Veterans Day Tomorrow is Veterans Day, and I couldn’t be prouder to celebrate those in my family who have served. AK Dad’s father, who served aboard U.S. Navy submarines in WWII and spent a career under the sea; my great aunt, who “borrowed” an older sister’s birth certificate to enlist in the U.S. Army Nursing […]
Greetings, dahlings, and welcome to a special Halloween edition from AKontheGO. We’re doing the Monster Mash around here today, in anticipation of a candy-fueled, costume-clad October 31 of Alaska family fun. Below are five options, statewide, for unique and often creepy-crawly Halloween fun. Ready – grab your favorite chocolate bar, and let’s get to it! […]
Pre-set the coffeemaker, parents, it’s just about ski swap season. Alyeska Ski Club is hosting their annual swap-until-you-drop event this weekend, October 18-20 at West High School in Anchorage. Often referred to as the biggest, best, and most cacophonous, the “AK Ski Swap” has some new ideas and new procedures to tempt even seasoned attendees. […]
(A happily-sponsored post) It may be Friday the 13th, but this is your lucky day, parents. Two Anchorage powerhouses of family fitness and community support have teamed up to offer kids a unique way to play outside every day this fall. As our Alaska days grow shorter by leaps and bounds (we lost almost six […]
We did it, AKontheGO’ers. We made it through the first three days of the 2013-2014 school year with a minimum of angst. Now, it’s time to celebrate. The Alaska State Fair opened on Thursday, and runs unchecked through Monday, September 2, with games, rides, livestock, and those enormous Alaska vegetables on display. This weekend, in […]
I’ll be the first to admit that in between s’mores and sipping wine before a family campfire, work-related tasks took a backseat during our critical vacation to Oregon. But a travel writer has to take a breather, now and then, especially in August, and especially in Alaska, where sudden fall-like appearances mean a switcheroo of […]
While I’m away this week, floating around southeast Alaska on a boat, something very important is missing: I can’t run. I can kayak, I can hike, and I can use the fitness machines, but I can’t partake in our family’s favorite fitness activity. Bummer. So in lieu of actually doing the running, I’ll write about […]
One can hardly visit Alaska and miss her. Denali, the High One, rising 20, 320 feet above sea level and dwarfing everything in her shadow. A symbol of our state’s grandeur and mystery, Denali (or Mount McKinley, as the peak is formally known) is Alaska to many people, and whether you soar above icy surfaces, […]
To Alaskans, sunlight is about as valuable as gold, and sometimes, just as hard to find. If you’re currently in the state, you’ve undoubtedly noticed an abundance of sunny skies and the resulting activities they encourage. Alaska residents go crazy for the sun, worship it even, bathing pale bodies in a wash of golden light, […]
(This is a sponsored post on behalf of Valdez Fish Derbies.) Give a kid a fish, and he might eat it, if you’re lucky. “Uh-uh, no way, I’m NOT trying that.” Teach a kid to fish, and the picture changes. The fish changes. Everything changes. Alaska is about fish. Watching fish, catching fish, smoking and […]
Note: This is the first in our two-part series about Kodiak Island and the town of Kodiak, located approximately 252 air miles from Anchorage. It’s Memorial weekend, and the annual Crab Festival is in full swing at the same time summer seems to have arrived, an ideal recipe for a family vacation. Kodiak is often […]