I closed my eyes and forced myself to sleep as the plane took off through a storm. Even though we booked our flights through a travel agent, we were told that seats aren’t reserved for all internal flights throughout the US. Wade & I were made to wait until last to see which two seats were available.. for EVERY flight in the US and we were never sitting next to each other. But we both got a window seat for this flight so that’s a positive! No sooner did I fall asleep were we woken up to tighten seatbelts and pull our seats upright as we were coming in for landing.
I felt a tap on my shoulder from Wade who was sitting behind me and pointing towards the window. Both of our mouths dropped as we realised it was snowing outside and the runway beneath us was covered in thick ice! I don’t think we really prepared or understood just how cold Alaska would be in March. Both only wearing jeans & jumpers that we would wear in an Australian winter, we stepped outside to what felt like an ice-skating rink! But it just made me all the more excited that we had finally landed in ALASKA!
We flagged a taxi and made our way into Downtown Anchorage. It was early morning and the sun hadn’t risen yet. We checked into our accommodation, showered and slept for a couple of hours before setting out to explore the snow covered town. In the photo you can see us standing on a footpath – covered in slippery ice! That made for a fun day walking the streets trying to find shops selling snow gear. Snow clothes are so expensive in Australia and I actually thought Alaska would be too because it is so remote but we found bargains everywhere! Snow boots for -40′ F weather for $40 US, Snow Pants for $30 US and snow jackets for $70 US – Stoked! Everyone in Alaska was so friendly! Everyone was happy to say hello & offered to take photos for us and I even received a complement from a girl who liked my Aussie accent!
We walked to Westchester Lagoon, not realising that it was a lot further than the map made it out to be. I don’t think the -10 weather helped but it was worth the walk! We didn’t actually see the lagoon, and for a while thought we were in the wrong spot until we saw kids ice skating around on the frozen lake – so beautiful! We wandered along the Tony Knowles Coastal Rail but knew we had same distance to walk back to our hotel and we were absolutely freezing at this stage so we started the walk back, passing snow covered houses and cars on the way. We stopped at a pub for dinner and some drinks then jumped in a cab for the ride home.
The next day we walked the streets of Anchorage and did some shopping as it was too cold to be outside for too long. We walked to Resolution Park to have a look at Captain Cook’s monument and the views across the water way of Susitna Mountain. Unfortunately the look out area was closed due to snow cover so we couldn’t see the monument but we did get a nice view of the mountain – Breathtaking! We wanted to go somewhere nice for dinner, and after researching a few places we decided to head to the Crows Nest as it is known for it’s amazing views over Downtown Anchorage, The Chugach Mountains and Cook Inlet and the food was absolutely delicious too!
Hotel: Ramada Inn, Downtown
Room type: 1 King Bed Suite – breakfast included
Price: $90 per night
ONLY HAPPY WHEN I TRAVEL 