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DISCLAIMER: I will most likely ramble in this blog due to it being the most AMAZING trip of my life. I wish I could share every single detail with you but I will try to contain myself! The countdown has come to an end for my 50 before 30. I had started a bucket list back in 2012 when I went to college that contained the item "hit all 50 states before turning 30." I won't lie, back then I chuckled to myself thinking it would be neat if I could, but it wasn't until I met Cameron and he too shared a passion for travel and new places, that I started taking it seriously. If you don't know the origin of the Camera Couple, we started this blog back in May of 2016 to highlight the cross country road trip we were going to take. We had only known each other a year and truthfully didn't know what to expect. But as our time together grew, so did our love for finding new places, new states, photography, and each other. Pretty soon our whole life revolved around traveling and in 2022 Cameron accomplished 50 states and I had hit 49. That left only one, with exactly one year to do it. It was cold. It was gray. It was magnificent Alaska.  Originally we were figuring to hit Alaska in July or August, but we ended up having to unexpectedly go to Massachusetts, so we decided to pull the trigger and fly from Boston at the end of May. We left some beautiful southern weather and arrived to 50's and rain after a 24 hour plane trip. But truthfully, it was the best way to experience Alaska. We had decided to hit Anchorage as our main stay. I had found an awesome AirB&B right by the airport and we snagged a great rental car deal. After 24 hours traveling, we were happy to be home for the whole week.  Cheers to making it to Alaska! Since Alaska is 6 hours behind and was coming up on their 24-hour daylight, Cameron and I knew it would be light, but we had no idea how light. We arrived at 10:00PM and it was still bright! And even crazier, everything stays open really late! We were starved, so we went looking for some food and drinks (mostly drinks) and came back to the house to enjoy a late night celebratory snack. Well rested, the next day we got up and started work. Weird coming to Alaska to work, right? Well actually it was awesome! Each day we got up around 4:00AM in Alaska, but that's really 10:00AM for everyone on the east. So we could work for a few hours and then by 9:00AM in Alaska when everything was open, we would head out and explore and still get the whole day. That's just one of the many perks, working for yourselves as freelancers.  One of the fun things about our rental house was we were right next to the Lake Hood Floatplane Base. We could hear them going over the house all day, and the base was right around the corner, so we headed over to check it out and watch the planes land. One of my favorite things about Alaska was how much outdoor activity there is, it is the Last Frontier after all! The base had a huge several mile walking loop around it so you could walk right where the planes were coming and going, it was really cool to see them up close. I should also mention that Cameron and I had some of the best food ever on this trip. I don't know what it is about Alaska, but man, we were never disappointed. We tried several local breweries and grills, and everything was spectacular. Cameron's favorite was the King Crab grilled cheese from 49th State Brewing. Another awesome perk of Cameron and my's work, is the colleagues we have all over the country. We have been fortunate to meet up with so many of our co-workers and it makes the trips that much more fun. Strangely enough, I had an Alaska connection. The Port of Anchorage's Port Director works closely with my maritime company, so I reached out and we scheduled to meet him at the Port of Anchorage. Steve gave us a fabulous tour of the port showing us so many neat things they are working on, what they use for equipment, and how their operations are unique from anywhere in the globe due to the ever changing tide. As a bonus there was a container ship unloading that day! So we got to watch the unloading system and see it up close.  On top of the world at the port! Most of our afternoons in Alaska included exploring adorable gift shops, trails, and searching for Moose. One of the days driving home I saw a Moose off the highway a little ways and made Cameron turn the car around. Then I saw a second one at the rest stop from far away, but by the time we got close they had been scared off. I really wanted to see a Moose up close. Every time I have seen one, one of us is always moving away from the other. We checked out the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which is an awesome animal sanctuary. We got to see the cutest bears (other than Luna of course), Moose, Wolves, Foxes, Porcupines, Elk, and many more. Not to mention the drive through Chugach State Park is stunning. We will definitely camp when (not if) we go back. On the way back towards Anchorage, we stopped into downtown Girwood, AK to explore. It was a cute ski town that had some fun places to eat. We got some delicious wings at one place. They didn't last long enough for a picture.  Equally as good as the wings The rest of our days flew by, full of more exploring trails, parks, stores. We stumbled upon a Duluth Trading, which I must say might be a new favorite. We have always wanted to stop in but never really see them in our travels. It was just meant to be in Alaska! Cameron also grabbed a new pair of hiking boots — I know, SHOCKING, for once it's not me buying shoes on a trip! By Thursday the "make sure Rose sees a Moose" expedition was in full swing. We were determined, and had returned to several parks and open land to try and catch a glimpse. We decided to hike along a popular moose spotting trail, we hiked for miles and it started to rain. We were about to give up when another passerby stopped us and said "careful, theres a moose about a half mile up ahead." I took off like LIGHTNING. All I wanted on this trip was to leave Alaska seeing a moose up close in the wild. And I did.
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