How I Ended up Going to Alaska in early 2024

I had no thoughts whatsoever of going to Alaska this year. Nor anytime concrete.

What I was planning to do in early 2024 was practically the polar opposite of visiting Alaska in winter: I was scheduled to travel to the Dominican Republic, a big Caribbean island country, to complete a large hotel review assignment. I would start in February and need at least two months to complete the work. I had been looking forward to the trip since the previous September.

But when I started researching for the trip in January, I quickly began having serious hesitations. First off, this year at least, Dominican Republic is much, much hotter than I had expected for its ‘winter’ months. In fact, it was already bordering on wwwaaaayyyyy too hot.

Since I had just suffered through sickeningly HOT temperatures for nearly two months in Riviera Maya, Mexico in September and October, 2023 (105-110 F / 40-45C daily) I quickly became quite nervous about heading to Dominican Republic in just slightly less hot conditions.

Secondly, budget accommodation options in Dominican Republic were pretty grim. They were about 2 ½ times more expensive than when I’d checked back in September and 2 ½ times more costly than my usual budget. And what I could find at those relatively high prices did not include air conditioning or hot showers! What? I definitely could not live in the predicted weather conditions without any a/c. And I do not enjoy cold showers, even in heat. None of that sounded appealing. At all.

I calculated that with the high accommodation prices, flights to/from Dominican Republic and paying for food, transportation and daily expenses, I estimated that most of the hard work I’d be slaving over in the heat would just go to covering my expenses to go work there. In unbearable heat. That would hardly be worthwhile.

I continued monitoring temperatures in Dominican Republic and regularly searching for accommodations. But I started thrashing around for other options.

Enter Trusted House Sitters

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2024 was to join Trusted House Sitters and start doing regular house and pet sitting jobs. Many of the places in the world that I still have to explore in my quest to visit every country in the world are very expensive. Especially for accommodation. Places like UK, Western Europe, the Caribbean island nations and the Pacific nations.

For most of those countries, the only way I can afford to visit is to cut out the cost of accommodations. The best way I know of doing that is by house and pet sitting.

But on top of that, I really love having the companionship of cats, dogs and other animals. As a full-time nomadic traveler, I only get to hang out with pets when one of my AirBnB or hotel hosts happens to have pets.

I love pet sitting for people so that I have pet companionship, not just for ‘free’ accommodation. So house / pet sitting is great for everyone, both myself and the hosts.

So in January I also got busy joining Trusted House Sitters. I had to add photos of myself with other pets I’d looked after, write up a compelling profile about myself and my experiences pet sitting. I had to contact my previous hosts to ask for reviews to add to my profile. And then I had to start looking around for opportunities.

I searched for options in all the Caribbean islands (not much available!), in UK and some key European countries (lots in both regions!), and even for positions in the St Petersburg, FL area.

Then one morning I just randomly got onto Trusted House Sitters and started a general search…whatever came up in the search field all over the world. Just for the heck of it. Just to try out different ways of finding sitting opportunities.

And that’s when I saw an opportunity to take care of two cats in Juneau, Alaska for two full months – February and March. Hmm! That certainly sounded interesting. and exciting. Alaska is one of the few American states that I have yet to visit. and I surely want to go there some day.

Juneau, Alaska

I bookmarked their offer and mulled it over a while. I checked out the location of Juneau, since I knew nothing about it. Photos of Juneau from Google maps looked gorgeous. In fact, it reminded me instantly of beautiful Ushuaia, Argentina, set at the very bottom of South America and easily my favorite place in Patagonia.

I checked Juneau’s weather forecast and historic weather for February and March. Surprisingly, for Alaska in winter, the temperatures were pretty reasonable. Generally in the 30sF in daytime and 20sF at night. That was actually warmer than the current weather in western Pennsylvania at various relative and friend’s towns. Not bad!

The very next morning, I applied for the position. The start date of January 28^th was less than two weeks away. And although I was apparently only one of two or three applicants, I didn’t really have much hope of getting the position since I’d applied so late.

In fact, I’d pretty much resigned myself to heading to the Dominican Republic. Therefore, I also reserved a – better – room in Dominican Republic that I’d suddenly found (air conditioning! Hot showers!) It was fully refundable up until early February, so I had nothing to lose.

I didn’t hear from the Juneau host until 1 ½ days later. I’d more or less given up hope by then. But she sounded enthused to have me if their other applicant wouldn’t work out. They would be meeting up the following day. She would let me know that night.

That evening I began checking my phone every 30 minutes for a message. I contained my restlessness by watching a great classic movie on my laptop.

Finally, at about 10 pm I got the much anticipated message. It began, “Hey Lash, I don’t think it’s going to work out…” Ah! Bummer! But just what I’d expected.

“…with the other sitter because she can’t stay for the entire two months. So if you can do the full dates, then we’d love to have you come take care of our cats”

WWWWHHHHHAAAAATTTTT??????? SERIOUSLY? I’M IN???!!! WOO-HOO!

OMG! OMG! OMG! I was going to Alaska!

I was so elated that I actually got a little teary. I ran out into the living room, where my mom and step-dad were still watching a movie, and yelled out, “I got it! I got it! I’m going to Alaska!” and I promptly did a hysterical little jig right there on the carpet.

And that’s how I ended up going to Alaska in early 2024.

I’m off to Juneau, Alaska!

As I write, it’s just five days from my flight to Juneau. It will be a tremendous 15-hour journey, entailing three flights and one slightly long layover. Tampa to Houston. Then on to Seattle. Then finally up to Juneau.

I’ll arrive in Juneau at 8 pm their time. But that will be midnight for my body’s Florida time zone, since Juneau is four hours behind EST. My hosts will already have left Juneau by flight, so they’ll leave their car at the airport for me to drive to their house. Handy! It works out better for them, too, since they have to drive to the airport anyway.

Then I’ll be there in a nice cozy wood house with two lovely, affectionate cats to look after for two months. Yippie! I can hardly wait to arrive! Can my flight day come tomorrow, please?!

Needless to say, I’ll be sharing lots of photos and stories from Alaska starting next week. Stay tuned to find out what its like living in Alaska in winter!

===========================

You might also enjoy:

35 Highlights of my Travels around South America

LashWorldTour 2023 Travels in Review

==========================

Introduction to Juneau, Alaska - LashWorldTour

2024/02/12 at 12:46 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment

[…] My visit to Juneau was not a long-planned or anticipated trip, like the majority of my travel destinations are. In contrast, my Alaska adventure was the result of a last-minute decision and sudden diversion from my intended two-month trip to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Sea. How that came about is a whole other story, which I wrote about here. […]