Get out! Experience your own backyard: tips for planning weekend getaways in the 'Land of the Midnight Sun'.

• Author: Resz, Heather A.

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With the sun still in the cusp of summer, the urge to make the most of every moment of luxuriant, coatless daylight rises in Alaskans like sap in trees.

Weekend trips are a great way to escape the city, the office and the day-to-day while sampling some of the state's more exotic local flavors.

The Internet has matured into an ideal tool to help travelers get started preparing an itinerary for adventures that suits your tastes.

In 2006, 68 percent of Alaska's 1.1 million visitors used the Internet to plan their vacations here, according to the "Summer Alaska Visitors Arrival Study" conducted by the McDowell Group.

Christie M. Johansen, marketing coordinator for Alaska Travel Industry Association, said the Internet has blossomed into a powerhouse for promoting the Alaska industry travel for businesses of all sizes.

For example, TravelAlaska.com, which the travel association maintains by contract with the state, had 306,792 "unique" visitors in the month of March, she said.

Johansen said the travel association has an entire program designed to encourage Alaskans to "Get Out," in the words of their latest direct mail ad campaign.

An instate TV spot also plugs the message that Alaskans should "explore their own backyards," she said.

From glaciers and scenic drives to river rafting, hiking, salmon and halibut fishing trips, berry picking, flight-seeing and day cruises--here are a few of the highlights in easy driving distance from Alaska's largest city.

What follows is a mile-by-mile guide of the highlights along the highway enroute to an overnight stop. Day 2 includes more highlights along the highway. As things to see and do along the way are abundant, we suggest saving some of these stops to break up the drive home on Day 3.

WEEKEND GETAWAY NO. 1

South on the Seward Highway

Day 1--Anchorage to Girdwood The 127-mile Seward Highway is a National Scenic Byway and an All-American Road. The highway begins in Seward at Mile 0 and ends in Anchorage.

For the first 50 miles, the highway snakes between the base of the Chugach Mountains and the shores of Turnagain Arm.

Mile 117--The first point of interest is the Potter Marsh Boardwalk. Part of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, the 16-mile Potter Marsh area was created in 1917 with the construction of the Alaska Railroad embankment. At least 130 species of birds have been sighted in the marsh. Populations peak in April through mid-May when water-birds stop on their way to northern breeding grounds, and in late July and August when shorebirds begin to gather in preparation for winter migration.

Mile 115--Potter Section House Railroad Museum houses National Archive photos and model railroads to help illustrate life in the area before the road existed.

Across the road from the section house is the Turnagain Arm Trailhead, which connects to Windy Point, 9.5 miles, or to McHugh Creek, 3.5 miles.

Mile 112--McHugh Creek picnic area offers picnic sites, scenic views of Rabbit Lake and a thundering waterfall.

Mile 106--Windy Corner and Beluga Point Interpretive sites, Mile 110.3 on the Seward Highway, are good places to pull over and look for bald eagles, beluga whales and Dall sheep. Beluga Point is the site of the earliest evidence of humans along Turnagain Arm. Historically Alaska Native hunters used the point to spot beluga whales and Dall sheep.

Mile 104--Indian Valley Mine was founded in 1910 by Peter Strong on the north side of Turnagain Arm, opposite the Gold Rush supply towns of Sunrise and Hope. The cabin and the Assay building are some of the oldest structures on Turnagain Arm and are listed as National Historic Sites. The Indian...