Last year my dad said “let’s go to Alaska.” For several months, the talk was all hypothetical and speculative, but then by Christmas he handed me a credit card and instructed me to start making reservations. At this point it started to get real. And scary. Most of my travel experience has been relatively close, and geared around gate times for horse shows or dam release schedules for boating. I’ve never had to schedule a flight in my life, and now I was responsible with planning all the details for the trip of a lifetime.

I honestly had no idea how to go about planning this trip as many of the trip blogs I came across on the trusty ol’ web focused on different areas of the state than we wanted to see, or they made recommendations for cruise ships. As I kept stumbling along from city to city online, the Kenai Chamber of provided a page to leave my email address for more information. Thinking I would receive an automated response listing several local businesses, I ignorantly entered my email and waited for inspiration. Instead of receiving a directory, dozens of local businesses started reaching out to me via phone and email to share information with me about the area and their specific businesses. One in particular really stood out, a fishing guide who was originally from Georgia. I mentally filed away his business name and figured I’d reach out to him later in the week, but that evening he called to speak with me over the phone. In that conversation, he provided me with quite an education about fishing on the Kenai peninsula, lodging, eating options, and scheduling. Our entire trip came together in that one evening as Rubin Payne helped me develop my itinerary for 12 days of traveling and helped us select the best options for my family’s situation.

After developing the itinerary, the pieces started coming together smoothly, and based on Rubin’s advice, I was able to make some strategic selections in booking the remaining items we wanted to hit along our route. While I would do a few things differently now that I have the luxury of hindsight, overall our trip ran to plan and most of our excursions yielded amazing views and fond memories. I’ve tried to condense our trip into one entry, but I just can’t find a way to do that and adequately describe all of the amazingness we experienced in the 49th state, so you get to look forward to multiple upcoming entries detailing our travels.

Stay tuned for part 1: Wasilla