![]() We were on Day 3 of our Fairbanks to Seward Road Trip adventure and so far we had 9 activities under our belt. If you missed part 1 you can find it here but this installment starts us off in Girdwood, where we stayed at Alyeska Resort. If we go back to Girdwood, which I imagine we will, we will most likely find other accommodations BUT the resort property is an incredible place to explore! I also want to mention, that from this point on, during our trip, our group included ages ranging from 4 months - 80 years Activity #10 - Winner Creek TrailAfter grabbing breakfast at The Pond (the omelets and fruit plate were great!), our first activity in Girdwood was walking Winner's Creek Trail. This trail was beautiful! And easy for our whole group. We didn't do the whole trail but would definitely go back to spend more time! We just needed to make it back for our next scheduled activity, which was... Activity #11 - Alyeska Aerial TramwayFrom the Alyeska resort, the Alyeska Tram takes passengers to an elevation of 2300 feet at the top of Mt. Alyeska. Continuing with our amazing weather, we had an incredible view of glaciers and peaks above as well as the interesting shape of the glacially carved valley below. The tram runs year-round, allowing winter skiers access to Alaska’s largest ski area and summer visitors a more scenic experience. Activity #12 - Whittier TunnelAfter riding to the top of the Chugach Mountains and down, we continued our journey down the Kenai Peninsula making a tiny detour to drive through the longest highway tunnel in North America-the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel-aka the Whittier tunnel. This 2.5 mile tunnel holds the only road leading into Whittier, Alaska. It is one-lane and services both cars and trains, so keeping a schedule is incredibly important. Before the 1940s, the only way to access Whittier was by sea (or an ambitious hike) but once the army took up post here during WWII, they needed a better way to get supplies, especially supplies that could be protected from Japanese submarines keeping watch on the harbor, so this tunnel was born. We knew we had to jump at the opportunity to drive it, especially to check out what has been voted "weirdest place in America" on the other side. Activity #13 - Whittier HarborIf you’ve been with us for long, you know our love for the unique and quirky. Whittier is a beautiful, tiny town nestled on the edge of Prince William Sound. The harbor is surrounded by stunning waterfalls and gorgeous mountains. While there is only a one-way road to get in and out, this isn’t what makes Whittier the ‘weirdest place in America’. Are you ready for this? This tiny town is home to about 200 year round residents - the majority of which live under the same roof! The 14-story high Begich Towers - originally built as army barracks - now houses most of Whittier’s residents as well as the police station, post office, church, and other community amenities. We can’t wait to get back to Whittier and spend some more time exploring this beautiful, historic, quirky little town. Activity #14 - Downtown SewardAt the end of Day 5 of our Adventure road trip we checked into our Airbnb in Seward and headed downtown for some dinner. We settled on The Lone Chicharron for some tacos. We came here last time we were in Seward and, while I’m a fan, I will admit, not everyone in our group agreed. Everyone thought the food was good! But maybe not good enough for the price. That being said, I think the price is pretty average for what you’ll find in the area. So if you find yourself trying out this place, please let us know what you think! Downtown Seward is such a fun little place to do some shopping and grab a meal. It's a short walk from the oceanfront where you may be able to spot some wildlife. There was a humpback whale feeding out in the harbor the entire time we stayed in Seward so it was fun to watch whenever we could get a view! Activity #15 - Wildlife CruiseWith food prices being what they are, and with our family-style of traveling, we made a stop at the local Safeway grocery store for a few breakfast essentials which made mornings super easy. Especially with our full kitchen in our Airbnb. After breakfast, we made our way to check-in for our wildlife cruise with Kenai Fjords Tours. This tour was really what our entire trip was planned around. The migrating orca pods are in the area as the salmon run starts to arrive in May and we wanted to see orcas! We had unusually calm waters this day so our captain was able to take us deeper into open water than normal. As soon as we got a bit further out, we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by multiple pods of orcas. It was breathtaking! The entire boat seemed to just sit in silence for about a half hour as we all just watched these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat. To be honest, we didn’t see much other wildlife on our ‘wildlife cruise’ but we didn’t mind since we felt it was the show of a lifetime. Our cruise included a lunch at beautiful, private Fox Island and scenic views around Kenai Fjords National Park. There are multiple cruise companies out of Seward but we highly recommend Kenai Fjords! Activity #16 - Seward HarborAfter our cruise, we roamed the harbor to check out the catch of the day. Halibut, rock fish, and salmon fishing charters are also very common out of Seward and it always fun to watch them come in and put their catch on display. Walking around the harbor, we also saw salmon jumping out of the water and other sea creatures like jelly fish, near the shore. And of course, our friend, it was always exciting watching the humpback whale from the shore. Activity #17 - Tide PoolsThe next morning was when our amazing weather took a turn. In typical Alaska fashion, we were hit with lots and lots of rain. This is why we always recommend waterproof layers! But a little (or a lot) of rain wasn’t going to stop us from our next activity. We headed to Lowell Point to check out the tide pools. We looked up the low tide times and it was a perfect late morning activity in an incredibly beautiful setting looking out at the bay. We saw hermit crabs, eels, and tons and tons of different types of sea stars. We all had a blast turning over rocks and hunting for these fun creatures, even if we did get a little soaked. Something to keep in mind if you’d like to visit this area, it costs $5 to park in the little lot at the head of the short trail to the point so be prepared. Activity #18 - Alaska SeaLife CenterAfter exploring Lowell Point, we headed back to town and grabbed lunch at Zudy’s Cafe. This is a wonderful brunch place right downtown with delicious sandwiches (and desserts!) Afterwards, we headed next door to the Alaska SeaLife Center. We also visited this place last time we were in Seward. It’s a really great place with an incredible mission and it was fun to take visitors there to learn more about Alaska - and maybe see some wildlife we missed on the cruise ;) Activity #19 - Two Lakes Trail![]() It stopped raining later in the day and our last activity in Seward was a short, easy hike on Two Lakes Trail. This trail head was a short drive from our Airbnb and an easy trail for everyone in our group. It includes a pretty waterfall and, obviously, loops around two small lakes. It was the perfect ending to our short stay in Seward. A short note on our Airbnb, it was such a great place to stay! From the fully stocked kitchen and the washer and dryer, to the location of being so close to downtown, we made ourselves quite at home and felt so comfortable. We also enjoyed the incredibly easy check-in and check-out and parking off the street as well. We would highly recommend John and Heather's place! Believe it or not, our adventure road trip was far from over. Our visitors had to travel back up to the Anchorage area to fly home and we still had a 9 hour drive back to Fairbanks! So we took the opportunity to squeeze some more activities in on the way up and over the next few days. You can find this bonus installment here! Let us know if you find this helpful or if we can answer any questions! If you're interested in a one-on-one chat to help to plan a trip to Alaska you can view our options here! Make sure to pin this post so you can come back to it later and we'd love to have you join us on Instagram to come with us on our day-to-day adventures! Until next time, make sure to get out and enjoy where YOU live!
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If you've been around for awhile, you know that we've already written about take a roadtrip from Fairbanks to Seward and back. But last Spring, we visited Seward again and this time, we did it a little more....epic.
The back story to this trip was that we told my parents we were planning to go to Seward to see the orcas and they decided they wanted to meet us there! In between us leaving Fairbanks and meeting up with that side of the family, Jon's sister and her family also wanted to visit but they wanted to see the most of Alaska they could in one trip. They knew we were planning a drive down south and decided they would join us for that part of our trip. And, if you know us, you know we're more than happy to be tour guides...and after a year of dealing with a pandemic, we were ready to pull out all the stops! Activity #1 - Reindeer Yoga
The day after Jon's sister's family arrived, I had booked an activity for just her and I - reindeer yoga! It's no secret that reindeer are one of my favorite animals. I mean, if you live in North Pole and don't love reindeer you're probably put on the naughty list for life, right? And when in North Pole, reindeer yoga is a must! I'm not entirely sure if there's any other place in the world that offers reindeer yoga, but if there is, I'm sure it doesn't beat this location!
Running Reindeer Ranch offers a few different activities at their reindeer ranch just outside of Fairbanks but our favorite is their summer Reindeer Yoga classes! Bring a mat and find a spot right in the middle of the pen of reindeer and be instructed by a certified yoga teacher while reindeer walk in between and sometimes paw at mats. My sister-in-law even had a reindeer lay inches from her face as we did our last pose! Going in May meant we were there just after calving season. The little baby reindeer were so cute and fun to watch! **disclaimer, more reindeer watching than yoga may have taken place (wink face) Activity #2 - Alaska Raw Fur Co
Activity #3 - Gold Panning
Fairbanks was put on the map in the early 1900s gold rush. There are still active gold mines in the area as well as a few areas you can pan without a claim. While we highly recommend a visit to the Gold Daughters for a lesson on panning before setting out on your own, we took our visitors to Pedro's Creek and found some small flakes!
Activity #4 - UAF Museum of the North
Activity #5 - Santa Clause House
We told you our first visitors wanted the whole Alaska experience and no visit to Fairbanks is complete without a visit to North Pole, where you can put in a good word with the big guy himself! At his own house, no less! You can visit Santa (and sometimes Mrs. Claus) throughout the year Wednesdays-Sundays, tell him your Christmas wish, get a picture and a candy cane, and wander his shop for a great Alaskan souvenir.
Activity #6 - Midnight Fishing
Can you fish at midnight where you live? Let me rephrase that. Can you fish at midnight where you live and have it still be light outside? We obviously had to give our nephew the complete "midnight sun" experience and Jon took him fishing at midnight in the light of the sun. Even though we live here, we never get used to so much daylight at all hours of the "night".
Activity #7 - Denali National Park
After spending a few days in Fairbanks, we took off for our trip to Seward. With our visitors in tow, our first stop was Denali National Park. Denali National Park is home to the highest peak in North America, Denali herself, and at a little more than a 2 hour drive from Fairbanks, we recommend taking the trip!
Because of the weather system in the area, the peaks are clouded most of the time which means only 30% of visitors actually get to see Denali! We lucked out on our time spent here this trip with the clearest skies! One bush pilot we talked to said it was in the top 5 viewing days he'd seen in the last 10 years! Normally, visitors can only drive their personal vehicles to Mile 15 but we were able to snag a few passes to drive to Mile 30 and, as always, it was a beautiful drive. We recommend binoculars for spotting wildlife that isn't near the road. Activity #8 - Ziplining
After a quick drive through the park, a few of us broke off from the group and drove back out to catch a zipline tour! Denali Park Zipline Tours was such a great experience! We met up with our group at their offices right outside the park. They shuttled us out to the course, first in a van and then we climbed into some ATVs, which was an adventure of it's own. Once at the course, we received a quick safety brief and we were on our way.
The course features 7 ziplines, 6 sky bridges, a short tundra hike, and ladder climb, and a dual racer finale! No matter what my nephew says, I beat him and have video proof ;) Highly recommend this tour if you have a little adventure junkie in you and some time to spend around the park!
While we were checking into our tour, the rest of our party was checking into our lodging accommodations. Whenever we stay at Denali, we stay at Mckinley Creekside Cabins. The prettiest property in the most gorgeous setting right outside the park, and their Cafe is amazing! They have a variety of rooms fit for any sized party and they are all very nice. We are also obsessed with their build-your-own breakfast skillets and their specialty Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake. And make sure to grab yourself an "Alaska-sized" cinnamon roll for good measure, perfectly placed next to their puny counterparts, the "Texas-sized" rolls.
If you're looking for dinner, located next door is Panorama Pizza Pub. Great pizza, fun atmosphere, and some amazing beer cheese macaroni and cheese (chef's kiss). Activity #9 - Beluga Point
It has a gorgeous lookout of the bay where we have spotted large pods of Beluga Whales before! We weren't so lucky with this visit but the views are still worth the stop. We recommend binoculars here too, especially when you start to see those white humps swimming down the bay.
After a little exploring, we drove to our lodging for the night which was in Girdwood. Our adventures were only getting started! You can find part 2 here! Let us know if you find this helpful or if we can answer any questions! If you're interested in a one-on-one chat to help to plan a trip to Alaska, we'd love to help! Make sure to pin this post so you can come back to it later and join us on Instagram or tik tok to come with us on our day-to-day adventures! Until next time, make sure to get out and enjoy where YOU live!
Well, the tribe has spoken! We’ve posted a few pictures from our trip down to Seward on Instagram and when we asked if our followers would like a blog post on where we stayed and what we did, we got a unanimous YES! So here it is...
Jon’s dad came to visit us for about a week and wanted the ‘full Alaska experience’. We’ve learned that most ‘outsiders’ don’t really understand the full picture of Alaska and just how far away Fairbanks is from the rest of the touristy places people like to visit. We can tell people all day just how big Alaska is and how remote we are, but it’s not really fathomable until you see it in person. That being said, it’s a 9 hour drive from Fairbanks to Seward. Could we have made it all in one day? Maybe...if we weren’t bringing along the kids ;) So we split the drive up and stayed over night on our way down and back. If you decide to do the drive all at once, we certainly wouldn’t blame you! But our stops are still places worth checking out, if you have the time.
Our first stop was in McKinley Park, mile 224 on the Denali Highway, the Panorama Pizza Pub, for lunch! The location is beautiful, the pizza is delicious, but we highly recommend the ‘beer cheese and shells’ which is a twist on the classic Mac & Cheese using a creamy beer cheese. It was so good we dove into it before we remembered to take a ‘influencer’ picture ;)
Our resting place for the night was a bed & breakfast in Palmer. Fishhook Sunrise B&B is a beautiful house on a gorgeous property hosted by the most wonderful family. The rooms are spacious and modern and each room has a private bathroom. After settling in for the night, we woke up to a delicious Sunday breakfast with homemade pancakes, homemade syrup, even homemade whipped cream! And fresh raspberries picked that morning on the property with a fresh raspberry lemonade to boot. I’m not sure how many pancakes our little family put down but the girls were definitely in heaven! We loved eating breakfast with the Willardson’s and when it came time to leave, we felt like we were saying ‘see ya later’ to some old friends.
Before heading out of Palmer, we HAD to make a stop at our favorite place, the Reindeer Farm! They’ve had a few additions since we last visited, like Lucy, for example, an orphaned moose found this year that was only about 3-4 months old! The girls had the best time feeding her some fireweed in between her bottle feedings.
Hayden wasn’t quite brave enough to feed the reindeer, but surprised us all with her desire to feed Rocky, the kissing moose ;)
Of course, the big highlight for Jon and I is always hanging out with the reindeer.
Can’t forget petting a yak, feeding a baby llama, or petting bunnies and chickens! Though, if you ask Colbie, her favorite animal was Cali the cat (go figure haha)
We also grabbed some reindeer dogs, pulled pork sandwiches, and some chili and hot chocolate for lunch right there at the farm. Always a good time at the reindeer farm!!
Later in the day, we continued on the road towards our final destination. It was a very pretty drive around Turnagain Arm including views of the ocean and glaciers galore. We tried to stop in Girdwood for dinner, but not many places were open due to Covid, or the ones that were weren't super kid friendly, though it was a gorgeous little town from what we saw in our short visit! We ended up grabbing a little sandwich and pizza-by-the-slice at Coast Pizzeria and Alpine Cafe & Bakery at a stop right off Seward Highway. It was...good enough for our needs ha.
The next two nights, we actually stayed outside of Seward in Cooper Landing. We stayed at the Lodge at Grizzly Ridge, which was right on the Kenai River and it was beautiful! Our room had a full fridge and kitchenette but Jon’s dad’s room had a full kitchen. They offer a variety of sized rooms at the lodge but also have cabins you can rent, which would be fun to check out sometime!
They were large, comfortable rooms, very affordable, with insanely gorgeous surroundings.
The next day, Jon took his dad early in the morning into Seward to catch his fishing charter. By the time he came back, napped, and the rest of us got ready for the day, it was late morning when we took the 45 minute drive down to Seward. And boy, was it the prettiest 45 minutes I’ve ever experienced...
We pulled into town and grabbed some lunch at The Lone Chicharron. Thumbs up from us! We then visited theAlaska SeaLife Center. The Alaska SeaLife Center is a non-profit aquarium dedicated to marine research and education. It is the only marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation facility in Alaska.
We got to the sea lion exhibit right at feeding time, which was super cool! It’s not very often you get to see a 2000 lb sea lion up close and personal.
Due to the effects of COVID, current projections show the center will be forced to permanently close its doors at the end of this summer season, relocating all the animals and laying off all employees. Visit the link in their website to see how you can help!!
After the aquarium, we drove out to Lowell Point. It was a fun little beach where the girls found seashells and we watched people try to snag salmon from the beach. We also saw a huge sea lion in its natural habitat which was super cool! It was also a great view of the whole bay and we had fun guessing which fishing boat Grandpa was on.
We made our way back to Seward and drove around a little bit. We walked along the little boardwalk near a fishing pond. We saw salmon and sea otters and dreamt about having views like this in our backyard.
We made our way over to the port to pick up Grandpa, and while we were waiting, we watched salmon jumping like crazy while people fished from the shore. We also saw jelly fish, which I thought was pretty cool!
We really wanted to check out The Cookery for dinner! But unfortunately, they’re closed on Mondays! Which was the day we were there. We ended up loading up on some groceries and Grandpa cooked up some of the fish he caught when we got back to Cooper Landing.
The next day, we checked out and and started our drive back up north. We stopped for lunch in Anchorage but the place of note was picking up a box of malasadas from Wiki Wiki Donuts for breakfast the next day!
I have to say, none of the flavors we got were bad, but my favorite were the Key Lime and the girls...I thought they’d love the fruity strawberry and cream or even the guava, but the plain chocolate was a hit for them! Let’s just say, I’m glad we don’t live close to a wiki wiki because...they would have all my money ;)
Our stop for the night was in the sleepy little town of Talkeetna. We stayed at the ‘Talkeetna Villas’ as part of the Talkeetna Villas and Tours. While we weren’t staying for any tours, we did meet the owners, as the rooms are right on their property, and they were super friendly and very knowledgeable on the area.
The rooms were spacious, clean, modern, and very comfortable. We enjoyed having a little kitchenette and the girls really appreciated the card and board games after being in the car for a minute. Each room is also a mini art gallery featuring art, pictures, and even furniture from local artists, all for sale!
The property is 3 blocks from Main Street, where you will find all the restaurants and entertainment. Some of us grabbed dinner at the Denali Brewpub and some of us grabbed pizza from Mountain High Pizza Pie. (Can you tell how much some little girls love their pizza??) I actually got the ravioli dinner at Mountain High and it was pretty good! The next morning, we grabbed a small breakfast at Conscious Coffee and were back on the road. The real reason we stayed in Talkeetna is because we heard it's the best place to see Denali on a clear day! Only 30% of visitors get lucky to have clear enough weather to see the tallest mountain in North America so we were crossing our fingers to get a good view with Jon's dad.
Here you can see a crappy picture of a rare view of Denali reaching above the clouds ;) Haha, we were just so excited that we could see her peaks, even though it wasn't super clear. And the clouds rolled in over top of her only minutes later.
On our way back to Fairbanks, we stopped back in McKinley Park at mile 224, but this time at McKinley Creekside Cabins and Cafe. Here we picked up a little treat for some friends who were watching our dog for us, but sidenote: We have stayed here a few times and while the first stay was for the views and location, the second stay was for the breakfast!! Holy cow, so good! And the service was just amazing. If you have a chance to get an "Alaska-sized" cinnamon roll, or their specialty of rhubarb and strawberry coffee cake, DO IT! The breakfast skillets were another favorite as well. We then took a little drive into Denali National Park and Preserve. We could drive our POV as far as mile 15 and we were able to see a couple moose this time. After leaving the park, we made the 2 hour drive back to Fairbanks. It was a pretty quick trip but we had a good time exploring a little bit of Alaska. Have you been to any of these places, or. are you putting any of them on your bucket list? Anything we should check out for next time? Let us know in the comments! If you're interested in a one-on-one chat to help to plan your trip check out our options! Comments or questions? We'd love to hear them! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don't forget to follow us on Instagram for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! ** Update: We went to Seward again! You can get more ideas for a road trip on our blog post series starting here
In continuing with our road trip up the west coast, the last few legs in Oregon included some of our favorite stops! We left Eureka and grabbed some breakfast at the Samoa Cookhouse. The historic cookhouse has been serving meals lumber-camp style since 1893. It’s the last remaining cookhouse in the west and a section of it has been turned into a logging museum! With a set rotating menu, it’s basically an all you can eat ‘home cooked’ meal! The day we went we enjoyed a breakfast of hash browns, eggs, sausages, and toast with biscuits and gravy. It was a pretty cool experience that set us back in time to the old logging days.
After breakfast, we headed straight for Redwood National Park.
We were in awe driving through these giant forests. These trees are considered mature at 500-1000 years old and can live to be 2000 years old! Man, the world is such an amazing place!
After a little exploring, we stopped at Humbug Mountain State Park. We parked in the campground and walked over to the black sand beach. Such a cool little hike and now we know why they filmed some of Jurassic Park in Northern California/Southern Oregon.
Humbug Mountain is one of the highest mountains in Oregon and it rises straight from the ocean. It’s a gorgeous sight and we had fun playing at the beach for a little bit.
Our next stop was a quick walk down to Thor’s Well, just outside of Yachats, Oregon. In Yachats (pronounced YAH-hots), we checked into one of our favorite hotels our entire trip, Deane’s Oceanfront Lodge.
This cozy family-owned motel was such a nice place to stop for the night. Each room had it’s own back porch access and was right on the beach!
After checking in, we backtracked a little to grab some dinner. We decided on The Drift Inn restaurant and I gotta tell ya, the pot pie was good but their COBBLER! I could go for that alone!
We made it back to watch the sunset from a few steps away from our room. The next morning was our latest check-out yet! We just couldn’t seem to leave. Walking the beaches and finding sand dollars was so relaxing and an amazing start to our day..
After we did finally get packed up, we drove to Newport, OR and stopped at Yaquina National Park.
We opted not to take the tour of the lighthouse but instead hiked down to the tide pools and the pebble beach.
After a good stretch of our legs, we drove on. We couldn’t drive through without a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory!
Before stopping at our next hotel, we walked around Cannon Beach and listed off all our favorite Goonies quotes :D
That night, we stayed at The Tradewinds Condos and Hotel in Seaside. Super affordable, complete with a kitchen and view of the ocean. We were pretty pleased with this stay as well!
The next morning we got bagel sandwiches and smoothies from Bagels by the Sea. We went through the drive through on our way out but it was a fast, hot breakfast and we were definitely more than satisfied! Our next stop was Astoria! The actual home of the Goonies :) but also home of the Astoria Column!
The column is 125 ft high with 164 steps up to the observation deck. It was built in 1926 to celebrate the discovery, exploration, and settlement of the west. These days, you can purchase little airplanes from the gift stop and launch them from the top to see how far they go! You know we had to get in on this action.
We then drove across the above pictured bridge into Washington! The Astoria-Megler Bridge stretches 4.1 miles and is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. We definitely tested Jon’s fear of heights a few times that day ;)
We stopped for the night in Seattle and after a morning of laundry and car cleaning, crammed as much tourist activities in as we could. We started with the market and roamed the aisles of fresh flowers and fresh fish! Always have to watch the men toss fish through the air! Then we wandered through the back and found the fun pig to draw with chalk on. We found the gum wall and then took a ride on the Great Wheel. There was a lot of construction, but it was fun to explore this little area downtown until it was time to head back to the hotel and rest up for the next leg of our trip.
Seattle was fun to explore but I think we got pretty used to those small coastal towns in Oregon that the sudden traffic and crowds was a little jarring for us haha. Maybe we’re turning into rural folks.
The next morning we left for Bellingham and boarded the ferry to Alaska! Which was a whole adventure all on it’s own. You can read about that here! This leg completed our time in the "lower 48" and we were definitely looking forward to getting closer and closer to our new home. Make sure to pin for future reference! And catch us on Instagram to see more of our day-to-day adventures! Make sure you get out and enjoy where YOU live!
We had a good time exploring San Francisco which you can read all about in our last post, but this next part of our trip was going to be mostly off the beaten track, which we were pretty excited about. We were also about halfway to our final destination which was a pretty big deal!
We left San Francisco in the morning and about 3 hours later pulled into Ukiah, CA for our first pit stop of this leg. We grabbed some lunch and some gas but not before checking out the World’s Largest Redwood Tree Service Station/Museum!....
...which was closed (sad face). But it was still really cool to see and walk around and it piqued our interest in the area we were entering: Redwood country.
After getting back on the road, we ventured a little bit out of the way and got off highway 101 and onto the 1 and detoured over to Fort Bragg. This coastal town is rich in history and would be a really cool place to take some time to explore, but we really narrowed it down to one stop - Glass Beach.
Glass Beach is a true trash to treasure story. These beaches were actually used as city dump sites from 1906-1967. Cars, batteries, bottles, etc. were dumped over and the cliffs and into the ocean. Now what remains is smooth colored sea-glass mixed into the natural rocks and sand that make up the beaches.
We spent way too long - with no regrets - sorting through and finding pieces of amber, green, blue, and clear sea glass. We also had fun exploring the tide pools and jumping off the big rocks ;)
Reluctantly, we hiked back to the car to continue on our adventure.
Our next stop was drive-thru tree park in Leggett, CA. This was a fun place to stretch our legs and get acquainted with those amazing redwoods we were driving by.
Our only disappointment was that our van wouldn’t fit through the tree because of the rack we had on top. Would’ve been cool to say we drove through a tree haha, but walking through was still pretty cool!
Nothing to make you feel small like sitting in a giant tree trunk! This little park was really fun to walk around and find all the wood carvings. A very good stop to get out and stretch for a little bit.
Our next stop was actually a few minutes down the highway, called One-Log House.
This 2000+ year old Redwood one log house was really only created for a tourist attraction, but it is one of the coolest ‘tourist traps’ we’ve ever seen! I mean, really, I wouldn’t mind having one of my own if I ever happen upon a fallen Redwood ;)
We pulled into our Airbnb in Eureka not too far from here. This was our first and only stay in an Airbnb this trip and our digs were very comfortable and quaint! 10/10 recommended. We checked in for the night to rest up for our next leg of driving, which would end in Yachats, OR!
Comments or questions? We'd love to hear them! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don't forget to follow us on Instagram for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
This week marks one year since our Walt Disney World vacation and I’ve actually had a few people ask me about what went into planning our trip! So what better time to write up a blog post about it?
If we really start from the beginning, I have to admit that going on this trip took a year in the making. I know that sounds crazy, but we knew a year beforehand that we wanted to take a trip and spend time with family or friends and do something epic! And we knew we, and others, may need time to save up the time off or money etc to be able to make it happen. We ended up inviting our friends to go with us to Disney World and they were immediately on board. So the planning began! Step 1: Where And When
There are so many options of places to stay in and around Disney property. After looking into the pros and cons of staying off-property, we decided it was more cost effective to stay on property and use Uber and Disney transportation rather than rent a car and pay for gas and parking and take the time to get on and off property each day.
Now we just had to narrow it down to one of the 25 hotels on Disney property! Haha no, realistically, we know Disney. And even the cheapest options are going to be great. So with our family of 4, and our friends’ family of 4, we had decided to go with the most cost-effective place to stay. This whittled it down to the All-Star Hotels or the military option of Shades of Green. Shades of Green is DoD owned and the rates there are dependent on rank. They don’t fluctuate like the Disney-owned hotel rates do due to peak attendance times for the parks. So staying at Shades of Green would be beneficial when visiting the parks during a peak travel time. Disney also offers military discounts at most of their hotels. They only release a certain number of rooms at these discounts and once they’re booked, they’re gone. So using this discount would also take into account when you are planning on visiting. We knew we didn’t want to go during a peak travel time. There are half a dozen websites that will give you a ‘calendar’ on the best times to visit Disney World. We knew we wanted to go around Thanksgiving time and it just so happened that the best time in November was the week after! We were able to book 3 nights at All-Star Sports with the military discount and then 3 nights at All-Star Movies.
A little note about Disney Airport Transportation: Because we were staying on property, we were able to take advantage of a lot of different perks! We checked our bags with the luggage tags they mailed us and they were picked up and delivered to our room after we arrived. The shuttle to and from the airport was also included with our stay. And our hotel switch mid-stay was also taken care of. On the day of the switch, we checked out and turned in our bags and when we came back from the parks, we arrived at All-Star Movies and our bags were in our room. It was so seamless. As is the Disney way °O°
I will say, our stay at All-Star Sports wasn’t bad. But we definitely enjoyed All-Star Movies. The enormous character statutes around All-Star Movies were a lot more entertaining to our kids and the rooms were newly renovated so they were obviously a little nicer. Our 2nd room was near the Toy Story Themed area and, I mean, how cool is this??
Step 2: Meal Planning
It may seem a little intense to get your meals planned ahead of time. But most of the sit down restaurants are impossible to get into if you don’t have reservations-especially the good ones! Another perk to staying on property was that we were able to book our dining reservations 6 months in advance. Yes, SIX!! And yes, some of these restaurants do book up six months in advance. So we definitely set alarms on our phones so we could get in on that ASAP.
Part of meal planning was also deciding whether or not we were going to go with the Disney Dining Plan. The Disney Dining Plan has 3 different tiers: Quick Service, Standard, and Deluxe. Each plan is priced out per person per day but everyone is on the plan or no one is. You can’t have some people in your room on the Dining Plan and some not. I won’t get too much into the specifics because we didn’t end up going with it. Once we had decided the places we wanted to eat we actually looked at it a few different ways and the Dining Plan always came out more expensive than just paying as we went. So we figured we saved a couple hundred dollars by NOT choosing to get the Dining Plan. It probably had something to do with our small kids not eating that much. We also used Amazon grocery delivery and got snacks and things delivered right to our room, which saved us a little money as well. Another reason was that we stayed for 6 days but only had 4-day park tickets. We did spend a day at Universal Studios so we would’ve had to pay for meals there on top of having unused credits for the Disney Dining Plan...so for us it just didn’t make sense. ANYWAYS, to plan our meals we used that trusty ‘crowd calendar’ to decide what days we were going to visit each park. We then decided each place we wanted to eat and were able to put that on our itinerary according to what area of Disney World we would be each day. This is how it broke down: The first day we just ate at the cafeteria at All-Star Sports. We had originally planned to grab some food at the Boardwalk, but we were tired from traveling and were ready to rest up for the week ahead. Big plus, All-Star Sports is the only place on property to get edible cookie dough! And it was delicious!
Our first full day at Disney World, we had breakfast at Capt. Cook’s at the Polynesian Resort. This is a Quick-Service Restaurant, no reservations. It was fun to sit outside and eat and then explore the resort and the island theming. While those Mickey Waffles were a big hit for almost every breakfast, we really went there for...
...the Tonga Toast! This bad boy consists of giant pieces of Sourdough bread stuffed with bananas and then battered, deep-fried, and dusted with cinnamon and sugar. If you find yourself looking for a quick, sweet breakfast like nothing you’ve had before near the Polynesian Resort, this is definitely a must-try!
Our next meal of note, was dinner at Beaches & Cream Soda Shop, located at Disney’s Beach Club Resort. This restaurant is actually very small and reservations do book up rather quickly. You can probably guess that these guys are famous for their shakes and sundaes, which we definitely took advantage of.
The kids’ meals came with these cute Mickey Sundaes, which I’m actually surprised I have a picture of, as they didn’t last long! I’m just glad I didn’t have to share my shake ;)
Day 2 was EPCOT day for the first half. We ate breakfast after riding Frozen Ever After at the Norway Pavilion. The School Bread from Krigla Bakeri Og Cafe came highly recommended. I gotta say, I was a big disappointment. I’ll just say you gotta be a fan of black licorice to appreciate this snack and that is not me!! But I’ll tell you what did hit the spot...Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie in the French Pavilion. Croissants, macarons, all the things...go there for a quick and easy breakfast! For dinner that day we were actually at Hollywood Studios! 50s Prime Time Cafe was our reservation of choice and it is a fun one. The atmosphere and the theme set you back in mama’s kitchen in the 50s, with the waitresses getting after you for elbows on the table and no dessert until you eat all your vegetables! It’s super fun and pretty good food! Day 3 was a big highlight!! Magic Kingdom Day opening with breakfast at Cinderella’s Castle!
Even though the food wasn’t bad, this was definitely a time where you pay for the experience. And we had a blast watching the girls get so excited! Cinderella herself greeted us as we checked-in and as we ate, we were visited by the rest of the Disney Princess gang, including Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Rapunzel. Hayden had a perma-grin as we ate and Colbie (barely talking at the time) kept saying ‘more, more’ after each princess would leave. Such an awesome introduction to Magic Kingdom.
For lunch, we hit up Sleepy Hollow for some waffle sandwiches.
The fresh fruit waffle sandwich and the sweet and spicy chicken waffle sandwich were both delicious and our little table outside was in the perfect spot to watch the beginning of the Festival of Fantasy parade.
Day 4 was Universal Studios Day! We actually had breakfast reservations at Olivia’s Cafe at the Old Key West Resort. Banana bread french toast, omelets, all the good things. You can’t go wrong with this cute and yummy restaurant. Lunch was at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. Cold Butterbeer, fish and chips, and sheppard’s pie was a meal we won’t forget anytime soon. Day 5 started at Animal Kingdom. After our ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris, we had a quick breakfast at Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery. But the big hits in Animal Kingdom were the lunch items...
You can’t miss the macaroni & cheese with pulled pork at Eight Spoon Cafe! And while you’re at it, grab some French fries with pulled pork from Flame Tree BBQ. Go big or go home, right?? But the real showstopper was the Mini Mango Pie at Yak & Yeti.
You guys, I can’t with this. If I were to pick only one Disney World treat and kick the rest out, I mean...I have to go with this. Hands down!! I need to go back just for a few more of these...okay, and maybe a few other things...
Dinner was back at EPCOT. With our love of German food, we got reservations at the Biergarten at the Germany Pavilion. It was lots of fun and the food wasn’t bad but our kids could NOT have cared less and if there was anything we could’ve done without, I’d have to say it was this. Our last day was spent back at Magic Kingdom. We miraculously got reservations at Be Our Guest for breakfast. We had read rave reviews and while the decor and atmosphere was very extravagant and exciting, the grey stuff is better at Disneyland ;)
Couldn’t go to Disney without getting a dole whip! Aloha Isle is where you can pick these babies up. OR you can head over to Storybook treats and grab a Peter Pan Float. .
We did both...because you gotta compare, right? If you know, you know and I think I gotta go back to try them again because I can’t decide which is better ;)
Dinner on our last night was absolutely magical. We had reservations at the Plaza Restaurant and while everyone was being directed out of the park unless they had tickets to A Very Merry Christmas, we got to eat dinner on the plaza and watch Elsa turn the castle into an ice castle and afterwards meander down Main Street with snow machines (bubbles) going.
While the dinner was good, it was mostly a perfect example of taking advantage of dining reservations and getting more than just food. We got just that little bit of extra time in the park and it made all the difference! With all of our reservations, we made sure they didn’t overlap with magic hours (when guests get extra time in the parks either in the morning or at night) because that gave us no advantage. You can see that we stuck to only one sit-down restaurant a day and the other two meals were quick service and snacks. This was another way to optimize our food budget as well as plan reservations. We got all the reservations we wanted because we planned it out so well!
Step 3: FastPass Strategy
This may seem a little overkill but one thing to understand about Disney World is that there is SO MUCH to do and it’s SO BIG! The only way to get the most out of your trip is to have a rough idea of where you’re going to be and when you’re going to be there. This part of the planning goes back to that handy Disney World Crowd Calendar but we also had to prioritize what rides we wanted to go on! Especially when it came down to Fast Passes. Because we were staying on property, another perk we had was that we could schedule out 3 fast passes per day 60 days in advance of our trip. These book up just like restaurant reservations. Some rides are impossible to get on if you don’t have fast passes, unless you want to stand in line for over 2 hours (yikes! Not me!) So once we knew what days we were going to spend in each of the parks, we wrote down what rides were our top priority so we could get Fast Passes for them. You guys, we spent 4 days at Disney World and the longest we waited for a ride was 30 minutes. It was AWESOME! Rather than give you our whole itinerary, we’ll just go over which rides we would recommend fast passes for in each park.
EPCOT rides with long wait times tend to be Frozen Ever After, Test Track, and Soarin’. The only issue is that EPCOT fast pass rides are broken into two tiers, where you can only get one fast pass in tier 1 and all three of those rides are in tier 1! We were able to get there at rope drop and get on Frozen Ever After with a short wait time and we scored fast passes for Soarin’.
Magic Kingdom attractions that regularly have long wait times are Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Meet Mickey Mouse, and the wait at Jungle Cruise can get up there! There are no tiers for fast passes in this park and we spent two different days here and got gasses for all those (except Mickey Mouse)and then some. We highly recommend fast passes for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train as it’s not unheard of to have a 2 hour wait!
Animal Kingdom has a fast pass tier system. Tier 1 includes the Avatar rides-Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey. I used my fast pass for Flight of Passage and Jon and Hayden used theirs for Na’vi River Journey. For Flight of Passage, we used child swap so Jon got on the ride after I got off. Basically 2 fast passes in 1! Which was awesome because when we got in line, the stand by wait time was over 200 minutes! P.S. that ride is SO INCREDIBLE!! If you’re wondering which is better for fast passes, we recommend Flight of Passage, hands down. Kilimanjaro Safaris is another one we recommend for a fast pass. The animals are most active in the morning so the lines tend to get longer at that time. We got fast passes for quite early in the day and had an amazing time!
Hollywood Studios also has a tiered fast pass system but it has changed since our trip! And it is expected to change again in the near future, so we can’t really make any comment on it at this time. I will, however, say that this author rode Rock-n-Roller Coaster back to back without fast passes near park closing time and it was the best ;)
Can we really do a proper Orlando trip without a visit to Universal Studios? More specifically, the Wizarding world, of course! Was it possible to see everything we wanted to see in the one day we spent there? We’ll let you be the judge:
(Not pictured: hot butterbeer, cold butterbeer, frozen butterbeer, all three Harry Potter rides, lunch at The Three Broomsticks, and even a few Dr. Suess World rides on our way out. So epic!)
A few more tips and tricks: Our first day, before even going into any of the parks, we actually spent exploring other resort properties! It was so fun to ride the monorail and boats especially to check out the resorts around Magic Kingdom. Each was decorated for Christmas and had giant Christmas trees and gingerbread houses. And it was a good time to check out restaurants outside of the parks.
We were obsessed with our magic bands!! Magic bands are customized wrist bands that act as your tickets, fast passes, room keys, and even credit card throughout the parks! They were yet another perk of staying on property and so convenient!
We did schedule in hotel breaks for each day (except universal studios day) to recharge and get a nap in...for the kids ;) We also took our own stroller rather than renting one and it was worth it. We had such a good time during our week at Disney World that’s it’s still being talked about, a year later, by our girls asking when we can go back. Our only regret was getting on the plane to come home!
If you're planning a trip to Disney World, we hope this helps! If you've been and have other tips to add, let us know in the comments! We'd love to hear from you! As always, follow us on instagram for more of our day-to-day adventures! And until next time, get out and enjoy where YOU live!
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AuthorWe're just a military family enjoying where we live, one PCS at a time. Follow us as we explore our current home, South Carolina, and beyond. The world is our backyard. Archives
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