Peaks & Parks

Travel Dates: July 13th-25th, 2025

Day 7

(Cruisetrain to Anchorage)

After nearly a week of living at sea, we were ready to trade our sea legs in for some adventures on land!

Our first job was to officially disembark and say a final farewell to our lovely cabins before firmly planting our feet on solid ground. We then made our way over to the train that would be taking us out of Whittier and up north to Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska!

We were on the train by 8:30 and slowly starting to roll out. Even before we reached the singular tunnel that would take us out, we were getting the full expanse of what the Alaskan terrain had to offer. We were surrounded by rolling mountains licked by the tongues of glaciers. The rocky peaks and crystal white snow and ice stood out against the unbelievably green grass and trees.

It was an absolutely amazing start, and we hadn’t even been land-based for an hour yet! We finally reached the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel or Whittier Tunnel, which is the sole land access route in and out of Whittier. The tunnel is shared between a road for vehicles and the railroad for trains. It’s two and a half miles long, but once coming out, you are officially entering the wide expanse of the great frontier!

Along with the immediately beautiful landscape, we were also blessed by several wildlife sightings right away! While we needed to search for and were elated by the spotting of a bald eagle, within the first hour of our trek, we spotted one fairly close to our train just casually hanging out in a tree.

We were also able to spot a couple different herds of Dall sheep scaling the cliff sides. Dall sheep are native to the mountainous regions of Alaska, western Canada, and the Yukon and are known for their white fur and large curled horns.

As we continued the two and a half hour journey to Anchorage, some big gray clouds carrying rain floated overhead. However, we were nice and dry inside, and the rain brought an absolutely mystical ambiance with the class domed ceiling.

We loved coming around a corner and getting to see the engine pulling the rattling cars behind it. We made our way across rivers, by thickets of bushes and plants, and through large patches of trees. We even passed by a couple other trains. Sometimes we would have to pull off to the side and watch as the other passenger train rolled by first. Other times we could safely share space or it would be our turn first.

It was a lovely little ride to our next destination!

We arrived in Anchorage around noon, where we were able to get on a shuttle that took us downtown. This area was filled with gift shops and attractions for us to explore while we waited for our hotel to be ready.

We were all quite hungry, so our immediate priority was to find a place to eat. We settled on a pub-like restaurant called Fletcher’s. However, this eatery proved to be far more elusive than we had anticipated, and it was unclear where we were heading to find this place.

It turns out that it was located inside a hotel, but it was open to the public for eating. We must have chosen the most difficult entrance because even once inside the hotel, we had to work our way around to find the actual restaurant.

It was fairly quiet at the time of our arrival, which we enjoyed after being surrounded by people nonstop the last six days. We all were very adamant on starting with coffees as our energy was starting to dip. Because I was decompressing, it was definitely one of my least documented parts of the trip, so I only managed to snap a quick picture of my food, a spicy chicken sandwich. However, I do remember it all being delicious!

After eating, we decided to walk off our meal and regain some energy at once, so we took a stroll down to a cute little park we had seen from our train on the way in. It had a couple of porpoise sculptures and a little orca sculpture. It was a very solid little hike, so we were ready to make our way back downtown and do a little leisurely shopping.

One of my favorite shop stops had some beautiful local artistry, especially glassware, as well as the cutest little attendant to greet us. He was a very friendly boy.

Another cool and unique thing about Anchorage is that it is the ceremonial starting point of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. They have an entire Mushing District which features steel dog figures, paw prints, and mushers.

We also enjoyed taking in all the scenery and structures around us. There seemed to be something different with every turn!

After nearly an hour of walking around, we were ready to sit and rest while enjoying a pick-me-up. As we began heading in the direction of our hotel, we came across the perfect pit stop!

There was a little trailer-sized building called AK Alchemist Coffee. It’s a little cafe that serves breakfast, coffee, and Alaskan-Mexican fusion lunch dishes. While all the food definitely looked and smelled like it would be delicious, we had already eaten and were mostly there for a drink.

While they did serve coffee, they were also advertising for their new dirty sodas, so Luke and I opted to give those a try as opposed to our usual coffee ordering. There was a sign posted with two barista favorites, so we each tried one. Luke went with the Dr. Pepper, coconut, vanilla, and cream. I decided to try the Coke, black cherry, vanilla and cream.

It was very delicious and exactly what we needed to get back on our feet and make the rest of the trek to our hotel. We had been put up in the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel & Spa, which was a 6 minute walk from AK Alchemist Coffee.

Once checked into our hotel rooms, we immediately took advantage of the peace and comfort it provided. We lazed around as we waited for our suitcases to arrive, and the moment they did, we changed into comfy pajamas so that we could recuperate properly. There was TV involved. There may have been a nap involved, who’s to say.

At around 7:30, Luke and I were recharged and ready to head out and explore the city some more on our own. We decided we wanted to enjoy one of Anchorage’s restaurants for supper, so we spent a little time looking at some nearby options. We settled on a place called Tent City Taphouse, got dressed once again, and headed back out.

It was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to Tent City. It was cloudy but calm, and a very nonstrenuous trek since we weren’t on a particular time table. The restaurant did close at 9, and we know some places stop serving food at a certain time, so it wasn’t a rushed walk, but we definitely didn’t dawdle either.

We arrived just before 7:50, and they said we would be able to order food. We were placed at the sitting area facing out toward the street, which we quite enjoyed! We wanted to take in everything we could during our limited time here.

We started with drinks. We wanted to try out something local since we had come all this way, so we sampled their Turnagain Brewing Grapefruit Soda and their Turnagain Brewing Birch Cream Soda. For food, I got the Alaska Halibut and Chips, and Luke got the Tent City Burger, which came with a very cool branded bun! He also made sure to order a side of Kase Spatzle when he saw it on the menu! I’d never heard of it until then, but it’s a German and Austrian comfort food that is basically like a fancy mac-and-cheese made with egg noodles.

We had saved just enough room in our bellies after eating for something sweet. We walked about 4 minutes over to a little place called Wild Scoops Ice Cream, which sells handcrafted Alaskan ice cream.

As soon as we caught sight of the menu, it was obvious what we would be ordering. Very rarely do Luke and I order the same thing, but there was clearly no other option. We both knew we needed to order the Baked Alaska Cone. We got to watch as out ice cream was loaded into a golden waffle cone, covered with a helping of marshmallow fluff, and torched right in front of us. It was the absolutely perfect end to a great evening.

We made our way back to the hotel around 9:00 and called it a night so that we could prepare for another full day and long train ride up to Denali.