's hard to believe that we saw all of these places in ONE day. I felt like I needed a week to process it all. Banff and Jasper are gems of North America, maybe the most beautiful places on the continent in my opinion (of the places I've seen!). 

After Athabasca, we headed to our campsite in Jasper for the night: Wapiti Campground. We stayed at site A15, which was fairly private and had the Athabasca River running right behind it. Falling asleep to the sound of the rushing river was dreamy.

As we cozied up for our fourth night of camping on the trip, it felt so nice to realize we had really gotten into a routine. I had figured out how to set up the tent in about 5 minutes flat, and we were slowly becoming old folks with our nightly games of scrabble. It's been such an incredible escape from real life, where our days are marked by rhythms and not what time it is. Willie is the best trooper and we fall more in love with him every day. 

But as much as we really do love camping, we were all super excited to stay in a comfy hotel the next night. We left Jasper pretty early in the morning. As we were getting onto the main Trans-Canada highway, we saw a HUGE MOOSE in the dim morning light! It was standing right in the middle of the road. We both gasped. Willie slept through it. It was only a few seconds, and I didn't get a photo because it was so fleeting and I wanted to just really see it. But I will never forget seeing such a beautiful creature. Here's hoping for more moose sightings in Alaska! 

After a few hours on the road, we rolled into town in Dawson Creek, British Columbia (not related in any way to the 90s TV show) dirty and a bit tired. We left totally refreshed. Everyone including Willie got clean, we slept on soft white sheets, we ordered some pretty decadent room service, and we had a little impromptu spa night in our room. We stayed at the Stonebridge Hotel, which is pet friendly, and we really liked it. I'll leave you with some shots from our Instagrams/Insta stories:

Next, we're setting off across the rest of British Columbia and the Yukon to Alaska. I'm pre-writing this post and scheduling it for the weekend; by the time this goes live, we should be in the Yukon! I'm so excited to see it. Thanks so much for following along on our journey! I love recapping it and making sure I remember it all.

Driving to Alaska and Back: Los Angeles to Montana

Hello from British Columbia! As I'm writing this, we are in a hotel room in a tiny town called Dawson Creek (no relation to the 90s TV show). We are LOVING this journey beyond words!!!

So far, we've traveled through California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Alberta (Canada), and British Columbia (Canada). We have seen temperatures range from 113 to low 40s. Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta took our breath away, and we could barely adjust our eyes to the flat serenity of the Great Salt Lake in Utah (pictured above). Sleeping under the stars has been the sweetest thing. So far, every mile has been smooth sailing, and I'm thankful.

I haven't gotten a chance to write a recap for the blog until now, but I know there's no way I could squeeze our journey from LA to British Columbia all into one post. So, today I'm going to write about driving from LA to Montana, and then in a few days I will share photos and stories from Alberta and British Columbia! 

Here's a virtual walk-through of the past few days on the road for us:

We left LA bright and early on Saturday, September 2. I was ridiculously excited and hyper to FINALLY be leaving for our long-awaited journey! Willie had no idea what was in store. Grace needed coffee.

About 3 or 4 hours into our journey, we passed by Seven Magic Mountains, an outdoor art installation near Las Vegas. It's just right off the road and totally free to visit. We decided to stop to see it and let Willie go to the bathroom, and I snapped the photo above. So cool! It's only going to be there for one more year (it was intended as a temporary art installation), so go see it if you can.

Then we drove through Vegas (which Grace had never seen before) and onto Arizona and Utah. It was during this stretch that we saw the car thermometer reach 113 degrees. Yikes!

While we were driving, we lost 1 hour due to the time difference--Utah is on Mountain Time, one hour ahead of California. We ended up getting to our campsite around 4pm (the picture above). We camped at Snow Canyon State Park. It is hands down one of the most stunning campgrounds I have ever seen! It's near Zion National Park, so it has a bit of that red rocks look to it. It was HOT outside and we were kind of anxious for the sun to go down, but I still couldn't get over how gorgeous it was.

Willie found some shade in a nook of our campsite while we waited for cooler temps.

Because it was so hot, we couldn't make a fire. I whipped up some chilled dishes instead.

Dinner al fresco among the red rocks

If you're looking for a place to camp near St. George, Utah (the closest town), I would very highly recommend Snow Canyon, with the caveat that it does get hot in the summer. The bathrooms were super clean, too! We didn't see another person the whole time, not even a campground host.

The next day we woke up early, again (side note: I think the latest we have "slept in" on this trip is 7:30am and we LOVE it . . . the early bird seriously gets the worm if you're driving to see beautiful places!) and drove to Antelope Island, Utah. Antelope Island is an island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. But before driving onto the island (there is a causeway to get there), we tooled around Salt Lake City a bit to see the main temple and get some groceries. Salt Lake City is the Mormon capital of the world from what I've learned. We visited on a Sunday, so the city felt kind of empty with everyone in temple.

The Utah State Capitol building

Willie enjoying some shade. Salt Lake City was so pretty!

Then we arrived on Antelope Island, set up camp for the night, and took in the views. We camped at the Bridger Bay campground, which I would also recommend (though it's pretty rustic; only porta-potties and no running water). Once it got close to sunset, we decided to walk down the salt flats to the actual lake's edge for a little pre-dinner adventure.

Willie was very curious and waded right in! It was absolutely stunning at sunset.

The next morning leaving the island was just as beautiful:

And we saw a bunch of buffalo just hanging out on the side of the road! This one was having an early breakfast.

Our destination for the next day was Helena, Montana. Neither of us had ever been to Montana before and didn't really know what to expect. It was AWESOME. I'm going to sound like such an LA city slicker saying this, but it just felt like a western movie set. So cool, old fashioned, authentic, gritty, homey, and cute all at the same time. We absolutely loved it and really want to go back and spend more time.

We stayed at this Airbnb and it was so perfect. It's walking distance to downtown, dog friendly, has free (!!) laundry on site, and is just so cute, charming, and quintessentially Montanan (at least to someone who's never been to Montana before, haha!).

We walked around the adorable little town of Helena, and for dinner we got takeout pizza from a local place Bullman's Pizza. We loved it and would recommend. They have one pizza called the bitterroot that has pistachios, rosemary, and red onion as toppings . . . so unexpected but AMAZING.

An awesome mural in downtown Helena

I could hardly believe it, but after Helena our next destination was Banff, Alberta! None of the drives on these first three days was terribly long, so I was pretty surprised that it only took 4 days to drive to Canada from Los Angeles.

We woke up in Helena very excited to cross the border. On the way out of town, we stopped at the Dirty Dozen doughnut shop, which was incredible. I really recommend trying a Tiger Tail if you're ever in Helena :)

To be continued . . . Stay tuned for another recap very soon, and thanks for reading this very long and photo-heavy post!

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.

Planning the Drive from California to Alaska--and Back!

Hi there! If you've just found this page through Google and are interested in driving from California to Alaska, you are in the right place. Since blogging our trip, this post in particular has gotten a lot of search engine traffic, so I wanted to write a short new introduction for anyone just starting out on planning their drive. The blog post below, on planning the route, is from August 2017. We drove to Alaska and back in September 2017. If you want to see all of my posts on that drive--recaps, takeaways and musings, recommendations, packing lists, etc.--click here. Overall, if you are thinking about doing this drive, just GO. I was unemployed for a month and threw caution to the wind and had the best month of my entire life (so far). I can't recommend the experience enough. And if you have logistical questions, feel free to ask on my Contact page.

Without further ado, here's the original post on planning the route:

I cannot tell you how excited I am to start a new category on my blog today--our California to Alaska road trip! A big part of the reason I started this blog when I did was to share about this upcoming trip. We dreamed it up a year ago. I'm not exactly sure how it even popped into our heads, but I've wanted to see Alaska my whole life and have never been. When we started talking about going, it quickly became clear that we could not go without Casper. He always loved road trips, and this one (all 7,200 miles of it) would be his crowning glory of all road trips.

One of the clearest memories I have from the "wake" we had for Casper is sobbing to our LA friends and family, barely able to choke out the words, "I just wish he could come with us to Alaska." Even though it stings to remember that day because I was SO incredibly devastated, it's a warm memory, too, because I can still feel the love and physical presence surrounding me during that sob-fest--friends' hands holding mine and arms around me. I remember standing in the kitchen that day with one friend, wondering aloud how this could ever be okay. Will we still go on the trip? How can we do it without our dog? Well, as the weeks have passed, healing has happened. This trip is going to be more meaningful than we ever imagined when we started planning it in 2016. In the car with us will be Willie, Casper's chosen brother, and also a cherished wooden box of ashes, all that we have left of Casper. Yes, we are going to scatter (some, not all of) Casper's ashes on the trip.

But backing up a bit, I want to share our planning process for this trip. I would conservatively estimate that I have spent 100 hours just researching for this trip (not counting the hours we have spent shopping for supplies, talking about it, packing, getting the car ready, etc.). A LOT of that research (probably the majority) has been reading people's blogs who have driven from the continental US through Canada to Alaska. I've learned so much and been so inspired reading about others' travel. Here are a few favorite blogs that detail their trips North:

Gone with the Wynns--amazing blog written by a couple who drove their RV through Canada to Alaska. They have dozens of posts about the journey and provide a lot of detail about things like road conditions, crossing the border, etc.

My Itchy Travel Feet--good practical advice and city-by-city recaps of driving the Alaska Highway

Mali Mish--another good guide to the distance they covered each day

North to Alaska--this is a company, but they have a page called "Community Routes" with dozens of little travel journals from people who have done the trip!

This isn't intended as a criticism of any other blogs, but one thing I felt myself craving when reading about people's road trips to Alaska was detail. I wanted to know everything about their planning process, each stop they made, and just generally how they did it. So get ready for a TON of detail in this post. If you are planning a similar trip (even if you're reading this long after I post it), I would love to answer any questions you have--Contact me!

Though I am a big fan of spontaneous trips (our Yosemite trip was planned in less than a week and our recent Santa Cruz mountains getaway was pretty last-minute, too), the #1 thing I can recommend in planning a trip where you're traversing a continent is to plan it well in advance. From what I've read, in summer months it's totally possible to drive to Alaska with no advance reservations for lodging and without a clear plan of a destination each day. That said, for us this is a trip of a lifetime. In planning it I tried to build in flexibility and room for spontaneity, but I also wanted the best of the best for us. I wanted to stay at the coveted campsites that you have to book the day they become available online (true story, I set my alarm for 5am to book some campsites the minute they opened--and later that day the whole campground was full). I wanted to find a dreamy suite overlooking Vancouver, and I wanted to rent adorable cabins in the wilderness that fill up months ahead of time. Yes, you can fly by the seat of your pants, and that would be fun in a different way. But for all my fellow type-A people reading, here's how we planned our Alaska trip!

Trip Stats:

Origin: Los Angeles, California

Farthest Point: Anchorage, Alaska

Ending destination: Los Angeles, California (7,200 miles total; 123 hours in the car--almost the distance of driving between my hometown of Raleigh, NC, and Los Angeles three times).

Dates on the road: September 2 to September 25, 2017

States and Provinces Covered: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Alaska, Washington, and Oregon.

International Border Crossings: 4

Time Zones: 3

Here's a map of our route (as you'll see, we're taking one way up and another way back down, so we can see more of the continent). Taking the seemingly-less-direct route through Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Alberta on the way up only adds a few hours to the entire trip, and it lets us see Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada.

Planning Timeline:

10-12 months out: decide dates and destinations within the trip. Grace and I did this over two days at favorite coffee shops, looking at a map and doing a lot of googling where to stay and information about the various towns along the way. I ended up tweaking a few things as I later went and actually booked accommodations for each night (i.e., sometimes I would end up picking a town 30 minutes further down the road if it had better hotel or campground options, etc.), but it was really helpful to have a general structure that Grace and I had agreed on together for each day of the trip.

6-10 months out: reserve accommodations for the trip during this time. The reason I did this over such a long span of time was because (a) I didn't want to drop around $2000 on accommodations all at once (sidenote: this trip hasn't been cheap as far as road trips go. I am going to talk about the financial side of things and budgeting in a separate post coming soon); and (b) some reservation windows didn't open until a certain number of months out, especially for campgrounds. So instead, over a period of 5 or 6 months I made reservations little by little. The first things I booked were Airbnb's and campsites (especially at the more desirable places like Banff and Jasper) because those tend to fill up quickly. Hotels seem to have more availability. It might seem daunting to book accommodations for several weeks' worth of travel, often only staying one night in each location, but it's the BEST feeling when you book everything. We have over 20 different reservations for our road trip, and the day I booked the last one I opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate. That was back in May--and having it all done months before our trip even begins has allowed us to go into it relaxed, not frantic.

Also 6-10 months out: locate your passports if you're driving through another country, make sure they won't expire within 6 months of your travel, and look into car insurance for the country you'll be going to if necessary. 

4-5 months out: decide what you're going to do with your job, home, car (we're taking Grace's car and I normally park on the street and don't want to leave it out that long, so I'm putting mine in storage), etc. If you're going on a trip as long as ours, it's probably a good idea to figure out how that will work with your job well in advance.

2-3 months out: start thinking about packing lists, supplies, and dog-related needs if you're bringing a dog. Canada has certain requirements for bringing a pet (as well as pet food) over the border, so we made a special appointment with our vet to talk about it. 

1 month out/last few weeks before leaving: purchase supplies you will need, get your car serviced to make sure it's in tip-top shape for the drive, call your credit card company to make sure they know you'll be traveling and won't freeze your card, get some cash (including Canadian dollars) in advance, set up an international cell phone plan (I have Verizon and they have a good deal for using your phone in Canada), pack your bags, and say goodbye to friends and family for a few weeks!

How I Have Prepared and Stayed Organized:

A couple of weeks ago (at the one-month mark 'til leaving for our trip), I surprised Grace with this:

Now affectionately called "The Book." It is the product of months and months of research, planning, saving, booking, and more. Basically, I have a tab for each day of the trip and under that tab I have a printout of our accommodations reservation (whether campsite, hotel, or vacation rental), a list of addresses and phone numbers we need, a breakdown of roadside attractions and recommendations, and details like what time the sun rises and sets (we are changing time zones frequently and sometimes the sunset time will shift by as a much as an hour from day to day on the trip). I also have maps for each area where we'll be spending time. Making something with this level of detail might not be your travel style, and that's fine! But we want to be able to unplug and not look at our phones as much as possible, so that's why I made The Book instead of planning on using apps or notes on my phone constantly.

Before The Book was complete, I used (and still use) a google spreadsheet to keep me organized. This was especially helpful while I was going through the slow process of booking all of our accommodations. Here's a screenshot of my setup (with the exact places we're staying removed--sorry Internet, but I don't want to put the exact day and campsite number of where we'll be camping--after our trip is over I'll be more than happy to share every single detail of where we slept).

As you're probably gathering from this post, my dream and heart for this trip is that it will be carefree, without the need to find a place to stay on the fly or do research while we travel. With that in mind I've tried to be extremely detail-oriented and do everything I can possibly do ahead of time. An example of that is pre-ordering our Canada Parks Discovery Pass, which you have to have to go into the Canadian National Parks (seen in the first photo of this post). This year they are free to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary of confederation (such a happy coincidence once I found that out--we had no idea when we planned this trip), but you still have to get a pass and hang it in your car. They take about a month to ship. I'm glad I found that out back in February or March, because now we can breeze right into the parks without having to wait at a ranger station or get in line to get a pass. I'm hoping little things like that will make our travel smoother, especially on days when we're cramming a lot in.

Good Rules of Thumb:

As much as Grace and I love camping, we also really love being comfortable and well rested. For that reason, we are doing no more than two back-to-back nights of sleeping in a tent on this trip. Three is doable as well, but given how many hours we're spending on the road, we really need to get a good nights' sleep each night. Also, we want to be able to take showers. So for example, once we get into Canada, we are spending our first night there at a campground in Banff National Park.  We are spending the next night at a campground in Jasper National Park. We bookended those two nights in a tent with more traditional accommodations on either side--the night before we get to Banff we are staying in a home rental in Helena, Montana, and the night after we leave Jasper we rented a hotel room in Dawson Creek, British Columbia (yes, like the show! I don't think it's in any way related, though).

If you are planning this trip with a friend or significant other, know that it takes a LOT of work and I really recommend dividing the labor based on what comes naturally to each of you. So for us, I'm the type-A planner and Grace is most definitely not. But she more than makes up for that in other wonderful gifts. She is going to be the driver on this road trip, so I wanted to plan all of the destinations and distances with her to make sure she was okay with it. But for things like hotel and campground reservations, I'm more of the one who loves poring over yelp reviews and selecting the perfect place. So Grace was happy to leave the reservations to me, while she helped structure the outline of the trip. Grace also provided much-needed reality checks for me during the process, something that she's great at. For instance, I got a wild idea that we should try to go to Wyoming and see Yellowstone as part of this trip. Grace (not at all negatively) veto'ed that idea. I'm so glad she did. Planning it with her sense of practicality in the mix helped make this trip something we can actually do, rather than biting off more than we can chew.

Itinerary:

In case you're planning a similar trip, this is the itinerary we are planning on following:

Day 1: LA to St. George, Utah

Day 2: St. George to Antelope Island, Utah (island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake)

Day 3: Antelope Island to Helena, Montana

Day 4: Helena to Banff, Alberta (crossing into Canada!)

Day 5: Banff to Jasper (driving the Icefields Parkway, supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world!)

Day 6: Jasper to Dawson Creek, British Columbia

Day 7: Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson, BC

Day 7: Fort Nelson to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

Day 8: Watson Lake to Whitehorse, YT

Day 9: Whitehorse to Tok, ALASKA(!!)

Day 10: Tok to Anchorage, Alaska

Days 11-14: Staying at our "base camp" in Anchorage with various excursions and day trips possible (trying to keep it low key to rest)

Day 15: Anchorage back to Tok

Day 16: Tok to Haines Junction, YT

Day 17: Haines Junction to Nugget City, YT (cutest name award)

Day 18: Nugget City to Bell II, BC

Day 19: Bell II to Telkwa, BC

Day 20: Telkwa to Williams Lake, BC

Day 21: Williams Lake to Vancouver, BC

Day 22: Vancouver to Portland, OR (back in the US!)

Day 23: Portland to Weed, California (yep that's the name of the town)

Day 24: Weed to Berkeley, CA 

Day 25: Berkeley to HOME!

If you are going to make the drive and want pet-friendly recommendations for any of these places, I will gladly let you know where we stayed and how we liked it once we get back from the trip (feel free to Contact me). I also plan on blogging updates during the trip when possible (wifi might be scarce). Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our planning process! We leave in 16 days!