Dog-Sledding in Alaska, 2015

While planning for my first visit to Alaska, I searched for some of the best activities to do and so many great options came up. I decided to pick just one, since many of them were pretty expensive, and save the others for another trip! What jumped out at me immediately was dog-sledding on a glacier......and taking a helicopter to get there! Bucket list item after bucket list item. 

Every stop on Turnagain Arm was breathtaking

View from the top of Alyeska

This tour was in a small town just outside of Anchorage (along the Turnagain Arm) called Girdwood. I wasn't quite sure how long it would take, and being my father's daughter, naturally, I got there extremely early. Luckily, Girdwood is also home to the Alyeska resort, which is a popular ski mountain in Alaska. During the summer months, you can take the gondola up to the top, hike around, enjoy the view, have a meal, etc. So before my tour, I made that stop. What was hard to believe was how much altitude I gained on the gondola, yet we still weren't at Denver's altitude of mile high! But beauty is everywhere - no doubt about it. 

Next was the main event. I found the hangar where I signed my waiver and did the safety lessons. The company I used was Alpine Air. This was a bit terrifying, to be honest. The past few years, I've had a bit of anxiety when flying, and having never been on a helicopter, I was nervous what it might be like. There was a family of four and one other individual on this trip with me, but realistically, I was by myself and didn't want to let my fear show. But as it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. The helicopter ride was only about five minutes to the glacier, but it was so incredibly smooth. I was shocked and how peaceful it was, plus we all had a headset on and loved talking to each other through the mouthpieces.

When we arrived on the glacier, we saw so many mini-igloos, which were the homes for all of the dogs. They assured us that the dogs were extremely well taken care of on this glacier. Many of them are descendants of dogs that race in the Iditarod, and they are doing some of their training on the glacier. There were also several campsites for the guides that were there. They explained to us how they LIVE on the glacier all summer long. Once a week they go down to shower, get food, send emails, etc, but the rest of the week they live with the pups to take care of them - wow!

The tour is set up that only half can dogsled at a time, so my group was second. But they have an incredible way to distract you - with puppies! Yup, they have puppies on the mountain for you to hold and snuggle. I tried to sneak one back with me, but they have a strict policy on not taking a bag up with you. I think this is solely to prevent you from taking a puppy. :)






Next was my turn on the dog sled. I sat on the front, while the guide did his thing standing behind me. There really aren't words to even describe how incredible this was, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. So fun, so peaceful, and I even had a dog on my team named Denver! So meant to be. :) No questions asked, this adventure was money well spent.

Fairbanks, Alaska - August 2015

Just outside of Anchorage, along the Seward highway

In 2015, I took a new job with the American Cancer Society. This new role meant I would now be covering a four state territory, Alaska being one of those states. Yup, you read that right. No one quite knows why my territory in Colorado included that state, but I wasn't going to complain.....I was now crossing another state off of my list. :)



August I planned my first trip and I intentionally added on a couple of extra days so I could do some exploring on my own. First up was a visit to Fairbanks. This was a part of the business trip, so I did some research on what I could explore while I was there. 

As I drove to dinner one night, I made plans to stop at the pipeline. There is a section of the pipeline right off the highway where you can stop and check it out and learn more about the infrastructure. It also gives you the ability to better understand just how large it is.

The next day I drove about twenty minutes out of town to head to the North Pole. Yup - I went to Santa's home! North Pole, Alaska is a small town dedicated to Santa and Christmas! There are reindeer that you can see and feed during certain times of the year (I didn't) and a great gift shop with everything you can imagine. There is even a service where you can pay to have a letter sent from Santa to kiddos right before Christmas season starts. I ordered a letter for each of my nieces so they would know not to be naughty!

Pagosa Springs, Colorado - May 2015

The drive into Pagosa Springs

In May of 2015, Bryan and I wanted to take a road trip to one of many of the great places in Colorado. We quickly decided to check out the hot springs of Pagosa Springs, Colorado - a trip about five hours southwest of Denver. Because Bryan was still in school, we wanted to keep costs down as well, so we made the decision to drive halfway to Buena Vista, camp for one night, and then drive the remainder of the way and stay at the Pagosa Hot Springs Resort.

Buena Vista Views

We rolled into Buena Vista later than we expected, so the check-in counter at the KOA campgrounds was almost closed. But to our luck, because we were late, we had missed a storm. It was so cold that the check-in counter asked us if we wanted to upgrade to a yurt or cabin, but we had planned for the costs of the campsite, so stuck with that. We took our campfire wood, tent and car to our campsite and were 'pleased' to learn that since it was so cold, we pretty much had the entire campground to ourselves. That also meant, we went through our firewood QUICK. We had two bundles of wood and burned through them fast then went to bed. I like to joke that this is the only time I've gotten Bryan to snuggle, because we needed to so we wouldn't freeze. We sucked it up for one night, though, because our plan was to wake up first thing in the morning and keep on moving to Pagosa Springs.

When we arrived into Pagosa, we tried to check in and naturally, since we were there so
early, we couldn't. So we explored town a bit, stopping at the Riff Raff Brewing Company for a flight of beer and some food. By the time we were done there, we were able to check in to our hotel and take a shower - thank goodness! Since we were staying at the resort that hosts the hot springs, we were given 24 hour access to the springs. We thought this was so great and would be fun to go in the middle of the night when the crowd might be lesser! And least that was our plan....

The map of all of the hot springs

We made our way to the springs and bounced around to try as many as we could - there are 23 to choose from! We had a plan to soak in the hot springs for a few hours, do a later dinner in town, and then come back in the middle of the night to the springs...Mother Nature had a different plan. Shortly into our first round in the springs, a thunderstorm rolled into town. It rolled into town so quick no one saw it coming! 

Bridge to one of the springs

Really, out of nowhere, there was a bolt of lightning and everyone RAN to get out of the springs. We made a pit stop at the concession booth to pay our tab, but even they couldn't check us out because the lightning had zapped their computers. After we settled our tab, we got cleaned up, went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town, and came back for a late night in the springs. By the time that was all said and done, we were exhausted. We took a shower (it was our 3rd of the day) and passed out. We never woke up to soak in the middle of the night, and just packed up and went back to Denver the next day. It was such a fun weekend excursion - one we keep trying to go back and do again! Someday soon it will happen.....

Winchester Bay, Oregon - August 2014

On our last day in Oregon, we drove to Winchester Bay and the beach with Bryan's family. Along the way, there was an elk viewing spot where we could stop and admire hundreds of elk, just lounging.
We spent the day walking on the beach, eating some amazing food, and watching some of the boats coming in from their salmon fishing trips. While watching one of the guides filet some salmon, I said - that looks so cool! At that moment, Bryan's dad kicked himself for not taking us fishing. "I figured you'd hate it!" Guess we needed to plan another trip. :)

Look at that haul!

Eugene, Oregon Wineries - August 2014

Following four days at the Oregon Jamboree, we decided to head to Roseburg for a couple more nights to stay with Bryan's dad and stepmom. (Surprisingly, I took no photos of the concerts, despite the fact that the town called Sweet Home was adorable, and Tim McGraw was the headliner. Shame on me!)

We had some flexibility getting to Roseburg, so we took some time to stop in Eugene and see the University of Oregon campus (go Ducks!), have lunch with Bryan's other set of grandparents who were still living in Oregon at the time, and then stop at a couple of wineries. When you're in Oregon, drink the wine!

First stop was the Ducks campus.

Then we made our way to a little park in the city where we could just hang out for a few minutes. And hand out with the ducks, ha! Plenty of them to go around in town. :)

After lunch with his grandparents, we wanted to try some wineries in Eugene. We googled two and they could not have been more different, yet more perfect. First up was, Noble Estate. What was so fun about this winery is that it took us up this winding hill in town, with grapes all around us, we were so confused if we were in the right place. Then boom, turn the corner and there it is. It's a small tasting room with a great patio - and views for days as you can see.

Next stop was King Estate Winery. This was a little bit further south of town, which worked well for our travel plans after. This place is HUGE. And acres and acres of fruit as far as the eye can see. You pull up to this beautiful estate and it looks like something out of the Bachelor. It's stunning. Because we weren't quite expecting that, we showed up in our casual travel clothes and worried they would kick us out - ha! They were so gracious and had great tasting wine. And this winery distributes all over the country. It's been fun to see them in stores, and from time to time I will pick up a bottle when I see it! Check it out if you're every in the neighborhood!

Multnomah Falls, Oregon - August 2014

2014 was a slow travel year for us, at least according to my photos! But we were most looking forward to going to Oregon to visit Bryan's dad. After seeing his mom for Thanksgiving, we knew we needed to go see his dad......and an added bonus was that I had never been to Oregon before, so I was able to cross another state off of my list!

Bryan's dad and stepmom had been going to a country music festival each fall, called Country Jamboree, so they invited us to come with them. Naturally, I made Bryan do some extra stops along the way! :)

As soon as we landed, we drove not far east from Portland, to Multnomah Falls. I'm sure everyone is familiar with this park, as the pictures are all over the internet. I was excited to learn that it wasn't a long drive for us to make a visit (and hike!) ourselves. 

After this stop, I knew our entire visit to Oregon was going to be amazing - so beautiful! When we were done with the hike, we headed to Monroe, Oregon, to have lunch with one set of Bryan's grandparents, before heading to the concert for the first night of sleep!

Thanksgiving 2013 - Indiana

Turkey day in 2013 took us to Elkhart, Indiana to visit Bryan's mom and her side of the family. This is just outside of South Bend and Notre Dame so we made a visit to the school. It was so cold that day, though, we just made a quick walk through the chapel - we couldn't make it to the football stadium! Elkhart is so close to the border, that we were also able to 'go to Michigan'. This is the only time I've been able to get Bryan to take pictures by the state signs, because I had his mom on my side - ha! I had to post them for proof! :)

There's a great chocolate factory in town we visited. The boys had to 'cover their hair' ha!

South Dakota - September 2013

Paul and Jenny are getting married! Alright, they did quite a few years ago. :) Heather and I took a road trip from Denver to Custer, South Dakota for the wedding. Naturally, we made some stops along the way and home to enjoy the scenery! On the way to the wedding, we stopped at Devil's Tower in Wyoming. A great walk around the base to get some very cool views of this piece of history.

After the fun-filled wedding weekend, (which took place at a venue where parts of National Treasure the movie were filmed) we made a stop at Mount Rushmore, not far from where the wedding itself was, and Crazy Horse. I had seen Mount Rushmore as a child, but so impressive to see it again as an adult!

Not Devil's Tower, but some beautiful scenery along the way

Devil's Tower - you can rockclimb it!

Sylvan Lake - where National Treasure was filmed

That reflection is amazing!

The beautiful couple!

The entrance to Mount Rushmore

Crazy Horse and what it will eventually look like

We came to this Flinstone park as a child, so I had to stop by!