First Day in Alaska EVER

Five suitcases in tow, we got to the Little Rock Airport ready to fly!

Technically, our day started on the evening of the 19th. We had a seven hour layover in Chicago, which made for plenty of time to explore the airport. Thanks to the USO we had comfortable chairs to sit in when we wanted to relax.

After a long seven hours of sitting around waiting, we boarded our 12:45 a.m. flight to Anchorage!

The flight was light on people, so I ended up getting a row to myself! I took the opportunity to lay down across all three seats and try to sleep. I woke up around 4 a.m. and looked outside to see if the stars were clear and much to my surprise, there were the Northern Lights right outside my little window!!! I woke up my mom so she could see them and we spent the next hour admiring the incredible sight.

At 3:30 a.m. we landed in Anchorage. The rental car center didn't open until 5:30 a.m. so we browsed gift shops (which surprisingly were open) until they called our name over the loudspeaker because they were waiting on us to grab our luggage from baggage claim. Whoops.

Saw this advertisement for my temporary school and had to get a pic

5:30 a.m. rolled around so we picked up our rental car and hit the road. As soon as we left the airport complex we had mountains in our face!!!

Our first stop on our Alaskan adventure was a little town called Talkeetna, about two hours north of Anchorage. But before we started our drive, we had to hit up a Walmart for the essentials (contact solution, shampoo, pb & j supplies, e.t.c.). Even the view from the parking lot was amazing!!

We couldn't check into our hotel in Talkeetna until 4:00 p.m., so we were not in a rush to get there. I saw a sign for a "Mirror Lake" so we pulled off, and man am I glad we did!

I guess I could see where it gets the name Mirror Lake...

This wasn't the only lake we stopped at, though. The next one didn't have a sign, it was just visible from the road.

A little ways down the road, we pulled off again, this time at a seaplane dock. While we were standing there taking pictures, a plane flew over us!

Finally, we made it to Talkeetna. By the time we rolled in, some of the shops were starting to open so we started browsing, still trying to kill time until we could check in.

Fun fact: the mayor of Talkeetna is a cat. He resides in Nagley's Store and we were lucky enough to meet him! He even allowed us a few pets. I felt so humbled to be in his presence.

Mayor Stubbs

We had only been in Alaska for a few hours and I already got to drive a snowmobile!!! How lucky is that?!

We saw "Talkeetna Riverfront Park" on Google Maps, so we took the two-minute walk there through a small forest. It felt like we were in a serious jungle.

Even though it was cloudy, this little riverfront beach was beautiful! We could walk out on the sand right up to the edge of the water, and we even saw some man-made creations left behind.

Around 1:00 p.m. we got hungry for lunch, so we ate at Mountain High Pizza Pie. We split a giant pepperoni calzone and ended up still having half as leftovers!

We walked around Talkeetna until around 2:30 p.m., when we drove to our hotel. We planned on sitting in the parking lot until check-in at 4:00 p.m., but the owner came and knocked on our car window to tell us we could go ahead and check in!

We stayed at the Talkeetna Denali View Lodge. We had this super cute room and the host was very kind and welcoming. After our long day, I fell fast asleep before 8:00 p.m. so I could get my rest for the day ahead!