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

Canada!

I can't write much because were about to hit the road again. Made it to Canada yesterday - its so beautiful here! I'll post some pictures as soon as I can. My phone doesn't work here, but I hope to be in touch again soon!

Clouds: Below, through, and above

The name of the game today was to drive around Olympic Mountain. We took a ferry ride over to Kingston and then drove through several little towns before finally getting to Port Angeles, which is a sweet little port town at the foot of Olympic State Park.

We had lunch at a place right by the water, it was a Mexican food place, but we ended up with a pasta dish. We  also shared some amazing homemade blackberry pie for dessert. Phoenix helped us walk off our lunch on the beach behind the restaurant. There was a loan Sea Lion hanging out on the beach, and cute as she was, Phoenix was way freaked out!

The sky was super over cast and a little drizzly, but we decided to head up to the park anyways. We only meant to drive up a few miles since the visibility was so bad, but mile after mile things kept getting cooler, and before we knew it, we were actually way up above the clouds! It was unbelievably beautiful!

On the way up

About a third of the way up we saw the trip's first small patch of snow, it was just to the side of the road, and as we drove by I felt a tiny ping of regret for not having taken a picture. This would have proved pretty silly because by the time we reached Hurricane Ridge, less than 10 miles away, the snow in some places was easily 15 feet deep! Neither of us had any idea how amazing the view would be, we had gone from sea level to over 5,000 ft in less than 30 mins and it was one of the most beautiful vistas I have ever seen!

Lodge at the top of the mountain