Twenty five years ago, when I first went to Alaska, I did not own any Gore-Tex. I might not have even known what it was. This, my friends, is hard for even me to believe. I had some crappy discount hiking shoes, a sieve-like rain jacket. Even if I’d been aware of better gear, I would not have been able to afford it. Despite those deficiencies, over the course of a month with two friends I had the time of my life.

Before we left for Alaska I wrote about being unhappy it was going to be cold while we were there. Not Arctic-cold like in the winter, but I was leaving my hot and humid summer for a place where I’d have to be layered up with clothes.

There’s nothing wrong with being cautious in the era of Covid-19, but at some point, you have get up off the ground and stop being afraid. For those of us who started a website devoted to travel just before this crap hit, we knew that the time would come to hit the road, or the air, as the case may be, but the questions were “when” and “where.”

Hanna and I are back from eight days in Alaska, and our biggest regret is that we didn’t stay longer. It was my third trip to the last frontier and her first, and we are already planning a return. If you like the outdoors, it’s a no-brainer to go there. In fact, if you have the disposable income and you still have unallocated vacation time to go somewhere this summer, it makes sense to get on the ol’ interweb and book a trip now.

When I was a kid, our family vacations were road trips around the country, hitting as many states as we could, trying to fit in as many historical sites, museums, friends and family and state parks as possible. Of course, my sister, brother and I bitched and moaned the entire vacation. We were typical kids who just wanted to be with our friends or go to Florida and sit on the beach. Despite that resistance, when my social studies teachers asked if anyone had been to certain locations/destinations throughout the United States it was very cool that I was one of the only students with his or her hands raised just about every time.