Patagonia Vest (on sale), Patagonia Fleece, Madewell Shirt (on sale), Madewell Jeans, Hunter Boots, Madewell Hat, Madewell Scarf (on sale), Patagonia Backpack

Our trip to Alaska was hands-down one of my favorite trips ever. We knew it was going to be beautiful, but it just took our breath away. It was basically 360 degree scenic views everywhere! The topic of Alaska came up last February when we were having dinner with our friends Carly & Garrett while in NYC. Garrett had been to all 48 contiguous states, just leaving Alaska and Hawaii to make all 50. We sort of forgot about the conversation until I asked Thomas what he wanted for his birthday and he said “I don’t want any gifts or presents, I just want to take a few days off and go to Alaska”. Next thing we knew, the four of us had our flights booked and we started the process of planning our itinerary.

Thomas and I travel a lot and many times we’re able to meet up with friends for a few days here and there, but it’s not that often that we’re able to book a week long trip with two of our closest friends. To say we had the best.time.ever is a serious understatement. Carly is one of my best girlfriends and since we live on opposite sides of the country, we’re always trying to come up with ways to see each other. Before leaving, we all agreed to actually use the trip to wind down from the online world, leaving our emails and work at bay for a few days (which is not easy, trust me) and live in the moment. We feel so incredibly lucky that we’re able to take the time off to enjoy nature’s beauty with our friends, take our minds out of the everyday grind and just appreciate life. It was refreshing, inspiring and kind of put everything into perspective.

We plan out all of our own trips, but this one was a little more difficult, especially since we decided to rent a car. It took months of research, calling and talking to guides, reading reviews, etc. to map it all out, but it ended up working out perfectly. Having a car was the best thing ever, because some of the coolest spots we found were random or by accident- seeing a lake off the side of the road or taking a wrong turn. As photographers, we loved having the freedom to explore and be on our own schedule. I received a lot of emails asking about the details of where we went, stayed, ate and all of the activities we booked, so I put together an overview of our trip that I’ll be sharing in my next post.

This post is dedicated to one of our low-key days in which we didn’t have any activities planned except to explore and leave the day open to anything. We had driven in to Homer from Seward the night before and stayed just outside of the city. When we woke up, we headed into town, grabbing breakfast on the Homer Spit at La Baleine and walking down to the water after to take in the gorgeous views. Before leaving, we stopped at Land’s End to get a few photos and went into town for an afternoon sweet treat and a few snacks for the car at Two Sisters Bakery. We had a four hour drive ahead of us, but luckily we had the light on our side, since the sun didn’t set close to midnight.

I can’t wait to share more images from our trip with you guys- just going through makes me want to go back immediately!