Sports reporter, Fairbanks, Alaska

I'm told the Alaskan Panhandle is basically Seattle minus 10 or so degrees. The farther up the coast you go, the more continental (arctic) blasts you get. But you can't go anywhere else without buying a plane or ferry ticket.

 

This is spot-on. There are roads leading 5-10 miles out of Juneau and Ketchikan, but you run out of land pretty quickly. The only towns connected to the mainland by road are Haines and Skagway.

That said, Southeast Alaska is a fascinating place. I'd love to get back there someday. Ketchikan and Sitka in particular are beautiful.

 

Visited Skagway and Ketchikan on our cruise a couple of years ago. Both just seemed like tourist traps for the cruise ship passengers. Skagway was smaller. Ketchikan had a little more to it. But both were mostly T-shirt shops, knick-knacks, jewelry stores, art galleries, antiques, bars, burgers.
I wondered where the people lived who worked there, especially Skagway.

 

In 2004-05, I was interning in my alma mater's sports information department, and our men's basketball team was playing in the Thanksgiving holiday tournament that was based in Fairbanks at the time.

I was told there was a distinct opportunity that I would be the one to travel with the team, because the regular SID didn't want to do it. I had been to Anchorage a year earlier for my brother's wedding, but that was during the summer solstice (had a beautiful time that week). My deep south blood was dreading the thought of late November in Fairbanks, but fortunately, the SID ended up going after all.

Instead, my great long voyage was Elon, NC with the softball team. Still bitter that I couldn't go on the team's San Diego trip because there were no other guys in the traveling party for me to room with.