Alaska

"Why would we go to Alaska?"- this is what I asked my husband a year ago when he came up with the idea to travel to thisvery cold state.

We visited Alaska during Spring break in April 2015.  People usually go to Alaska on a cruise.

Travel companies have lots of offers on cruises that start in late May or in June. We didn't want to wait until May, so in April we flew to Anchorage from California.

Alaska from the air

We visited three cities: Anchorage, Seward and Fairbanks.

Anchorage 

Although Juneau is the capital city of Alaska, Anchorage is more popular than Juneau. Forty percent of the state population (around 400,000 people) live in Anchorage.

My favorite site in Anchorage which I highly recommend is the Anchorage Museum.

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This museum is a fun place for the whole family. My favorite exhibit was about Alaskan native cultures. It was a very well organized exhibition with lots of films about the Alaskan native people. My daughter's really liked the Imaginarium Discovery Center. People of all ages will enjoy this part of the museum. There are a variety of fun and educational activities. You can make huge bubbles, build a house from wooden blocks and watch if it would survive or collapse during an earth quake, watch how a tsunami collapses houses at the shore and many other interesting things.

 There is also a small area for young children (under five years old) where they can play.

On our second day in Alaska we rented a car and drove toward Seward. The view from the road was stunning.

Our next plan was to take a hike to a glacier. The weather was not ideal. The temperature was around 32 Degrees (in F) and it was snowing with light wind. We were the only ones to go up there on the trail but luckily we didn't meet any bears. We could have encountered grizzly bears and black bears too. (They were still sleeping in their cozy den.)

After that freezing hike we visited The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  It was very interesting to see the Alaskan Native Animals in their natural habitat. The Center takes in injured and orphaned animals that would not survive in the wild and after they are healthy and old enough they releae them.

Elk

Moose

Musk ox

Grizzly bears

Wood bison

Lynx

After watching those awesome animals we were off to Seward.

Seward

Seward is a very small but beautiful city on the cost.

There are two main attractions in Seward. One is the Alaska Sealife Center, and the other one is a boat trip to the ocean to watch wild animals and glaciers.

We visited the Alaska Sealife Center with our children.

If you have a membership in a zoo (we have one in the Oakland Zoo) you can get a discount. This center is a non-profit organization which in addition to its exhibits, they do  research on the animal population and climate change, they rehabilitate injured animals, and they have an educational program too .

The next day we took a Gray Whale Watch four hour cruise. It was perfect for families with small children. The weather was perfect for a boat trip which is very important because even without strong winds you can get easily seasick on the ocean. We saw all the animals pictured on the bot trip company's website. The company offered binoculars for every family and my kids just loved using them explore everything around us.

It was freezing on the deck so I suggest wearing warm clothes around this time of the year. Also you can stay inside where it is warm but the view was not so good as on the outside deck.

After a while lots of Dall's porpoises were swimming around our boat. They were so fast we could barely take pictures of them.The Dall 's porpoise looks like a dolphin to me but they are just relatives.

Dall's porpoise

Bald eagle from the American flag

Otter

An other huge bird

See lions

Mountain goat

The cruise tour started at noon so after a while my younger daughter needed a nap.

We had a blast that day.

If you are planning to visit Alaska you need to know about its snow storms. We had one on the way back to Anchorage. The roads were not cleaned at all and since we were just renting our car we didn't have any chains which I think is silly.

We really wanted to watch a moose out in the wild. That's why we went to Potter Marsh trail. This area is very muddy so they built the trail above the field. We saw one moose but it was way to far to take a picture.

Fairbanks

To get to Fairbanks we took a an early flight from Anchorage. It took just an hour. The city is not very interesting.

It has a big and very pretty University which has a very good museum.  The best part of the museum for my kids was about the native animals and cultures. They provide a list of questions for the children which helped to keep them busy and curious about the exhibition.

The famous Denali National Park is just a couple hours drive from Fairbanks.

We went to the visitor center right away where Sophie got a package about "how to do to become a junior ranger". She worked hard to fill the forms during the day and at the end she became a junior ranger at this national park. (This is for children six years or older.)

Our hike was very nice and took about one and a half hour along a creek. The sun was shining at the beginning but at the end we got some snow flakes on our face.

Dall sheeps

Ptarmigan, the Alaskan state bird

After our hike we were on our way back to the visitor center when we saw a caribou (reindeer) family cross over the road.

There was not enough snow for dog sledding but we met some dogs that I am sure were "working" pretty hard a few weeks back.

 I really recommend visiting the Denali National Park. I've heard it is even better during the Summer. You can see much more animals such as wolfs, grizzly and black bears.

The next day from Fairbanks we went to Chena Hot Springs. It is a resort with natural hot "jaccuzi". There is more to do there, not just enjoy the spa and the naturally heated pool (although I think it is silly that you  have to bebut 18 years to use the pool).

A clever reindeer resolve his problem in a funny way

We visited the Aurora Ice Museum which was very interesting for all of us. This museum is open all year long. You can meet the two ice sculptor who are working there every day to renovate the melting sculpture. If you like cocktails you can drink one from an ice glass. I think it is fun place.

My daughter played on the ice xilophone

Kids are in the ice bed

Sitting in the bar

Our last hike was on the way back to Fairbanks from Chena Hot Springs. We had a very nice one hour hike on a beautiful trail with no bears.

It was fun to watch so many wild animals in their natural habitat in such a short time. I liked this vacation and I would recommend to visit Alaska with kids, just bring lots of warm clothes.

(7 days- April 2015)