Aurora in Alaska and Volcano in Hawaii in 2015 ?

Mark, there have been a lot of exciting travel stories recently!

It's quite clear to write separately day by day

In the afternoon, of course, I went shopping with my wife at the Castle Outlets. Why is it always shopping on the first day! It's a frustrating day, but the results are still brilliant. However, compared to the first time, this time it's a bit less, not even a small box. In the evening, we continued to stay at Donny.

On day 6, I slept in and then went dog sledding in the afternoon, which cost $60 per person. It was a lot of fun, running through the forest for about 15 minutes at a fast speed, with a quiet and interesting atmosphere. The Alaskan dogs were very cute, and they were very friendly when you interacted with them. After that, I continued to wander around the resort, took a photo with a big snowman, visited the hot springs, and saw the hotel's small airport with a runway. There was also an ice bar. In the evening, I soaked in the hot springs and tried to see the Northern Lights, but unfortunately, there was nothing.

Woke up naturally on day 10, returned to Anchorage, and the scenery along the way was still beautiful. Forests, lakes, and snow-capped mountains were everywhere. I went to a large ice lake to take a few photos. The weather finally cleared up. It took about 3 hours to return to Anchorage, visited a few parks, but nothing special. Found a Japanese supermarket, bought a live king crab weighing 3 pounds for $34, very cheap. Also bought a bunch of seafood and vegetables, went back to the hotel, and cooked a big pot in the kitchen. Just one crab was enough. Even Häagen-Dazs was unbelievably cheap. Such a big one for just over $6.

Waiting for update

Ice and snow

Northern Lights, so elusive

Dinosaur Bay should pay attention to not stepping on the feet

Aurora, what a magical phenomenon

Wow, the last one is so dreamy

OP is awesome

Häagen-Dazs is unexpectedly so cheap (upstairs, is your avatar your pet chicken? Hahaha~)

Wait for update, this is last year's travel notes~~

Upstairs, actually it's not raining. If the snow hasn't melted, it's still acceptable.

Day 8, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning, took a 2-hour drive to the airport to catch the 8:40 flight to Anchorage. Arrived in Anchorage around 10 o'clock, continued to rent a car, found a McDonald's for breakfast, and went directly to Girdwood, a small town 90 kilometers outside Anchorage, which is also a skiing resort. The scenery along the way is extremely beautiful, with continuous snow-capped mountains and half-frozen sea.

Dingding

Waking up early on day 4 to catch the 9:40 am flight with Alaska Airlines from Anchorage to Fairbanks, a 1-hour flight costing around $98 per person. Arriving at 11 am in the aurora city of Fairbanks to pick up a GMC SUV. Not far from the airport is a park on the itinerary, but surprisingly it's closed in winter. We went in for a walk and saw snow mushrooms everywhere, a true polar landscape. Continuing on, we found a Japanese restaurant for lunch, with good sashimi. After lunch, we checked into the Alyeska Hotel. The GPS wasn't very accurate, and we had to use Google Maps to find the place, all while it started snowing. We were worried about whether we'd be able to see the aurora that night. Checking the aurora index and weather at the hotel, the index was moderate, but it was cloudy, so we probably wouldn't be able to see it. Around 9 pm, we drove to the outskirts of East Dome, said to be a good spot for seeing the aurora. It was about 20 kilometers away, up a mountain, with very few cars on the road and heavy snowfall. The car lights shone into a vast expanse of white. When we reached the mountaintop, we waited for the snow to stop. My wife played in the snow while we waited. After about half an hour, the snow lightened a bit, but the clouds were still thick, so we turned back. Passing by a small hotel, we stopped again and chatted with an American who lived nearby. He said it was unlikely we'd see the aurora that night. The snow had completely covered the car, with snow on the roof as deep as a beer bottle. After midnight, we returned to the hotel. We circled around the hotel but still didn't see any signs of the aurora. Time to sleep.

Arrived in Girdwood around 12 o'clock. Here is one of the world's top ski resorts, with a total of more than 10 ski runs, divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, and extremely cheap. If you bring your own skis, it costs $20 for the lift ticket, and you can ski all day. If you need to rent ski equipment, it's about $39 for the whole day, much cheaper than ski resorts in China. Stayed at the Alaska Hotel, which is the most luxurious hotel on this trip, costing around $1700. You can see the snow-capped mountains from the bed, and the scenery is first-rate. After settling in, took a nap and went to the mountaintop to enjoy the view. The Alaska Hotel is right next to the ski resort, with the town just 100 meters away. The top ski run is at an altitude of about 3000 meters, with a 5000-meter run to the foot of the mountain. Watching the foreigners ski down at high speed, with no guardrails on the side, was nerve-wracking. Even many children can ski down from the mountaintop. Views of the distant snow-capped mountains and the sea. The densely packed ski lifts lead to different difficulty levels of ski runs. After skiing down, quickly went to rent skis and eagerly went to the beginner ski run. The whole ski run was just the two of us, unlike the crowded ski resorts in China. There are 2 beginner ski runs, one of which is about 2000 meters long, with a gentle slope at first, but a very steep continuous downhill halfway through. I've skied a few times in China and thought I was okay. But every time I reached that downhill, except for the first time, I ended up tumbling down. My wife fell and couldn't get up because it was too steep, so she ended up sliding down sitting. After a few runs, we switched to a different ski run, and that's when the story began. Accidentally took the wrong cable car! The more we rode, the more wrong it felt, and then we realized we had taken the intermediate cable car up, which was a disaster! When we reached the top, we originally wanted to take the cable car back down, but the cable car attendant insisted that we get off. After explaining to her for a while that we were beginners, and if we skied down, it would be the end of us, as we would be constantly surrounded by the big snow-capped mountains. The old lady asked me to sit and wait on the side. After a while, a beautiful female paramedic came up, and I curiously asked her how she was going to get me down the mountain. She smiled and looked at me: follow me ski down! I stared at her in disbelief: are you kidding? After explaining for a while, she finally agreed, wrapped up my skis, and accompanied me on the cable car down. When we reached the foot of the mountain, I couldn't ski anymore, so I took off my ski gear and went back to the room to rest. Dinner was at the Seven Glacier Restaurant on the mountaintop, with a good atmosphere, average steak, and too expensive.

day15 Say goodbye to Hawaii and head to Tokyo. day16 Arrived in Tokyo around 1 pm, checked the return flight and found out there were no seats available. Had to change the plan and decided to go shopping in the afternoon and return home tomorrow. What a waste of my Hilton hotel reservation. Checked in at the hotel and immediately took a train to Akihabara, it's so far, even farther than Shanghai. Had a nice Japanese meal, spent 260 yen for two people and got really full with sashimi. Rushed through the streets for 3 hours and bought a Zojirushi rice cooker, only to find out that the rice it cooks isn't any different. day17 Going home!

On day 7, we continued to wander around during the day and soaked in the hot springs. In the evening, we went to the aurora cabin next to our room to see the aurora. There were many Taiwanese people again today, and they actually had pictures of the aurora from yesterday in their cameras. After a while, I finally understood that the aurora is mainly gray, like faint clouds, and requires a long exposure to appear green in photos. The kind of widespread green and purple auroras only appear during major eruptions. They said that a long green light band appeared for a moment in the late night yesterday, but it was fleeting. Let's share a few more photos to console ourselves. We waited until dawn, but still saw nothing but faint auroras changing in the sky, not very beautiful, and we didn't have the skills to capture them. We went back to our room to sleep. Although we didn't see the brilliant northern lights on this aurora trip, we stayed at the Chenna Hot Spring Resort for three nights, soaked in the hot springs, and enjoyed the snow scenery, which felt very good. The main thing is that there weren't many people, just a few more Taiwanese, and mostly young people from China studying in the United States. There were hardly any tour groups, it was very quiet, and it felt like a vacation.

Today we went to the famous Chena Hot Springs Resort. In the morning, we took a walk around the hotel and took some photos. It feels very nostalgic. We returned the car at the airport around 11 o'clock, and the hotel's car picked us up around 12 o'clock. It took about 2 hours to get to the hotel, which is over 100 kilometers from Fairbanks. We are already at 65 degrees north, only 300 kilometers from the Arctic Circle. The front desk of the hot spring hotel. The small house next to it is very cute, with a fairy tale vibe. The rooms are all small villas, with 5 or 6 rooms upstairs and downstairs. The room rate seems to be $200 a night, not bad. There is no refrigerator in the room, so what to do with all the milk, yogurt, and cake we bought? We dug a hole in the snow outside the room and buried them, a natural refrigerator! We wandered around the resort. The scenery is very good, it feels very quiet, and has a vacation atmosphere. The key is that there is no cell phone signal, no WIFI, as if isolated from the world for three days. The hot spring behind is steaming. After wandering around, we went to soak in the hot springs. It's just 50 meters across from the room. It's about minus 10 degrees outside, not very cold. There were only 3 or 5 people in the hot spring besides us, and the water temperature was really comfortable. Unlike the hot springs in China, which are mainly boiled water and dumpling soup. We soaked for about an hour and then went back to the room to rest. In the evening, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. I ordered chicken wings, and there were 10 of them, which made my wife faint. I ordered a lamb chop, and there were also 3. Do Americans have such big appetites? After dinner, we booked a dog sled for tomorrow at the hotel front desk and also booked the aurora notification service. After resting for a while, we continued to soak in the hot springs. At 10 o'clock in the evening, we went to the aurora cabin on the mountain to see the aurora. We waited for over an hour, but there was no response. The aurora index today is low, and there were no clouds in the sky, so we didn't see anything. We took two aurora photos to console ourselves. We returned to the room and went to sleep after midnight.

Today I booked a whale watching tour, which cost $41 per person, very cheap. The scenery was very good, and the whales were playing by the side of the boat, which was very interesting. Whale tail waving.

I also want to see the aurora, I must go in 17 years

I feel like I'm going to freeze to death, I'm super afraid of the cold

Great!

Day 9 Today we went to Glacier Park and then drove about 200 kilometers to Seward in the evening. The scenery along the way was still beautiful. Halfway up the mountain is a pale blue perennial glacier. There were only 6 people in the entire glacier park, and it only took 20 minutes to park the car and walk over. There was a large frozen lake at the foot of a snowy mountain, and I saw off-road vehicles driving on it. The temperature was not very low, around minus 10 degrees. There was also a large snow-covered lake. We arrived in Seward at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and visited the marine park. There were cute sea lions. The view from the hotel balcony was of continuous snow-capped mountains and a large number of yachts. I guess there are a lot of tourists in the summer. In the evening, we went to a nearby restaurant and ordered an emperor crab, which cost 45 dollars for two legs. It was really expensive.

Today we said goodbye to Alaska and headed to the warm Hawaii. After a 6-hour flight, we arrived in Hawaii at around 6 pm and rented a car straight to the hotel. We booked a hotel-style apartment and, according to the GPS, we couldn't find this hotel no matter how hard we tried, and we drove around several times. We went downstairs to ask the front desk of another hotel, and it turned out that the hotel-style apartment we booked didn't have a front desk here, only an office, which closed at 5 pm. We went to the office on the 3rd floor and found our key in an envelope stuck to the door, with the key, underground garage pass, and check-in guide inside. We didn't understand the routine, never stayed in this kind of hotel before, but we learned a trick. The room was very large, with a kitchen, living room, and dining room of about 30 square meters, and the bedroom was also spacious. The whole house was about 50-60 square meters, $170 per night, very cost-effective, and the key was that it had a kitchen, so we didn't have to endure American food anymore. We went to the supermarket to buy ingredients, breakfast, and then went to sleep.