I am a lifelong Alaskan, born and raised in Juneau. I learned to appreciate the Alaska wilderness at an early age. Since before I was born, my family spent our summer weekends on the Taku River at the family cabin, 40 miles from Juneau by boat or plane. We played in the beautiful outdoors on the banks of the river and with Dad as “Captain” we explored small side tributaries to the main river and the remnants of mine sites from days gone by. It was here that my father taught us how to drive the boat! If something happened, we girls needed to be prepared to help ourselves!

Involved in school activities and civic organizations, I traveled the state with various sports and clubs to competitions and meetings and have since with local tourism organizations. During my first year of high school I started working at a travel agency after school and on weekends delivering tickets, filing brochures and posting sales. After learning some basic booking formats, I was hooked on arranging travel. I kept returning to that agency throughout college and finally full time.

Since then, I have enjoyed traveling to smaller, less crowded destinations and exploring off the usual tourist track. That desire has taken me to places like the Cook Islands, Fiji, Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Africa as well as the U.K., Germany, Netherlands, France, Mexico, Hawaii, Venezuela and many Caribbean islands. In 1988 when life brought me to Wrangell, I took over management and ultimately full ownership of Tyee Travel.

When I realized a true need for sharing local Alaska knowledge with potential visitors, I decided to expand to offer custom curated experiences exploring Alaska and Alaska Cruises & Vacations by Tyee Travel was born! I wanted to offer personalized, experiential land itineraries and when it came to cruises, there are so were so many different experiences I wanted to match clients with the one best suited for THEM.

Being a personal boater my entire life, I have taken many cruises and my interest was particularly captured when I took my first small ship cruise in the ‘90’s. I thought to myself, “this is how locals travel around Alaska in our own boats!” And that was when I realized that the way locals “cruise” Alaska is indeed one of the most amazing ways to see the Inside Passage. I started taking more small ship cruises, traveled to shipyards where small ships that would be coming to Alaska were being built or refurbished, saw every one that came to Wrangell and traveled to see many others!

I want to share this up close, personal style of cruising with my clients.

Since then I have helped hundreds of clients see the State of Alaska via carefully curated land itineraries, and amazing Inside Passage small ship cruises. Traversing some of the roadways, and waterways, less traveled.

Though quite a bit of my knowledge is ‘self-taught’ I have continued my education in travel and have earned several certificates. You can see them by clicking CERTIFICATES.