Planning a trip to Haines, Alaska

I was reading an Alaska travel book recently, and they make Haines, Alaska sound really wonderful. I don't know if I'll be able to get there this fall (er, winter), but if not, I am definitely going to try to get there next spring.

Here are a couple of quotes from the Alaska travel book:

Haines is casual, happy, and slightly odd.

If you're looking for the mythical town of Cicely from the television show Northern Exposure, you'll get closer in Haines than any other place I know.

And Haines has bald eagles -- always plenty of bald eagles.

Haines is not quite as rainy as towns farther south.

(All of those quotes come from the Frommer's Alaska 2011 travel guide.)

If you look at where Haines, Alaska is on the map, you'll see why the location looks really wonderful. It's just south of Skagway (by boat, the only way to get there), but it looks like I can drive to Haines from Wasilla in a little more than one day, as it's about 720 miles away. On a good travel day I might be able to drive that far in a day, but since I have to travel through Canadian customs, and might be driving in bad weather, I probably wouldn't push a distance like that.

Shoot, in just writing this and thinking about it, I'm ready to pack right now, lol.