First Time in Alaska

We are the Dawsons. Our family consists of Joe (consultant), Gabi (customer service manager) and JJ (high school freshman). We lead busy, active lives that seem to get busier each year. We love to spend time together at the beach, in the mountains or simply 'hanging out' but it gets more difficult to carve out that time as JJ gets older and more involved with his school and friends. The one thing we ALWAYS do is take a really fabulous summer vacation - just the three of us - and we take turns planning the trip. This past summer (June 22 to July-08-2007) Joe's dream to visit Alaska came true. (check out our photo by the totem pole at the Anchorage Cultural Center!) His vision to visit the entire state was daunting and is why it took us over a year to plan the perfect summer vacation on our first time Alaska trip.

The first thing we did was try to find some help in planning our first trip to Alaska online and while there were some helpful websites we had so many questions. How do you decide what part of Alaska to visit? Should you take a cruise or create your own special Alaska tour? We explored visiting Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay, Fairbanks, Anchorage, the Inside Passage, the Kanai Peninsula (Seward, Homer, Whittier and the Kenai Fjords) Denali National Park, Mount McKinley and driving the Alaska Highway. We also had to decide whether cruise ship, tour bus, Alaskan Railroad, motor home or some combination was best for us. The distances are great and vacations are all too short - so serious consideration and decisions had to be made.