House Hunting

The weekend finally arrived which meant it was the first time that we would get to drive around the city during daylight hours (sunrise is at 9:54 am and sunset is at 3:47 pm). Driving around Anchorage is a little challenging because the sun never gets very high over the horizon; it's always in your face. Since we arrived, we heard about how common moose are in Anchorage so I was in great anticipation of my first moose sighting. The great thing is that I didn't have to wait long....Saturday morning we were on our way to south Anchorage when I spotted a bull moose. Like any four year old trapped in a twenty four year old body I loudly trumpted my find to Chanie who was more concerned with driving at the moment than with my new woodland friend. I am no moose expert but it looked to be about a medium sized bull. (Side Note: If attacked by a moose run around a tree....they are too gangly to make sharp turns) Luckily our first moose encounter was cordial and even though I waved, he just kept eating the bush by the road.

From outside my office window, which is on the 18th floor, I can see the Chugach mountains. They rise over a mile above Anchorage. To the north you can see Denali very clearly....even though it's almost 400 miles away. There sure are some amazing views!

The Move

Last Tuesday the packers came and took away all our belongings. Chanie and I just found a spot where we were out of the way and watched them work. Chanie said she felt pretty lazy just sitting there but I felt ok about it :) We spent Thanksgiving in Little Rock and Batavia with family who were all excited to see us. Then we were off to Alaska. We don't recommend the airport in Phoenix--we had to get on a shuttle (with a crazy driver) and go to a completely different building, stand in line, go through security (again), then catch our long flight to Anchorage. The first 3 hours of the flight were spent with everyone buckled in. Stewardesses included. We hit some pretty nasty turbulance and were redirected a bit to try to find smoother air. I wasn't feeling good already and three hours of turbulance was not helpful. Finally we landed, all our luggage arrived safely, and we made the trek to get our rental car. To our surprise, the rental counters had closed an hour earlier. That's convenient since our flight was an hour late. We got a cab and finally made it to Duke's 8th Avenue Hotel around 4 a.m. That's 7 a.m. for the rest of you. We got our bags up to the room and crashed into bed but not before I set my alarm for 7:15 am. In three hours I had to be at work.....