30 Below | Alaska Travel

Are you one of those people who sits around waiting for the snow to melt because it's too much of a hassle to just pack a bag, get outside and leave the weather behind you?

IF that's you, I ain't judgin...but I'm judgin a little. Life is so exciting! Places are so exciting! People are, well, some are so exciting. What are you waiting for? Pack a bag, make the effort and go do it - you can sleep when you're dead.

While I can fully agree that a global pandemic has truly put a damper on our International travels, Jeremy and I have been finding fun little adventures to get us out of the house, travel within the United States and experience the snow falling, the air becoming more crisp, and the glorious sunsets each night.

I can understand the conscious decision to stay indoors and refrain from the possibility of catching a cold, I mean Covid during this time, but I am here to tell you that your next adventure is just around the river bend. Jeremy and I spent the week before Thanksgiving taking in the glorious sites of Alaska. Many of the state's excursions were shut down due to the pandemic, but it did not lessen the trip in any way.

Living in Denver is not only a fabulous concept in itself, but living near a high traffic International Airport hub makes it all the more exciting when choosing our next trip. We are able to take so many direct flights, its unreal! This time, Alaska was on our mind.

Flying from Denver, Colorado to Anchorage, Alaska has breath taking views from above. Just looking out your tiny plane window captured fascinating views of many, many glaciers surrounding the area about 30 minutes prior to landing. The astonishment in Jeremy's eyes, and we hadn't even landed yet, let me know just how exciting this trip was going to be.

After landing at 3:30 AK time, we snagged a rental (shoutout Hertz), checked in to our hotel, and found a fabulous local pub serving up top notch food for dinner. F Street Station not only followed the Covid guidelines (waited outside in 15 degrees for a table, due to no crowding) but also served up a mean fresh Halibut Caesar Salad..that was TOO DIE FOR, and offered a quaint assortment of local craft brews as well.

We stuffed our faces to the point of no return. It was necessary to pop the jean button open and go for a drive to find some Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). One of my favorite blogs to check out is Travel+Leisure (also, their Instagram is bomb) for the simple fact of how accurate the places they suggest are. While in Anchorage, we adventured to a spot called Beluga Point, but had no luck. With that said, we took the liberty of driving 6 hours, YES 6, the next day to Fairbanks, Alaska, checked into a Marriott Hotel and drove an extra hour to Chena Hot Springs (listed on the Travel+Leisure site). Jeremy and I had been to Chena Hot Springs before and loved every second of it so we knew it needed to be on the list again!

sidenote: While talking too much is my strong suite, science is not. If it fancies ya, then here is a link for Chena Hot Springs and what makes the water, the water. HAVE AT IT.

The first time Jeremy and I went to the Hot Springs, we soaked from 8:30p - 11:45p in -32 degree weather. It was so relaxing, soothing and very entertaining. Because it was so cold outside, we were able to turn my luscious locks into ridiculous frozen shapes on my head. Thankfully most of it is still attached #NoBreakageHereFolks.

After the soaking this time around, we showered off, changed and went in search of The Northern Lights. It was around 9p at this point and those bad boys were out dancing around. Pure green, majestic shapes, frolicking through the sky, lighting it up as if heaven was having a party and confetti was flying. Get the picture? We found the dark sky right out back of the Activity Center at Chena Hot Spring Lodge. The experience was not only magnificent but also ridiculously cold. Thankfully Chena's Activity Center offered an arrangement of coffee, tea, hot chocolate and all your souvenir needs. We were able to capture incredible photos just by using our iphones (11 pro and 12 pro).

Next day we drove up to The North Pole. Definitely a great experience if you have little kids...We consider our selves to fall under the category of adult children, therefore we enjoyed it far too much. Up in the NP, Santa has his reindeer outside for all to see, the large workshop filled with Christmas creations (for purchase, of course!), sweets and hot treats for your your warming up needs and massive amounts of decorations to light the Christmas fire in anyones eyes.

After dinner, we spent the evening looking for The Northern Lights again, and I must say the second night had a better showing of The Dance (not the one by Garth Brooks). This time we used our heads, setup the GoPro on top of the car and took some Bad Mama Jama time lapse videos to capture the movements of the lights. After the cold killed the battery 40min in, we were pretty satisfied with what it captured. Check it out on our IG Feed here: @dibsonadventure

Next day, we drove back to Fairbanks and figured we should do at least one Winter activity before we left, so we took a sleigh ride in the back country of Anchorage, Alaska before our red eye home that night. Horse Drawn Carriage Co. is the company we went with and I would do it again! -although I would definitely pack a different jacket. Nothing like wearing your new North Face 550 insulated down and it smell like a horse barn by the end of it. #DryCleaningAnyone? John, the owner and sleigh driver, was so kind and accommodating. He went out of his way to schedule according to our plans and was willing to take a break at the end for photos by the stream out back.

While Alaska captured our hearts, stomachs and chills (we're still thawing) it's always my favorite to get home to a nice clean house with pine tree smells (from my Scentsy) surrounding my 7 hour snooze.

DON’T FORGET

"Live through love, learn through patience, and accept kindness with gratitude"

:Liv