The Road to Far: 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 :)