Every year, people see the photos.
The hikes. The overlooks. The wildlife. The smiling kids. The memories.
What they don’t see is everything that has to happen before we ever pull out of the driveway.
This year’s Blaise Across America has been, by far, the most logistically complicated trip we’ve ever planned.
We’re spending 30 days exploring Alaska and visiting all eight of its national parks. On paper, that sounds exciting. In reality, it has meant months of coordinating rental cars, flights across multiple airlines, ferries, bush planes, glacier guides, shuttle services, permits, and lodges only reachable by boat or small aircraft — all while trying to make it work around the schedules and patience of three young girls.
Unlike most of our previous trips, where we could simply drive from one park to the next, Alaska doesn’t work that way.
Some parks require charter flights. Others require boats. Several have only one or two windows each day to get in or out. Miss one connection and it creates a domino effect that can unravel the rest of the month.
There were days when I had spreadsheets open alongside flight schedules, Google Maps, park websites, weather history, ferry timetables, and stacks of confirmation emails — all while wrestling with one question:
Is there actually a way to make all of this fit together?
More than once, the answer felt like “probably not.”
But little by little, piece by piece, it came together.
Today, looking over the final itinerary, I feel something I haven’t felt in months:
Relief.
Not because everything will go perfectly, it won’t. Alaska has a way of reminding you who’s actually in charge. Flights will probably change. The weather will force pivots. There will almost certainly be moments where Plan A becomes Plan C.
The planning gets us there. The unexpected moments become the stories we remember.
In just a few days, all of the spreadsheets, reservation numbers, color-coded calendars, and logistical headaches get replaced by mountains, glaciers, wildlife, and thirty days together as a family.
We can’t wait.
One of the goals of Blaise Across America has always been to make these trips feel attainable for other families, not just to document where we go.
If you’re thinking about a similar adventure, whether it’s Alaska or anywhere else, we’re happy to share what we’ve learned: the full itineraries, what we’d do differently, what was worth the money and what wasn’t, and all the small logistical lessons that never make it into the travel brochures.
So follow along over the next month. We hope you’ll enjoy the journey with us.
And if our experience helps another family create memories of their own someday, then every one of those late nights was absolutely worth it.
