Innkeeper's Story

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About Us Talkeetna Bed and Breakfast

from Grace & Bill's Freedom Hills B&B Inn

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Bill Germain was born and raised in Massachusetts where he earned his vocational trade in the area of Food Service and Hotel and Restaurant Management in 1986. His job as a remote campsite manager and cook has taken him all over Alaska, the other 49 states, and Antarctica. He has acquired vast knowledge of real-life Alaska through his travels and first-hand experience with people from all different parts of Alaska.

Bill has always been an avid adventurist. In 1986, he came to Alaska to climb the tallest peak in North America. Twenty three days of this great journey and 35 pounds lighter, Bill wondered if Mt. McKinley was a better view from Talkeetna, where the only thing cold was beer and the bacon and eggs were surely warm as toast. It was then that he truly understood what appreciation and respect for nature meant. In 1989, he came back to Alaska and stayed since then.

In 1991, Grace Mariano flew all the way from the Philippines to the United States. Her parents, who themselves had lived in the US for a couple of years, warned her about the risks of leaving a good job as a civil/environmental engineer to be on her own in a culture and lifestyle so different and unknown to her. But Grace couldn’t resist the opportunity to fulfill her dream of being in a “Technicolor” world (as she’s seen it in the movies, compared to where she’s from which she thought was only in “black and white”) and to actually touch and play in the snow and make snowman and snow angels! So, Grace left the country and stayed with her sisters in New York and Kansas for a year. But job opportunities in her field were not as promising as she had hoped. She was then ready to end her short adventure and go back to the Philippines. Luck, however, came in 1992 when her friend from Alaska called and told her about a job opportunity. Alaska has always been good to her since then and that was how she ended up living in Alaska. Her dream of seeing and feeling the snow indeed came true, and in great abundance, too!

Coming from two entirely different backgrounds, one significant thing Grace and Bill both have in common is the love for Alaska and all its natural wonders. They met through common friends from Talkeetna in 1998. They got married in January 2000 and had their first child, Karo, in the same year. Five years and one day after Karo's birth, they were blessed with another baby girl, Cheri. They started the bed and breakfast business in 2001. Despite indvidual differences, their team as B&B hosts actually works well, and enjoyably at that! The combination of their individual skills and expertise, friendly and down-to-earth attitudes, passion for nature and adventure, simple lifestyle, and the desire to share the beauty and serenity of nature from where they live makes it all ideal for them to run a bed and breakfast. It offers them the opportunity to meet people from all over the world plus the added bonus of being together as a family all summer long. The Germains are grateful that they have found their own little paradise in this beautiful town of Talkeetna . And what better way of showing appreciation of such profound beauty but to be able to share it too.

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