Off Like a Herd of Turtles: Family Travel Blog

As soon as we were pregnant with our much sought after third baby, we knew we wanted maternity leave to include a month long trip to Alaska. We had attempted an Alaska trip twice in the past. Once we became pregnant with Zooey and at that point, didn't even consider (nor have the funds or time for) and extended trip with a newborn as first time parents. Then we had a wonderful 2 week RV trip planned with my parents for 2020 and of course COVID ruined that. So we figured we'd go bigger and planned a 1 month travel trailer trip to the Kenai Peninsula, the Mat-Su Valley and Denali National Park.  Napping in at the Eagle River Nature Center This first post in a series of posts will discuss our overall travel plans and how we conceptualized this trip. Given timing was completely dependent on 1) delivery date of baby Fynn and 2) recovery of mom after 3rd (!) c-section and health of baby Fynn we didn't make plans or even an itinerary until after he was born. I gave myself 2 weeks ...

  We had a Glacier Discovery Train adventure day on our last full day in Alaska. It was a perfect balance of sightseeing (from the train windows and a bit on foot), family time, relaxation (for the adults- train travel is SOO wonderful and chill with kids!) and hiking. I highly recommend a day trip on one of the multiple trains on the Alaska Railroad . I carefully selected our route to minimize drive time, maximize train time and have opportunities to get off and explore. I chose well and I highly recommend exactly what we did.  In the tunnel We started mid morning by getting picked up at the tiny Girdwood train depot at 11 am. So tiny that we questioned if we were in the right place but thankfully we were. The kids- especially Ollie- were SO excited as the train pulled into the depot. Ollie, like most toddlers, LOVES trains but has had very little opportunities to go on them due to COVID. This was a great chance to remedy that. After a beautiful 1.75 hour train ride including...

  By the time we got to wonderful Homer, I felt we had really hit our slow travel groove. We were enjoying a nice balance of fun adventures and down time. We were exploring classic sites but also the road less traveled (sometimes too less traveled, see below haha). We were enjoying time as a family but also keeping in mind that every day needs an adventure so we can work up both our food related appetites but also our appetites for down time and family time. After a long but beautiful driving day from near Girdwood down to Homer, we were ready for a break. Fynn had woken up or had blow outs at inopportune times so we had made a couple unscheduled not ideal location stops- 3 actually- so what would have been a 4 hour drive without a newborn became a 6 hour drive. This was okay- I had specifically not scheduled more than 4 hours of planned driving, knowing this can happen- but our nerves were fried from the 10 minutes of bloody murder crying that Fynnie required to fall asleep after ...