It's been about a week and 1/2 since we have been home. Establishing ourselves back into a more routine life has been slow. As you can expect, after actively planning our Alaska trip for a year, and even mentally planning for many years before, now that it is over we have spent time processing it and refocusing on our Vermont life. First, sleeping has been important and Ira came back with a cold (typical with traveling). We have talked about a few things to share if others think about Alaska. Most have already been stated, but here are a few others:
1. Loving it: Be prepared to want to go back or maybe no leave! We can only say, if we had visited when we were 18, be probably would not have come back to Vermont. Vermont is amazing! It is home and my heart lives here. But, Alaska inspired something more wild in us - it is so alive, majestic and remote. Life is lived on a grander scale.
2. Know where you are going: Do plan ahead and do your research. There are not many places for lodging, so plan and reserve ahead. That said, there are enough remote locations that if you want to tent it anywhere, you can do that!
3. Food Planning: Food costs a lot! You can save money by preparing some, or all, of your own meals and carrying your own snacks. If you have a car, stop and buy a Styrofoam cooler and keep it packed with ice and throw food in it. Everything was much more expensive even seafood caught on the dock (example: Subway sub - in Vt. $5 or so - in AK $6.50 - $8; dinners were around $30 for the main course; loaf of bread - $6.00 in some places).
4. Stores: Unless you are in Anchorage or larger towns, there are NOT grocery stores on every corner like the lower 48! There may be very, very small stores - some of which may not even be easily recognized as a store - but substantial supplies all around are not there. There re not many road in Alaska, and most are remote. If you are out touring, carry with you what you will need for the day.
5. Tourists: We were told Alaska had tourists. We never could have imagined how many! They rely on tourists as their major industry. Tour buses are everywhere. If we were going to stop anywhere, we made sure there were no tour buses, or two, or three, only because we knew it would be very busy. One day, we stopped into a grocery store outside of Talkeetna (the only one by the way) and buses of tourists were inside getting their lunches. Busy!!!
6. Leaning about Local Life: Ira and I are quite laid back in our manner of dress. Hiking clothes and boots (preferably dirty) are our most comfortable attire. What this attire did for us in Alaska was to allow us to blend in to the "locals." We found the locals chatted with us a great deal, just as if we were a local. It was interesting as the real locals were exceptionally nice to everyone, tourists certainly. But, when we were standing near the locals, they seemed to roll us right into the conversation: "Sure was a hot summer, wasn't it?", "Did you hear about XXX down the road?", etc. The difference was ever so slight, but it was there and it was fun. Frankly, we kind of felt more like we belonged there and didn't really feel like a tourist. We attribute that to our years and years of reading and researching Alaska. It helped in making us very comfortable there.
7. Attire: DO NOT bother with any dress clothes - that is if you really want to see Alaska! We went to a couple of VERY nice restaurants when we were there for dinner and we wore jeans (okay they were our dress jeans with no holes!) as did many other people. Dress for cool/ not so warm/ and wet! Anything goes as long as you dress casually. And, I highly recommend backpacks! Yes, we always carry ours, but even walking around a wildlife preserve, a backpack will carry your clothing layers, food, sun glasses and camera!
8. Reading: If you are a reader, we had a lot of fun on the rainy days looking at books by local authors. As with Vermont being a haven or artists and writers, so is Alaska. We both found great books by Alaskans.
There are so many aspects of Alaska we could share, but these are a few that have come to mind since we came back from there.
Note: We are already talking about the next time we go to Alaska. Alaska has us - heart and soul. That said, it's good to be home, too.
