Read the Best Books First

Cody and I officially started our Bucket List project to #SeeAll50 states back in November of 2016. At that time, one of our stated goals of the project was to visit at least one new state each year. Well, 2020 derailed that goal in a major way, and big life changes also contributed meaning we didn't check any states off in 2020, '21, '23, '24, and '25. (We squeezed in a tenth anniversary trip to the OBX in 2022 to officially check North Carolina off.) In this eleventh year of the project, we just checked off our sixteenth state though, so all things considered, we'll call ourselves ahead of schedule. (Humor me.) And we came back after our three year hiatus with a big one.

That's right. We've now officially been to the two dream destinations that lie outside of the contiguous 48, and we cruised for both. Alaska is wild and rugged and the most majestic place I've ever been, no contest. We did a lot on this trip and I never want to forget any of it, so strap in: this will easily be the longest state post I've put together to date.

Thursday, May 7th: The first leg of our trip involved flying to Vancouver, British Columbia. My dad (the MVP of all dads) drove us from our house to the Atlanta airport (which is a three and a half hour drive with good traffic) where we checked our luggage and found the terminal for our first ever WestJet flight. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with this little budget airline I'd never heard of before planning this trip, but they were a delight. Cody and I got to sit together on both flights and everything went as smoothly as we could have hoped for. We flew from Atlanta to Calgary, had a brief layover, then flew the rest of the way to Vancouver. After landing, we picked up our bags without a hitch and found the free shuttle to our hotel very easily. We stayed at the Abercorn Hotel which was a unique experience. It's a Scottish themed hotel, but it's in Richmond which is referred to as Metro Vancouver's authentic Chinatown. All the restaurants and stores and the majority of the population in this area are Chinese-Canadian. It was funny to be in this hotel decorated with Scottish Coats of Arms and maps and history but surrounded by Chinese speakers and eating at the Chinese hotel restaurant.

Friday, May 8th: We woke up super early (that time change will get you) and got re-organized, walked around the neighborhood of the hotel (all Chinese everywhere), had breakfast, checked out, and got a Lyft down to the port (about a forty minute drive). Once there, we were able to drop off our luggage with the cruise line and then explore for a few hours. Cody and I recently started watching the show Smallville (my brother Reagan and my best friend Amy's favorite show of all time) so naturally we had to find the Daily Planet for the group chat. We flirted with the idea of trying to make it to some other iconic filming locations from the show, but the logistics of our hotel checkout, getting around with our luggage, and the distances between places in Vancouver meant we needed to just stick close to the port. Vancouver is huge and it would be fun to go back there to actually visit someday.

We also were able to watch sea planes taking off in the harbor while we sipped hot Starbucks, explored a beautiful park, saw real live Canadian geese, and walked around a few of the neighborhoods near the port. We also stopped into a few stores so my husband could get some goodies for the medical staff on board the ship. This trip coincided with National Nurses Week and my Cody wanted to make sure the nurses working our cruise felt appreciated. He's the best.

And now let me introduce you to our Alaskan home away from home: the Celebrity Summit. We got on our ship that afternoon and found our room then spent some time getting unpacked before going to dinner and a show. Celebrity is the same cruise line we took our trip to Hawaii with and our experience this time was equally amazing. Of all the cruises we've been on, I believe this was the smallest ship and we felt the motion of being at sea every time we weren't anchored in a port. It's a good thing Cody and I have no issues with seasickness. Saturday, May 9th was a full day at sea and we had a great time resting, reading, and, of course, eating as much as we wanted. Cody finished up The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck on this trip, and I finished reading the third installment of the Flavia de Luce series.

Sunday, May 10th: our first city in Alaska was rainy Ketchikan. It rains 230 days of the year in Ketchikan and our day was no exception to the rule. It was grey and cold but we bundled up and had a great time exploring Alaska's First City, so dubbed because it's the southernmost city in the state serving as the first northbound port of call for travelers.

We walked Creek Street, Married Man's Trail, the Shoenbar Trail, and walked through Nob Tunnel before catching a bus out to Totem Bight State Historical Park. Ketchikan is also home to the world's largest collection of standing totem poles and they were everywhere throughout the city. Really we saw totems everywhere we went in Alaska but Ketchikan definitely stood out as having the most.

Totem Bight is a great little park with lots of totems and a traditional clan house. There weren't a ton of people there and we had a great time exploring. It was really interesting to read about the history of the totems and their cultural significance. We eventually caught a bus back to town, driving around Nob Tunnel, and then we walked to the Ketchikan Public Library.

Let me tell you something: every public library we visited in Alaska (and we made it a point to visit the library in every city we went to) is constructed with massive windows which overlook stunning views. I will never get over how amazing the libraries in Alaska are. We wrapped up our day in Ketchikan with a little shopping downtown (shoutout to Gateway Games!) before getting back on the ship.

Monday, May 11th: our next stop was Sitka. Sitka was my favorite. I'm still not able to exactly articulate why I loved Sitka so much, but if Cody ever moves us to Alaska, as far as I'm concerned it will be Sitka or nothing. It's a teeny, tiny town with a population of only 8,000. You can only get there by boat or plane and even though our day there was grey and overcast, I fell in love with Sitka's wild beauty.

We spent most of our day in Sitka hiking along the Indian River on the Kaasda Heén Trail in the Tongass National Forest. These bright yellow pond lilies were everywhere, and I've never seen anything like them outside of Alaska. We took a photo with the Three Sisters Mountains and passed several locals along the trail out for a hike with their various dogs. Even though the trees in Alaska aren't as tall and massive as the redwoods in California, everything in Alaska felt more wild and untouched and ancient somehow.

We ended our day in Sitka making a stop at the local Wells Fargo and having a lovely chat with the teller, doing a little shopping, and, of course, visiting the library (who's hiring, by the way—I'm just saying, if I suddenly drop off the grid, you'll know where to look).

Tuesday, May 12th: Juneau, Alaska. Despite Sitka being my favorite city, Juneau was easily the most amazing day of our entire trip. We woke up to sunny, blue skies and a slightly distressing email from the Alaska Railroad. When we planned out our Alaska trip, we booked a helicopter tour/glacier landing/dogsled package through Alaska Helicopter Tours for when we got off the ship at our final destination in Seward. Then later that same evening, we would be taking the train from Seward to Anchorage. When we woke up in Juneau, we read in this email from the railroad that due to the cruise now ending in Whittier instead of Seward, the train would be making special accommodations for our trip to Anchorage. Excuse me, what?! The cruise line had not informed us of any such change and after talking to one of the guest relations employees on the ship and not getting any helpful information and precious little reassurance (it's the Summit, what do you expect), we spent the morning making several calls trying to figure out what our options were. Traveling between cities in Alaska is no easy-breezy matter, and we finally realized we would have to cancel our helicopter/dogsled adventure in Seward. Major shout-out to Alaska Helicopter Tours and the Alaska Railroad for doing everything they possibly could to help us figure everything out and for refunding us the portions of our trip we had to cancel. Full transparency: I shed a few tears at this point. I was looking forward to meeting those sled dogs more than anything else on this trip and when Cody saw how upset I was, he immediately jumped into action and found us a helicopter tour/glacier landing/dogsled ride for that very afternoon in Juneau and immediately booked it. When I say he makes my dreams come true, I mean it. And as it turns out, the whole situation was Providential, but I'll get to that in a minute. Once we got our plan for the day in order, we made it onto one of the tender boats to go ashore in Alaska's capital city.

And headed straight to the library which was on top of a parking garage in Juneau. After the stress of the morning, we decided to chill at the library until the time we needed to meet our tour people for our epic adventure. At this point of the trip, Cody had started reading A Tale of Two Cities and I had just begun Crime and Punishment. We left our books on board thinking we'd have no trouble finding these classics at the library. Good news, bad news: they were both checked out. Like, yay for people reading the classics but lol we couldn't read them ourselves. So we both chose other books from our never-ending TBRs and sat down to read for a while in front of the absolutely gorgeous view out the windows. Why am I telling you all this? Because the librarian actually came over to us and said, "I hate to interrupt the two of you, but can I just say that as a librarian, it brings me so much joy to see you both sitting here reading physical books." I kid you not. Cody and I both got an A+ from the Juneau librarian in the Year of Our Lord 2026. We looked around and noticed that every other person in the library (and there were over a dozen) were on devices. Laptops, cell phones, tablets—no one else had a book in their hands. Considering this entire blog is about my reading endeavors, I obviously needed to share this anecdote with you. (And in case you were wondering, the book I started in the Juneau library was The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, and Cody chose Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski.)

Are you kidding me? This was the best day. After a few hours of chilling in the library, Cody and I went to Deckhand Dave's, Juneau's favorite foodtruck, to get some hot fries and cold drinks to tide us over till we could get back on the ship that evening. Then we went to the meeting place to catch the van out to the airfield. Remember how I said the change of plans was Providential? Our driver told us that in his entire fifteen years of living in Alaska, he had never experienced a more gorgeous day weather-wise. In the city, we could have been wearing shorts and t-shirts. And once we got on the helicopter, we learned from our first pilot Bryan that just the day before, all tours had been canceled due to white-out conditions! What?! This was Cody's and my first time ever on a helicopter and it was spectacular. Not a cloud in the sky, unobstructed views in every direction, flying over the Mendenhall Glacier and through the Tongass National Forest on our way to meet Iditarod champion sled dogs. I will never get over it. Bryan landed at the dog sled camp on Herbert Glacier and we were greeted by 240 excited dogs. We met our musher Dallin and then we got on the sled to have a team of beautiful dogs pull us around the glacier. All the dogs in the camp were ready to pull and barking up a storm hoping to be chosen. They are flown to the glacier for the summer from all over the country. As soon as we pulled out of the camp, all the dogs left behind immediately quieted down and stretched out to relax realizing they weren't going on this trip. It was so funny. When we got well away from the camp, Dallin had our team stop and we got to meet them all and love on them for a bit. I was immediately down on my knees in the snow petting every single dog on our team. Our leaders (and the ones in the photos with both Cody and me) were Nimble (the attention hog) and Faith. The rest of our team included Carla (only a yearling!) and Oreo, Jimmy and Chicken (who has a new puppy named Chickadee), Poncho (who didn't have a partner because she likes to chew the lead off), Astro and Luna, and in the rear right in front of the sled Captain and Daly. They all were eager to interact with us, and I absolutely loved playing with them. They were the sweetest dogs.

We eventually got back on the sled for the ride back to camp. In the camp, we got to meet Legend (curled up in the photo with just me) who is a four-time Iditarod champ, and Big Ray (in the photo with us both) who was injured in an Iditarod race and can't compete anymore but still likes to pull when they let him. I absolutely loved playing with the dogs and talking to the mushers who take care of them. They live on the glacier in tents for the summer and go into Juneau once a week to take showers and do whatever shopping they need. The helicopters returned and our second pilot was Alex who flew us down to the toe of Herbert Glacier where the exposed glacier ice is. In the dog camp, the actual glacier is sitting under about thirty feet of snow that compacts all summer as the dogs run over it. Once Alex landed us on the exposed ice, we were able to get out and hike around a bit and drink from the icy blue glacier water. Finally, we loaded in the helicopter for our final ride back to the airfield. This was honestly one of the most incredible things I've ever done, and I'm so thankful we had such a beautiful day to enjoy it and for my wonderful husband who rolled with the changes and managed to make it happen for us. A huge thank you to Coastal Helicopters for giving us such an awesome experience.

Once we got back to downtown Juneau, we made our way straight back to the tender boats to get back on the Summit. As the sun was going down, we went up to the top deck to see Juneau and the other cruise ships all lit up in the clear dusky night. A beautiful way to end our amazing day.

Wednesday, May 13th: we pulled into Icy Strait Point in Hoonah, Alaska. This little spot is a private cruise destination so it was definitely the most touristy stop of our trip. We took the Sky Peak Gondola over 1,500 feet up Hoonah Mountain and explored the Summit Lodge area to scope out where we'd need to be for our 2:00 zipline ride. Icy Strait Point boasts the world's longest and tallest zipline, taller than the Great Pyramid, taller even than the Empire State Building. You ride for a minute and a half getting up to sixty-five miles an hour. And we were crazy enough to do it.

When we finally took our turn on this thing, my stomach left my body. For the first five seconds, I was sure we had made a colossal mistake. But once I could actually breathe and opened my eyes, the ride was incredible. We were laughing like a couple of kids as we raced to the bottom. I'm so glad we did it.

After our ride, we got back on the ship. We thought we might see some whales here because they like this spot, but besides a playful otter, we didn't actually see much marine animal life. Throughout our time in Alaska, we saw tons of bald eagles and other native birds, but no bears or moose. On this particular evening on the ship, we had Beef Wellington for dinner, a dish Cody has been talking about since our last cruise to Hawaii. It did not disappoint. It's a good thing we did so much hiking every day, otherwise I probably would have gained fifteen pounds on this trip.

Thursday, May 14th: we sailed into the Bay of Disenchantment to see the Hubbard Glacier. There was so much ice in the water and visibility was so low it felt a bit haunting as we sailed around in the ice-choked inlet. We were on a strict timeline because between the tides and the ice, it's easy to get trapped. Our captain did a great job sailing us as close to the Hubbard Glacier as possible.

This was an at-sea day and we spent most of it watching movies in our stateroom and taking naps between trips to the different restaurants on board to eat. At this point, we were both so tired and somewhere between Icy Strait Point and the Hubbard Glacier, we both caught colds. It was nice to end the cruise with a more restful day.

Friday, May 15th: our final stop was Whittier where we disembarked the Summit for good. As I mentioned, our original itinerary had us ending in Seward, but we found out their port was not ready to receive any ships. Whittier is a teeny, tiny fishing village with a population of less than 300. The US military set up a base there during World War II, and now the entire community lives in the old barracks which were eventually converted into a condominium building which houses not only the village's residents, but the post office, police station, medical clinic, and grocery store. We explored the old military tunnels and walked around the entire village twice in less than an hour.

It was freezing in Whittier and we eventually ended up in the little Swiftwater Seafood Cafe where we had a steaming hot bowl of smoked salmon and clam chowder. Yum. We hung out in the warm cafe until it was time to make our way to the train depot which is housed under a huge white tent to wait for our train to Anchorage.

We boarded this glass-top train and settled in for the scenic two and half hour ride through the Chugach National Forest and Turnagain Arm to Anchorage. We took so many photos from the train but I've narrowed it down to five to share here. I wish my mom and dad could have taken this train ride with us. The views were absolutely breathtaking, and I know they would have loved it, especially my mom.

-our last glimpse of the Celebrity Summit from the train-

As we got closer to Anchorage, we went by this little neighborhood that had private planes in the backyards. It used to be you could only get here by plane and once the Seward Highway was completed and more infrastructure was built up, the need for planes to get to this particular area became obsolete, but this neighborhood's right to keep planes at their private residences for use to get around was grandfathered into the new laws governing all that. It was so crazy to see all these private homes with little prop planes in every backyard.

We rolled into Anchorage, caught a Lyft to our hotel, grabbed some dinner at the McDonald's nearby, and spent the evening repacking and getting ready for another long travel day before crashing for the night.

The next morning, Saturday, May 16th, after eating a good breakfast at our hotel, we caught another Lyft to the Walmart where we picked up a few necessities (cold medicine), and I couldn't resist snapping a photo of the Pickup sign with those gorgeous Alaskan mountains in the background to show my coworkers back home. From Walmart, we walked to the four-story Anchorage Public Library where we spent a little time exploring the different levels and comparing the amazing views of Anchorage with the views from the libraries we visited in Ketchikan, Sitka, and Juneau. Anchorage is the biggest city in Alaska with a population of almost 290,000 and it was our least favorite place we visited. We're just not city people.

We got a Lyft back to our hotel, grabbed our luggage, checked out, and caught the hotel's shuttle to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. We got lunch at the Alaska Doghaus while we waited to board our flight (salmon burger for me, chicken tenders for Cody), and finally flew Delta from Anchorage to Seattle. We had a four-hour layover in Seattle where we got Qdoba for dinner before boarding our red-eye flight from Seattle to Atlanta.

Sunday, May 17th: landed in Atlanta around 7:30 AM and the MVP of all dads picked us up and drove us home to the mountain where our Colonel was overjoyed to see us, and we promptly crashed. This was truly the trip of a lifetime.