We returned to our Central Oregon home Friday afternoon. We left on the red eye at 1AM AK time(2AM PT) The start of the trip was the drive from home to a motel near SEATAC (Choice points).
We got up at 3:10AM and drove up the Blvd. to the Hilton Convention center where I got covered parking for the price of many of the open lots.
We got to the bag check scales at 4:20AM. TSA at that time of the morning was a breeze. I didn't have to take my laptop out of the bag or take off my shoes.
We were at our gate by 4:40 for our 6AM flight. We were in Anchorage before 10:15 AK time.
We picked up our luggage within the 20 minutes that Alaska Air allows before making a refund.
We went down to the Enterprise counter and got directions back up to the garage to pick up our car.
We had reserved an economy car but they didn't have any so we ended up with a great Subaru Outback for the same price. (4WD why not?)
We had to wait for a breakfast table at the Snow City Cafe. The food was very good. (On Sept. 1, 2015 President Obama stopped in and bought out the bakery counter at Snow City).
We spent most of the day wandering around Anchorage. Tip: If you are willing to walk a little you can get free parking along 10th Avenue along the "strip" Delaney Park.
Our hotel reservation was out at Eagle River (Microtel by Wyndham). The rooms were OK but the parking lot leaves a lot to be desired.
Since the weather was good on Wednesday, we drove down to Seward and out to the hiking trail to the toe of Exit Glacier. I did the required research on the rate of recession of the glacier. In the early 20th Century it was receding about 20-25 feet per year, In the early 21st Century it is receding about 70 feet per year.
We drove back to Eagle River and the next day (Thursday) we drove all the way to Fairbanks and picked up subs for our trip the next day into Denali. We had reservations at a small B&B outside North Pole. The back yard bordered the small Chena River. Our hosts made us our breakfasts to go since we had to leave early to get back to Denali for the shuttle bus trip out to the Eilson Visitor Center @ MP67.
On our trip out we had a brief glimpse of a mom moose with calf, a herd of Dall sheep on the rocks, a few Caribou and 1 grazing Grizzly.
We didn't get back to the B&B until about 10:30PM but it was still daylight.
On Saturday 6/4 we spent most of the day at Pioneer Park with a couple of museums and then up to the UAF museum on the campus.
From there we drove north on the Steese Highway out past Fox. We stopped at the spot where Felix Pedro found gold to do do an Earth Cache and a regular geocache. I also found the farthest north geocache I will ever find. (65 degrees N Latitude).
On Sunday DW wanted to go to mass at the Fairbanks Cathedral. I dropped her off and I went to the Presbyterian after finding a cache at the nice Fairbanks visitor center.
We made a stop at the Santa Claus house in North Pole before heading through Delta Junction all the way to Palmer. The Eagle Hotel is not the best place we stayed but it was not the worst either.
We did get to see the Alaska Pipeline in several places. One place north of Fairbanks we actually touched the support for pictures.
I will continue this trip report when I return from my lookout job that I start on Monday morning.
I will attempt to answer questions from any of you who are planning a trip to Alaska.

Nice start, I'll be waiting for the rest of the report. Thanks.

thanks Tom, don't you hate it when work gets in the way of fun?

Waiting to read more.
Hope the weekend will give you time to share your Alaskan experience.

I've been working for the USFS for the past month and sort of forgot to finish the trip report.
Palmer does have one fairly good restaurant across the street from an old (#5) steam locomotive. We did drive across from Palmer to Wasilla. There was a big construction project between Wasilla and Eklutna Village.
The thing to see in Eklutna is the Russian orthodox church with the interesting cemetery with decorated grave markers.
We had seen enough of Anchorage before we left for Fairbanks so we went through on our way to the Kenai. We took the side road out to the small town of Hope. I found another geocache there while DW went in to visit the library.
We arrived in Homer in the late afternoon. We had a little trouble finding the Homer Stay & Play B&B. It is up a rather steep dirt road. The room was adequate and the breakfasts were great. Byron and Anna are great hosts.
While we were telling our hosts about the wildlife we saw in Denali, Byron pointed out a moose cow with her yearling walking by on the road just below the house.
On the other side of the Kenai, we went to see the port of Seward and took a hike up to the toe of the Exit Glacier.
I used my GPS to compute the rate of retreat of the glacier over the past century. One of my favorite types of geocache is the Earth Cache.
Also on the Kenai, we drove the gravel road through the Skilak Preserve hoping to see another moose or some other wildlife. We saw a whole herd of butterflies and one seagull.
On the way back to Anchorage, we came close to hitting a big moose that stepped up over the guard rail onto the highway. The moose stood still for a moment but not long enough for me to get the picture.
If you are looking for a cheap place to spend the night in Anchorage, do NOT book the Arctic Tern Inn. Maybe someday they will get into the 21st century but Ii wouldn't count on it. The Microtel out in Eagle River is a much better choice.
We spent a few hours in Anchorage before we went out to the airport to trade in the rental car. We reserved an economy car but they didn't have any available I snapped up the free upgrade to the Subaru Outback 4WD when it was offered.
We put about 3400 miles on the car in our 10 days.
We sat for a few hours at our gate waiting for our JetBlue plane to come in. I did take a pretty good sunset picture through the window of our gate at 11:55PM on June 9.
We boarded the red eye back to Seattle at 12:15AM.
We had our car parked in covered parking at the Hilton Convention center. By paying in advance we paid about the same as most of the open lots that are not secure IMO.
We had a good drive of about 6 hours back to our home in central Oregon from SEATAC.
On Monday morning at 0800 I reported for work as a relief lookout in the Fremont NF.
Anyone headed for Alaska soon?

TTT I'll check back early tomorrow morning before I head back to work.

tomfuller. given how old this thread is, I don't know if you'll read this or not, but if you do, what kind of weather did you encounter? We're driving a Prius from Phoenix next year and I'm torn between mid to late June or late Aug, maybe even in Sep after Labor Day. I've taken notes from your report and appreciate the information.

If I remember right, we had a little rain during the night before we went to Denali. We had beautiful weather in early June. Remember that in mid to late June you will have daylight until 10 PM every night in Alaska.
I'm not sure I'd drive the Alaska Highway through Canada in a Prius. I was happy with the rental car from the Anchorage airport. We made the most of our 10 days in Alaska without a long drive getting there.
Gas is expensive in Canada and much of Alaska. Never pass a gas station with less than half a tank on the gas gauge.

Tom, I know several folks who have driven their Prius to Alaska without encountering any problems. Unfortunately, the ones I know all camped either in tents or in the Prius, so they weren't much help with route planning based on motel availability. With the help of your trip report and others plus some You Tube videos, I think I have a pretty decent itinerary planned (posted in my thread in the Canada forum). It's going to be 7 days from Phoenix to Fairbanks and then 8 dates from Anchorage back to Phoenix. Now I need to decide how much time to spend in Alaska, settle on dates and make motel reservations. We're probably going to leave Phoenix on June 11 or 17. Thanks for your help.