Author Topic: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)  (Read 15705 times)

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #20 on: July 06, 2018, 02:17:27 PM »
Awesome trip report! Thanks for posting! Pics were even better than what you shared via status :)

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #21 on: July 08, 2018, 08:22:44 PM »
Great TR!! Amazing pics!!
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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #22 on: July 08, 2018, 08:59:18 PM »
+1

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #23 on: July 08, 2018, 09:31:42 PM »
As a follow up:  DW would have still gone camping at Wonder Lake but remembered more mosquito repellent. My oldest would not have come.  Second kid would have taken a pair of pants, worn boots, and taken more mosquito repellent.  My little guy wants to go back to Wonder Lake to play on the table.

We only encountered mosquitoes en mass at Wonder Lake.  There were also some at the campground in Palmer.  Otherwise, I do not recall seeing lots of mosquitoes during the trip.  I don't think you should be dissuaded from an Alaska trip because there are plenty of spots without mosquitoes or at least not a huge issue with mosquitoes.

PS:  Pet requests following the Alaskan trip  - bunny, baby moose, and baby reindeer.
I don't think mosquitoes would keep me away from Alaska, but it would definitely keep me away from camping

Offline Something Fishy

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #24 on: July 08, 2018, 10:29:09 PM »
I don't think mosquitoes would keep me away from Alaska, but it would definitely keep me away from camping

I know a place you can camp with no mosquitos.
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Offline PBaruch

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #25 on: July 08, 2018, 10:37:06 PM »
I don't think mosquitoes would keep me away from Alaska, but it would definitely keep me away from camping

At Wonder Lake, the only other option is to stay at a backcountry lodge, which runs in the range of 500-600 per person per night.

I know a place you can camp with no mosquitos.

Not at or near Wonder Lake. 

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #26 on: July 09, 2018, 10:48:50 PM »
I know a place you can camp with no mosquitos.
so trade mosquito bites for frost bites?

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #27 on: July 10, 2018, 11:37:38 AM »
Great TR ! Thanks for Sharing. Now how do you do this trip with 5 Kids ? ??? :o

Offline PBaruch

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #28 on: July 10, 2018, 11:44:34 AM »
Great TR ! Thanks for Sharing. Now how do you do this trip with 5 Kids ? ??? :o

Aside from having enough points/miles for flights you should all be able to fit into the same motorhome we had. The dinette and couch fold out into beds if you need so you could have a total of 6 separate sleeping areas.

Hopefully you can make it work and write a nice trip after.
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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #29 on: July 10, 2018, 01:39:28 PM »
Aside from having enough points/miles for flights you should all be able to fit into the same motorhome we had. The dinette and couch fold out into beds if you need so you could have a total of 6 separate sleeping areas.

Hopefully you can make it work and write a nice trip after.
I would say availability would be the bigger issue.

Offline PBaruch

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #30 on: July 10, 2018, 02:52:29 PM »
I would say availability would be the bigger issue.

We actually had no problems finding availability for 5 on multiple airlines - not sure if 7 would be different.  Our only issue was that there was no good/cheap/saver availability.  Also, we booked at the beginning of May, so perhaps it wasn't far enough in advance to find cheap/saver availability. 
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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #31 on: July 10, 2018, 03:08:40 PM »
@PBaruch, Outstanding TR! Thank you for all the amazing photos and just the right amount of narrative.

Maybe I missed it, but can you say whether you brought all the food with you? You must have brought all the meat and marshmallows etc. from home?

And, how about all the camping gear? Did you rent it?  How could you carry a tent and sleeping bags etc. on the plane with you? 

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #32 on: July 10, 2018, 03:21:50 PM »
@PBaruch, Outstanding TR! Thank you for all the amazing photos and just the right amount of narrative.

Maybe I missed it, but can you say whether you brought all the food with you? You must have brought all the meat and marshmallows etc. from home?

And, how about all the camping gear? Did you rent it?  How could you carry a tent and sleeping bags etc. on the plane with you?

We brought a rolling soft sided cooler bag (as a carry on bag) filled with steak, burger patties, hot dogs, sausages and chicken on skewers.  Everything was frozen solid before we left.  We brought enough meat/chicken to make a BBQ for just about each night.  We used this cooler that was purchased on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Can-Removable-Liner-Cooler/dp/B006HFB7UY/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1531249828&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=rolling+soft+sided+cooler+bag

And yes, we brought the marshmallows along from home as well - that wasn't a big deal as its a small bag.

As for our camping gear, we purchased a tent, sleeping bags and other gear in 2016 and we fit it into duffel bags as checked luggage.  We did end up buying a sleeping bag for my little one from Walmart since he didn't have one. 

Due to my MVP 75k status, I received 2 free checked bags for each person on my reservation code and I was able to get 1 free bag for others in my family (as a result of having the Alaska CC).  When checking in at JFK, the person assisting us made a comment "are you moving to Alaska" because we had so many bags.

Aside from meat/chicken, there was plenty of kosher food in Alaska.  We found kosher beef jerky, lots of different flavors of kosher salmon (individual slices), lox, cream cheese, chumus, string cheese (non cholov yisroel), yogurts etc.  We even found kosher bread at the Riley Creek Mercantile Store in Denali National Park (Dave's Killer Bread with an OU).  We were surprised ourselves at the broad availability of kosher food in Alaska.  For breakfast/lunch, we made lots of different sandwiches. 

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #33 on: July 10, 2018, 07:55:43 PM »
Thank you, very enjoyable TR and great pictures.
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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #34 on: July 22, 2018, 06:18:47 PM »
Great TR. Anyone know how to add it to the Alaska TR List?

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #35 on: July 23, 2018, 10:52:36 AM »
read the whole report. great TR. and amazing pics. but i think i might have missed what time of year you went? is June 2018 from the title when this trip was taken?

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #36 on: July 23, 2018, 10:59:35 AM »
I think @PBaruch should get an award for best family vacations on DDF.

Incredible TR as usual.
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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #37 on: July 23, 2018, 11:16:53 AM »
I think @PBaruch should get an award for best family vacations on DDF.

Incredible TR as usual.
+1it's nice to see that you can go on adventures with your wife and kids

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #38 on: July 23, 2018, 11:30:41 AM »
Wow. Amazing TR!!!
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Offline PBaruch

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Re: Alaskan Family Adventures, by PBaruch (June 2018)
« Reply #39 on: July 23, 2018, 12:28:52 PM »
read the whole report. great TR. and amazing pics. but i think i might have missed what time of year you went? is June 2018 from the title when this trip was taken?

Thanks.  The trip was from June 2018.  We left the day after my kids finished school.  I try to write the trip reports shortly after we return just to annoy @Something Fishy.   ;D

I think @PBaruch should get an award for best family vacations on DDF.

Incredible TR as usual.

Wow, thanks!  Instead of an award how about convincing @Something Fishy to let me take my 4yo to Antarctica? 
« Last Edit: July 23, 2018, 12:32:43 PM by PBaruch »
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