Roadtrip Recap: Oregon, Alaska and Idaho

Our 9th Roadtrip took place in late summer 2018. It is surreal and thrilling that we are now at 46/50 states. To channel Jonathan Van Ness ‘can you believe??’

We flew into Portland, Oregon (PDX) and then in and out of Anchorage before returning home from PDX. We can confirm that PDX airport is our favourite ever. It has a really chill vibe, ALL and I do mean all of the staff we encountered were a delight, there’s delicious doughnuts, a Powell’s book store, a fabulous gift store called Tender Loving Empire and a Deschutes bar. It has snazzy carpets too. Superb.

Our trip took us to Portland (1 night), Talkeetna (1 night), Healy (2 nights), Anchorage (1 night), Homer (1 night), Seward (2 nights), Pendleton (1 night), Cottonwood (1 night), Portland (3 nights). We stayed in some gorgeous cabins, a WW2 shed, some swanky hotels and the world’s LARGEST BEAGLE.

We drove for 2150 miles in the car and listened to a book about the fallout of Brexit during the drives. ROCK AND ROLL BABY!

The roadtrip took in one new state: Alaska, but it’s a big and very beautiful one!

We saw our first ever sea-plane take off, we had our first ever All-Terrain-Vehicle adventure which we enjoyed more than we thought we would!, we saw moose, and bears, and caribou, and bald eagles at Denali National Park, Josh experienced the pleasure and wizardry of the Self-Serve pancake machine for the first time, Hannah got buzzed off one drink in a saloon in Homer festooned with dollar bills, we hiked up to a glacier, Josh spent waaay too long in a massage chair in our WW2 hut, we saw seals bobbing along on our boat trip from Seward along with a couple of sleepy puffins, we made friends with a chihuahua at a bar, we slept in a former bordello, we spent a night playing board-games inside a giant beagle pausing to stargaze and check out the Milky Way, we ignored TLC’s advise and chased waterfalls, Josh tasted 139 new beers, Hannah enjoyed a cocktail during a “tropical storm” in a Tiki bar, we tried to smell EVERY rose in Portland’s International Rose Test Garden, Hannah ate a lot of vegan food in Portland, Josh did too. We loved every second of it.

We had our expectations smashed by the sheer beauty of Alaska and loved meeting new people and old friends like Dennis and Frances who created Dog Bark Park. We don’t have as long to wait until we hit state 47 as we’re visiting Denver, Colorado at the new year. And frankly we can’t wait!