Wife and I visiting are Alaska (Anchorage) in a week.  Will be there for a week.  I've never been to Alaska, My wife has a few times.  Anything I should make sure I "do" while visiting?  Go see a glacier? Slap a bear on the ass and see how far I get?  I'm not much of a fish person so a steak house would be a nice option as im sure my wife will want salmon every night.

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We were planning on flying up to Fairbanks for a day or 2 but I guess it looks like rain the whole time and we ( I ) just wanted to see the northern lights.

Not the best time of year for a visit, shoulder season.  Summer stuff is closed but winter stuff isn't open yet.  I live about 40 minutes north of Anchorage and have seen the lights a few times already this year, but, it's been raining for a month and yesterday was our first snow fall.

That said, Fairbanks is nearly 300 miles from Anchorage, their weather is already too cold for rain.  Not sure what their cloud cover is looking like.  Chena hot springs is always a good trip when it's cold.  Their restaurant is pretty decent and has several salmon dishes.  You could drive out to North Pole and see Santa's house.  The Museum of the North is worth seeing, so is the car museum.  Most of the other touristy things in Fairbanks are closed for the winter or the winter touristy things aren't open yet.  

Anchorage has a bunch of excellent craft breweries, some with restaurants, some with tap rooms and small food menu.  Glacier Brewhouse has a decent salmon to keep the wife happy, and the rest of the menu is pretty good too, it's the most "upscale" of the breweries in town.  

Crow's Nest restaurant at the Captain Cook hotel is a trap.  It's the most expensive place in town, but you're paying for the view.  The food is not great.

The Anchorage Zoo is pretty good, but I prefer the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center down past Girdwood.  I've never been to the conservation center in winter, but have been to the zoo plenty for Christmas lights at the zoo.  The animals have always been lively while I was there, not passed out hiding in a corner out of view.  Both are excellent small zoos and good to kill an afternoon at.  

Awesome.  Thank you for the info.

We have been trying to take an Alaska cruise since 2019 for our honeymoon but cause it stops in Canada, they require the vax.  And neither of us have it.  So we just keep rescheduling.   We were going to lose our airlines $$ so I told her we should just fly to Anchorage and spend the week there. I know timing isn't the best but cause of our work schedules, this is about the soonest we could go.

I like 49th state brewery in anchorage for good food/beer.

If you have a rental go down the Seward highway. Check out hatcher pass.

Keep an eye on this page it’ll give you the aurora forecast for the day.

Alaska aurora forecast

Hatcher Pass has had snow for a few weeks now, it's closed past the mine.

I figured. Still cool to go up there though.

We will have a rental car.  I'll check on the hatcher pass when we get up there but the forecast seems like it may be rain and snow.

Looking to spend a night in nature while in fairbanks?  Got some suggestions for no electric/no water cabins if you want to rough it.

With how much we r paying for a hotel room per night, im going to enjoy a heater and soft bed.

If you don't have to go outside to go to the bathroom, you're not really in Alaska.

 

the wife likes the idea of going to the Alaska wildlife conservation, so we will b doing that.

Can anyone recommend good restaurants?  Preferably for salmon but steak as well.  She found a place called Humpys.

Humpy's isn't bad.  I went there for lunch last Saturday and Sunday, I was across the street at the convention center for a miniature gaming convention.  I've never had their steak or salmon, I get a burger or sandwich.  If you go Saturday or Sunday it will be busy.  People go there for football, especially NFL since they have all the games on.

Glacier Brew House is good.  49th State is good.  Bear Tooth Grill is good, if you go before 3 they have a Salmon Cake and Eggs Benedict dish that's really good.  Spenard Road House is good.  Simon & Seafort's gets a lot of hype, it's ok, not great, good view of Cook Inlet.  Rustic Goat is a good one that doesn't get a lot of mentions.

Double Musky down in Girdwood is good, it's the most expensive place I'll recommend.  Time your conservation center visit to eat there after, make reservations.

Not my picture, but this was taken in my neighborhood last night.  If the conditions and cloud cover are right, you don't have to go to Fairbanks to see the lights.  Generally speaking though, the further north you go the better your chances.

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Wow!!  That's just amazing!  I'm really hoping to see something like that.  Thanks for sharing.

If you are on the book of faces, check out the aurora notifications group.  It's pretty solid.  When you get dates for Fairbanks I'll see if I can pull up some rough data, but it's only good for 72 hours max.

We arrived and have been doing the tourist stuff.  Today was a tour of Anchorage and the outer areas (beluga point???).  Stopped in to some chocolate factory as well.  We just got tomoose tooth for a pizza for a late lunch and are debating state 49 or Humpys.

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How the hell is it we got a large pizza and a drink and it was still cheaper than the taco bell we had the night before after we landed.

King street brewery has a cool spot too. And another brewery or two you can walk to from there.

Cheap food doesn’t sound Alaskan at all. You sure they got the bill right?

Haha.  Tell me about it.  Prices arent really THAT bad, the no state sales tax is nice.  Specially coming from AZ where its around 9%.

Alaska prices on most things are in line with big city prices for the most part.  I think people that move up here and get sticker shock were probably from rural areas and smaller cities in the lower 48.  

But Anchorage and the other cities and towns in Anchorage borough (Eagle River, Girdwood, Chugiak, Peter's Creek) are some of the only places you'll see no sales tax unless you get further up north.  All the places on the Kenai peninsula have sales tax, everywhere up in the valley has it too.  They're pretty low except for Seward at 4%, most places are 2-3%.  I prefer sales tax to income tax so no complaints from me.

It is funny though because Anchorage is always crying about how broke they are.  Just as an example their school district is facing a $68 million budget shortage.  They also cry about how all of us "valley trash" comes down there to shop without sales tax, tearing up their roads and blah blah blah.  I do appreciate not getting taxed on my Costco runs though.