Our Trip to Alaska

Greetings again from the Malans! We took a bit of a sabbatical from blogging this summer due to being extremely busy, but we are back and ready to start sharing our lives again. The best way to start is by sharing about our most recent vacation we took.

We recently got to take a fabulous vacation to both Seattle and Alaska. We had been planning this vacation for quite some time and it finally arrived. Here are some tidbits about our journey:

Day 1: Getting to Seattle

To begin our trip we had to drive from Indianapolis to Chicago to catch our flight to Seattle. On our way to Chicago our electrical system in our car decided to go out. The car was driving fine, so we weren't worried much until we realized that not only could we not run the air conditioner, but that our windows would not roll down either. It was about 85 degrees outside and we had to sit in a hot car, sweating for about an hour and a half. We didn't know what the fate of our car would be, but we managed to make it to Chicago (opening our doors to get air every opportunity that we had) and made our flight out to Seattle. All the meanwhile our faithful friend Andrew picked up our car from us at the airport and took it to a mechanic to get fixed while we were away. The Lord was good and worked all that out for us.

Day 2: Visiting Leavenworth, Washington

We went with Christina's parents to the small town of Leavenworth in Washington. Leavenworth was just a normal town until about 40 years ago when the city decided to boost their tourism by adding a section to their town that resembles a Bavarian village. Ben had never been there before. It was a quick tour of the town, but it was great to go there and see all the shops and eat some delicious salt water taffy. Leavenworth All in all we spent more time in the car than actually touring the town, but Ben was glad to see some new sites and it was a great chance to chat with Christina's parents. Plus, we took the "scenic route" through the beautiful Cascade Mountains, and that was great.

Day 3: Savannah's birthday party

I know it seems insignificant to mention a birthday party, but the thing is that we rarely get to go to family birthday parties since we live so far away. It was great being at Christina's niece's fourth birthday party and to be able to celebrate with her. It is so fun reliving the experience of birthday parties. Kids get excited over the littlest things, which is awesome.

Day 4: Fly to Anchorage

After spending about 3 full days in Seattle the two of us flew out to Anchorage Alaska for our own personal vacation for the summer. We met a nice lady on the plane that gave us lots of advice for our trip and ideas of good places to go and sites to see. She was very resourceful for us. The only bad news we got was that we were going to Alaska during their rainy season. We had prepared for colder weather when we packed, but not wet weather. Sure enough when we landed it was pouring down rain. We were a bit disappointed, but didn't want it to wreck our time. We were determined to make the best of it. Another funny thing about our first day in Anchorage was that we were driving around in the pouring down rain trying to find a place to eat. We found a place, walked in, sat down and looked at the menu. It turned out we picked what seemed to be the most expensive steak restaurant in town. We laughed about it and ate a great meal anyways.

Day 5: Glacier cruise

The highlight of our first full day in Alaska was taking a Glacier Cruise. We learned several interesting things about glaciers while we took a 1-hour boat cruise to see Portage Glacier. We didn't get to see any break off, but there were several that had already broken off and were floating in the lake.

Day 6: Hiking in Denali National Park
Unlike most national parks, Denali does not have many hiking trails, but the few it does have are very scenic. We started with a steep hike up Mount Healy and were treated with a wonderful panoramic view of the valley below. We had to hike in a little rain, but it was worth it. Later in the day we hiked to a nearby lake. The lake was beautiful, and it had some beavers busy cutting down some trees.

Day 7: Taking a shuttle bus 66 miles into Denali
We took an 8-hour bus trip into the park and saw several mountains and animals along the way. Some of the animals we saw were: Moose, Grizzly bears, a fox, a wolf, a marmot, and several Dall Sheep. We were able to see the bottom of Mount McKinley (the tallest mountain in North America), but not the top because of the clouds. It is actually pretty normal for Mt. McKinley to be completely covered with clouds, so we were actually lucky to see the bottom of it.

Day 8: Fun in Fairbanks
Just outside the city of Fairbanks is a town called North Pole, Alaska. We drove there and got to meet Santa Claus at his "house" and saw some of his reindeer. Then we mailed some postcards from the "North Pole" post office.

The main reason that Fairbanks grew to be a city was because of the gold rush. They have a park called Pioneer Park that has several replicas of log cabins and some actual machinery that was used for finding gold. They also have a Salmon Bake every night, so we joined them for some for some amazing fish and prime rib, along with other great food.

After dinner, we drove out to the Chena Hot Springs, a natural hot spring where you can go swim and relax. They've turned it into a sort of shallow pool with a fountain in the middle. Most of the water is comfortably warm, but there are some places along the side that are extremely hot! When the water comes out of the rock it is 145 degrees, so we quickly learned which places to avoid!

We were hoping to see the Northern Lights, and Fairbanks would have been our best chance to see them, but it was cloudy every night of our trip, so we didn't get to see them. However, we bought a book that has several great photos of the Lights.

Day 9-10: Return to Indy
The nickname for Fairbanks is the "Golden Heart of Alaska". The "Golden" refers to the gold rush and the city is close to the center of the state. Therefore, Fairbanks has a Golden Heart Plaza that has a nice fountain and statue of Eskimos, along with several plaques of historical information about the state. This plaza is positioned right by the river that runs through town. it's a great place to visit.

Our trip home had four main components. Part 1 was to drive from Fairbanks to Anchorage, seeing the same great scenery had seen on the way up. Along the way we stopped for lunch at Denali and picked up a few more souvenirs. We made it to Anchorage in time to get some photos developed before getting on the plane. Part 2 was to fly to Seattle, where Christina's parents picked us up and took us to breakfast during the 4 hour layover. It was fun to show them the photos and tell the stories of our trip. Part 3 was to fly to Chicago where Andrew met us with our repaired car. Part 4 was the drive back to Indiana. We had really enjoyed our trip, but it sure felt good to get home!