Bears, bison and beers

After that fantastic week in Whittier, Seth graciously invited me to spend the weekend at his family's home in Anchorage. This gave me a great oppertunity to explore the city while Seth worked on his bike in the garage. We did some must-do Anchorage things, including Moose's Tooth pizza, The Great Alaskan Bush Company, and a rockstar night of dancing and cocktails downtown.

Doug flew into Anchorage on Sunday night, so his big Alaskan adventure began first thing Monday morning. We packed up the car and headed down to Whittier. At one point right before heading through the tunnel, Doug and I noticed we could see mountains, blue water, glaciers, a rainbow, waterfalls, snow and icebergs! When we finally made it through the tunnel Doug and I weren't sure when Seth would be off work, so we headed up to the creepy abandoned army compound at the edge of town. The place is totally wrecked, and scary as it was, Doug and I had a good time exploring the small dark rooms and muddy hallways.

On the way to Whittier, AK

It felt like ages, but after about 20 mins in that creepy building we stepped out into the sun light and headed down to meet Seth.  I introduced the guys and we quickly walked down to the marina to get started. We pulled mounds of shrimp from the ocean; more than I had seen all last week combined! We checked out the seagull nesting area while the guys fished for Halibut off the side of the boat. While amusing, the fishing was not too successful that evening, so we headed back to the garage to grill up dinner. Doug and I traded giddy smiles all evening, I was so excited to share this amazing experience with him!

Prison cell in the old military compound in Whittier

We spent one last night in Whittier before heading back out on the road. I really wanted Doug to see Mt. Mckinley, so we drove up to Talkeetna for the day. The view of the mountain was pretty great - I've heard that due to thick clouds, it is only visible about 30% of the time, so we were pretty lucky to see it. After that we found a campsite by a river on the way out of town, made a fire and shot the shit till it finally became dark enough to sleep.

Canada was a blast, there isn't much to do but look out the window, but the views were incredible! The last time I was in Canada everything was covered in snow so I had no idea how much I missed! It felt like we constantly had water and mountins around us on all sides. The wildlife was AMAIZING too! In one day we saw moose, porkupines, elk, caribu, bears, fox, mountin goats and huge heards of bison. Oh, and yes, you read that correctly, we saw bears!! There were black bears and grizzly bears up there, we saw 15 in total from the car and Doug had the fortune (misfortune?) of seeing #16 on his own, face-to-face on his way to a restroom!!

A well earned flight in Whitehorse, Yukon

One silly one....

....and one pretty one.

Super HOT hot spring in B.C.

My attempt at a family portrait, B.C. Canada

Held the camera facing backwards out the window and clicked

Doug looking a little too comfortable in our current condition

Seriously??

For you, mom :)

After driving all day, we had to jump in!

Does this make me a bad person?

Vancouver, post-riot

We finally pulled into Seattle last night, stayed at a hotel for the first time in a week and are now feeling showered and recharged! We've got lots planned for the next few days, I hope to be able to hop on to update fairly often now that we're back in the US.

There's nothing half so pleasant as coming home again :)

The thing about setting out with vague intentions, is that sometimes you achieve them without realizing it. I can now see that I already was the strong and independent woman that I thought Alaska would make me. Hind site is a precious thing. Brandy and I joked that I would find my Moose-ball jacket up here, I can now say, I'm pretty sure I already had one. This has been hands down, the best summer of my life, but this girl is coming home!!

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let me tell you about the AMAZING week I've just had. Finally admitting to myself that I was ready to come back to TX gave me the freedom to truly enjoy this last bit of time I have up here. My brother will be flying to Anchorage in a couple days, I'll show him a taste of Alaska (just enough to make him NEED to come back!) and then we will head south! I'm so excited to get back on the road and I love that I'll get to have Doug with me.

So, a week ago I left my little cabin in the woods for unknown adventures in Whittier. I had no idea how much fun was in store for me :) The drive was lovely, as always, but unique in that to get to this town you must drive 2 1/2 miles through a mountain!! Sounds cool, and is very cool, but there's a point about 2/3 of the way through the tunnel where you start to get a little uneasy feeling, not a bad, or scared feeling, just an 'ok, I'm ready to see the sun again!' feeling.

On the other side of the tunnel.

I called and meet up with a guy named Seth who is a friend of some friends of mine in Austin. He was still on the clock, so he invited me up into his huge tanker truck where I was greeted by his super cool lil dog Cody. We drive down to the water and watched the cars unload from a huge ferry boat. Once they were all unloaded Seth drove us into the belly of the boat so that him and some other guys could gas it up. Never once had I even wondered how these massive outfits receive gas, and now I was finding out first hand. If that wasn't enough to make me feel like I was a part of Alaska, afterwords we drove down to his skiff, (where I drove a boat for the first time - hell yea!) and headed out to the spot where his shrimp baskets were. We baited the baskets and drove around to find the right depth to toss them back in.

Captain Cody

Meanwhile, I haven't stopped grinning since coming out of that tunnel. For the second time since coming to Alaska, I felt an amazing sense that everything was as it should be (I'll tell you about the other time shortly, this is going to be a long one!) From the turquoisey-blue water there is no direction that you can look and not see mountains, and most of them come right down into the water. It really doesn't seem real, like Seth put it, it's like stepping into Lord of the Rings or Avatar. So amazingly beautiful, I tried to capture it in pictures, but I'm afraid you'll just have to come check it out for yourself :)

That thing I do...

I spent about a week tagging along after Seth on fishing and shrimping trips everyday. I had fresh halibut and smoked salmon for the first time in my life. One day we caught 90 shrimp and ate like kings while drinking beer in the sunshine. I know when I look back at my time in Alaska, this last week will be my fondest memory - in fact, my brother doesn't realize it, but that's where I'm taking him for his 'taste.'

Trifecta!!

Sorry, I know I'm going out of order, I was just really excited to share that :) So, since I last wrote, I finally did get a job! I was working at a local liquor store called Brown Jug. It was really fun work and the time always flew by. The pay was ok, but they hardly took out anything for taxes, so it seemed to go even further. I hope they forgive my short-notice, I plan to send them some pralines from TX this Christmas.

Spent lots of time in Seward over the last month or so, maybe three trips down there? I just can't get enough of that drive. Spectacular views of mountains running into the water. They say there are whales in the water, but I haven't seen them yet. Been staying at a really cool hostel down there called The Nauti Otter, I highly recommend it if you're ever in Seward! Staying in a hostel always gets those wheels spinning again for me. I'm hoping to start volunteering at the hostel in Austin when I get back, learn as much as I can for when I start my own. That's something else moving up here has taught me; stop talking and start doing! So, my plan to open a hostel is going to be moving up from the back burner when I get back :)

Exit Glacier near Seward

I've also fallen for a town called Girdwood, which everyone told me I would love. I may not have done anything but drive by it, but they have a really cool festival each year called the Forest Fair. And it was there, that for the first time I really did feel at home. It wasn't quite an Eeyore's Birthday type crowd, but it was close! So many things from that weekend stand out to me, but essentially it was a bunch of hippies in the woods listening to music, drinking beer and playing in the river. 

My people!

As always, I know I'm forgetting something, but I can always drop things in later. I can't wait to touch base on my way back to Texas, I don't know our route yet, but I'm planning some hot springs and perhaps the Grand Canyon and Vegas, also a ghost town called Jerome in Arizona. God, I'm so excited to get back on the road :)

I hear its hot in TX ;P

This has been quite a month! Moved out of the motel and into an awesome cabin just a few mins north of Palmer. It belongs to a lovely little family who is in Flat, AK for the summer mining for gold. We've got a huge front yard which Phoenix adores and a half dozen fire pits just waiting to burn! And, because some lessons are never learned, I planted a garden. So far my green beans are kicking ass, I have two small squash plants, and in honesty, I can't tell the radish from weeds, so that side is kind of a mess.

The cabin from the front yard

I reign over the back of the cabin, I have a tiny bedroom which is mostly taken up by a super comfy bed and two bureaus. I also occupy an even smaller side room for my cloths and 'dressing room,' I think if I lived in this cabin in the winter I'd feel a bit suffocated back there, but while its warm and pretty outside I'm usually only back there to sleep. I also have a freakishly tiny bathroom with my own tub - thank god, sometimes a hot bath or shower is the *only* way to warm up around here!

A little after moving in, my roommate Pedro had some friends in from out of town. Justin and Evan are globe trotting mountaineers, and some of the most interesting house guests one could ask for. I believe they met while climbing some insane mountains down in Chile? They really just wanted to look around Alaska with us, which was great because it was the perfect kick off to the summer travels.

Family Portrait
 Phoenix, myself, Evan, Pedro, Justin

We spent a weekend in Valdez, which couldn't have been more fun. I did feel like kind of a stick in the mud when I decided not to camp at a site  located a four mile hike into bear infested woods - I guess I still fancy life ;) It worked out fine, the guys hiked out with me, and we settled into a gravel pit at the edge of a glacier, set up a fire and told travlin stories into the wee hours.

One of many lovely waterfalls on the way  into Valdez

The rest of their stay was filled with smaller trips which sometimes I went on and sometimes I skipped - only so much testosterone I care to subject myself to at one time. Which brings me to my first solid attempt at making some girl friends. I went out with my hairdresser and her friends to a bar in Anchorage, where I was promptly drunk directly under a table. Turns out these Alaskans don't fool around with their drinking :P I had a great time though, and although I haven't contacted any of the ladies it was great to hang out with some girls for a change!!

Just another beautiful drive....

Anchorage has a First Friday Art Walk, and as anyone who meets me for 10 mins up here can tell you, I'll take any chance I can get to go to Anchorage. So, even though I had no one to go with, I got dolled up ('dolled-up' around here actually means brushed hair and lip gloss, but hey, I'm learning!) The Anchorage Museum was fantastic, though the one glass of wine I ordered in the lobby was served to me by a fellow Austinite, we both just laughed. The museum was much larger than it looks from the street, and much more world class than I had expected! After, I wondered in to several small galleries downtown and ended up at the Polar Bar (I know!) where I was adopted by some Texan's who spotted my ID and insisted on buying me a drink. It was fun, but did leave me feeling a little home sick - they were all returning to TX the following day.

Phoenix being contemplative 

What else? I am not doing a great job of finding a job. The market here seems to be flooded with high school students out for the summer. I'm keeping some feelers out, but I may not end up getting a job until I move to Anchorage after August - which, by the way, I am extremely excited about. The idea of living in a place with central heating and reliable internet makes me smile :)

I'm sure I'm leaving out plenty of things that will come to me as soon as I hit 'publish,' but now that I've rigged up internet through my cell phone I plan to keep the updates a bit more regular :)

The Spot!!

Fun Facts I've come to learn about AK:

• The bars stay open till 5:00a.m. - no, I have never made it that late
• Mom 'n Pop video shops still exists
• Tie-dye Artist is a respected occupation
• Anything can be prepared with reindeer meat as a side or on-top
• A bonfire w/o a tire in it is considered half-assed
• There are not sidewalks along the road - there are Four-wheeler tracks

One week

Hey I'm sorry for kinda dropping the ball here, but there hasn't been much to report on. Things in this town move very slow, and I think I've caught the bug myself! So whats happened over the last week? Usually I spend the morning and afternoon checking for jobs on-line and running little errands around town. Then, most days so far, Pedro takes Phoenix and me to some beautiful hiking spot for an hour or so, then dinner.

We've had all kinds of different foods since the kitchen situation is way lacking at the moment. Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Mediterranean, and we even tried for German food, but they only served beer - damn! ;) So although I'm sure I will start to notice things I'm used to from TX that aren't available here, so far, (other than the amazing views and super slow pace,) its really not so different. And I really get a kick out of being able to run a half dozen errands in under an hour!

Anyways, here are a few pics I've taken while out exploring over this last week:

Distances from Palmer, AK

One of our awesome hikes this week

The view from my window

View at the grocery store (there doesn't seem to be a direction you can look around here and not see mountains :)

Standing on a frozen lake!

So, its been just over a week, and things are still going really well. I don't have a job yet, but I could be working a lot harder on that :P I kind of decided to give myself this first week off anyways, so as long as I'm employed by this time next week, I think I'll be doing great! Phoenix is also adjusting wonderfully, though he hasn't made the association between eating snow and shivering uncontrollably, but somehow it doesn't seem to slow him down!

Should be a quiet weekend, though hopefully we'll go down to Anchorage for some portion of it. I want to check out the art museum and hopefully find some Indian food! I'll try to be better about posting - and I'll definitely announce my new job whenever that happens :)

Pizza and Alaska IPA yummmm

Today I had some great luck in finding a place to stay. I paid out 30 days, and I already like this place much better than the apartment I stayed at the last two nights. It just feels more cozy here - more relaxed. Feeling relived at having found my new place, I headed over to Vagabond Blues (which is now only about three blocks away :) for some lunch and coffee and ended up chatting with a couple local ladies about cool cultural opportunities for me to check out around Palmer and in surrounding areas.

I grabbed all the stuff I had brought up to Pedro's apartment and spent a few hours this afternoon getting settled into the Pioneer Motel. Didn't do any hiking today, it was so incredibly windy that I don't know if it would have even been possible - besides it was freaking cold!! I'm hoping tomorrow will be calmer, I can tell that the view from my window here is pretty amazing, just need a clear day so I can take a picture to post :)

Tomorrow I'm going to polish up my resume - wish me luck!

Where the heart is

Today was my first day waking up in Palmer. I got ready to go, packed up my computer, and walked into town. Getting to town took about 15 mins, I was looking for coffee, but first came across the History and Art Museum located near the center of town. I had a nice time talking with the docent there, he was packing up from a festival they had hosted the weekend before honoring Palmer's sister city in Japan.

At that point I was in desperate need of coffee so I stumbled into a place called Vagabond Blues. Got a big steaming mug of black coffee and sat by the window to read over craigslist in hopes of finding a place and/or a job. Wasn't long before Pedro showed up to join me for a cup after he got off work. Talked briefly over the properties I found on craigslist, and then headed home to grab Phoenix for a hike.

We went up to a place called The Butte. Its official, Phoenix loves it here. I don't know if its the snow, the cold, the mountains, or what, but I've never seen him smile so big for so long. Oh, and he discovered today that the snow is not just for playing with, its for eating too ;) We wanted to hike higher up on The Butte, but the snow was turning to slush which made the steeper areas too slippery for my footwear.

Back down to Anchorage for dinner. We ate at a Mediterranean place called Aladdin and it was so freaking good.  We both left stuffed to the gills! Pedro drove his truck back to Palmer, and I drove my car - glad to have that all taken care of. When we got home it turned out that Pedro's roommate wasn't too keen on the idea of having Phoenix in the house - actually, we were almost denied entry completely, but Pedro managed to talk us in with the understanding that Phoen would be staying in his kennel. To be honest, I feel rushed but relieved - hadn't felt very comfortable here, but tomorrow I'm going to find a month-to-month deal on a hotel for Phoenix and I to stay in temporarily. Home sweet home is such a liquid concept these days ;)

Alaska!!

Wow, so much to catch you up on!

Friday was my mom's last day in Seattle. We spent the day hanging out and trying to get some errands run before the second leg of my trip began. We got Phoenix bathed, purchased some fresh chex-mix and cleaned out my car. There was a river of rain flowing through the Motel 6 parking lot by that time, so we had to dry our pants and shoes on the heater in the room before heading out to dinner with my Aunt Vic.

Aunt Vicky has lived in Seattle for the last nine years, and I'm not sure that I've seen her at all since she moved up there. It was fun getting to have dinner with her and see what she's been up to lately. She seems to throughly enjoy this cold grey rainy city she's got here :) Also I was glad to see she is still a vegetarian, I'm pretty sure she was a big influence on my first round of vegginess back in Elementary school.

After dinner I headed out to pick up Pedro from the airport. He is graciously making the drive from Seattle to Alaska with me. Pedro, my mom, and I went out for some beers so that mom could get a better feel for what I'm getting into. Even she pointed out that Pedro should work for the Alaska Visitors Bureau, he does sell it well! We didn't stay out too late because of our early morning to come. My sleep was pretty restless, strange dreams and anxiety kept me up, but I guess it had to happen some time.

Saturday
Woke up very early and very sleepy, but hopped up to give my mom a ride to the airport. We had heard on the radio that part of a SW plane had broken off in flight, but for some reason didn't assume this would cause trouble at the airport the next day....wrong! I think she finally made it out on a different plane a few hours later, but then ended up making it home to Austin six hours later than expected! Ouch!

Pedro and I grabbed some coffee and heading up I5 North to the boarder of Canada. He had been over there a few times, but this was my first! Customs was cute, much smoother than coming up from Mexico. Unfortunately, no stamp for my passport :( We drove directly to Vancouver, I had always heard really great things about Vancouver, and they all seemed to be true! The downtown area is nice, the people are helpful, and the coffee is plentiful!

Phoenix playing, Day 1 in Canada

With lots of ground to cover we dragged our heals a bit on the way back to the car, then headed north. Ran through very small towns all day and into the night with the hopes of finally reaching and staying the night in Prince George. The man at customs had estimated that it would be a 6-7 hour drive - I was feeling woefully inadequate as a driver when after 7 hours we were nowhere close, but I just looked it up, 10 hours is the conservative estimate - thanks 'ol customs guy for making me doubt myself! ;) We pulled into a motel around 2:30am with the hopes of waking up early on Sunday to do it all again.

Sign Forest, somewhere between there and here

Sunday
Pedro (an apparent hater of sleep) has such patience with me, but apparently also he posses enough finesse to have me up and out before 8am. Crazy. We drove again, all day. Got turned around a couple times, but ended up with a some good laughs out of each. Finally around 2am I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and I pulled over at Toad Creek (?) in the BC for some shut eye. Another early morning, but I'm markably easier to coax out of sleep when not having slept in a bed.

Cute bridge in the Yukon

Monday
Lots more driving, our goal for today was Whitehourse. Today held my first sighting of moose, buffalo, and, swear to god, a beautiful Bald Eagle!! It took forever to get there, but once we arrived, it was like this strange oasis of life in the middle of nowhere. We had a couple of victory beers with a really cool old man named Clouse - he was a weathered looking old Russian man who had apparently came to Canada seeking 'adventure.'

After some aggravating news from my bank, we got back in the car and decided to push on as far as we could go. We ended up pulling through the boarder into Alaska at about 1:30am. Another super easy boarder crossing, (we even offered to provide Phoenix's vaccination records, and customs agent couldn't have cared less - I could have been transporting a box of rabid monkeys, no problem!) Pedro drove for a few more hours into Alaska but by 3:30am I had already nodded off and he decided to pull off for a nap too.

Tuesday
A few hours later as the sun was coming up, we continued driving and made it to Palmer pretty early, around 9:30am. The drive was very overcast and snowy, so it wasn't till this afternoon that I could finally see some of the beautiful mountains this town is surrounded by. Our first order of business was to get some breakfast, we went to the grocery store, which to my delight was as close to a proper grocery store as I could have ever hoped. I can defiantly make things happen here! :)

View of a glacier on the way into Palmer

Next we went for a short hike at a Nature Center on the way to Anchorage. The actual center was closed, but the trails were open, we walked around for maybe 30-40mins,  Phoenix had a blast pouncing at snowballs and romping through snow drifts. I don't think I'll have anymore worries about him not taking to the snow.

We piled back into the car and headed towards Anchorage, I don't know if it was splitting the drive with the hike, or the fact that all  other car trips over the last few weeks have been extremely long lol but Anchorage seems to be much closer to Palmer than I expected! We went over to Pedro's friends house - they had been looking after his truck while he was driving up with me. The girls are really sweet, and the house they live in is adorable! Gina went out for dinner with us to a place called TapRoot. I think they usually have live music, but didn't last night for some reason. We ordered a bunch of appetizers (some more of her friends joined us too) And I had my first draft Alaska IPA <3 <3

Pedro was running on fumes at that point, so I drove us back to Palmer, I know its pretty much a straight shot from Anchorage to Palmer, but I felt pretty badass making it back to town w/o help - though getting to the exact right address did require me to wake Pedro up for directions - hey, its day one!!

Today is Wednesday, I'm just waking up - Pedro is at work, and I can hear the roommate giving her baby a bath in the next room. How did I end up in a house with a baby?? Oh well, I think this is pretty temporary - actually next to finding work, finding a new apartment is on my list of things to do today. I think I'm going to head up to a coffee shop down the street and possibly the library