Planning the trip

Every year we take at least one family vacation. Since about 3-4 years ago, there have been a few times that one or both girls had better things to do and couldn't join us. This summer, Christine is doing study abroad in Singapore and Beijing while Cara is coaching the summer swim team until the first week of August. We'll miss you girls on our trip to Alaska...

Julie's parents will be going with us. They have gone on vacations with us many time in the past several years and they seemed to enjoy spending time with us and visiting new places. Auntie Amy will also join us. This is the first time we take a trip with her.

We bought our airplane tickets and reserved our RV in early March. The airfare was $489 pp with one stop in Detroit (Delta Airline), and the RV rental averages $185 per night including taxes and fees (we got a 30% discount for early reservation). Not bad considering the hotels and car rental are about 50% more expensive than other places in the US.

We should have reserved the 31' RV instead of the 25'. By the time we realized it, all 31' RVs were rented out for the time we need it... We'll have to either squeeze in the RV or buy a small tent in Anchorage so I can camp next to our RV at the RV park.

In mid June, I made reservation for most of the RV parks we are going to stay and booked the bus tickets for the Denali National Park.