Flat Top Mountain

Today we went hiking at Flat Top Mountain. It was absolutely gorgeous...

Not just blue sky and clouds, it's water and snow-covered mountains, my camera is terrible.

Anchorage skyline...zoomed in very close

Holding on for dear life.

Finally reached the top!! Sure the top is flat, but the way up, not so much....

It got pretty intense. I think this video will describe it just fine.

Pictures of the Apartment

Here are some pictures of our apartment, finally! These are "before" pictures, I'll post more when everything comes together. We're still working on it, we painted the living room and master bedroom, and are slowly filling in furniture.

Kitchen - the front door is on the left, so you walk in to the kitchen.

Living room from kitchen. I love our fireplace!

Balcony

View of the mountains from our balcony!

From the living room. Guest room door open on the left, the coat closet is the shut door, bathroom and master bedroom in that alcove.

Guest room aka your room!! Don't worry it's bigger than the picture seems.

Coat closet on right, door to master bedroom on left.

Master bedroom

Closets in master bedroom

It looks so much different now that we've painted and started decorating. I can't wait to show you updated pictures.

Our New Address!!!

We are no longer homeless! We just signed our lease for our new home at Greenbriar Apartments. We'll be moving in tomorrow and are extremely excited :) Here is our new address:

4331 Vance Drive, Apartment B-4

Anchorage, Alaska 99508

Tidbits About Anchorage

Well I've been told some interesting stories about Anchorage, I thought I'd share some information...

I've mentioned how it has been pretty overcast for the most part. While we have had nice weather, it has rained for at least a few minutes everyday since we got here. I was speaking with a woman earlier who was saying this has been such a crappy summer. She said last summer was absolutely gorgeous - sunny and up to the 80s on a regular basis - and then they had a very mild winter following. She's predicting that this will probably be a pretty harsh winter given the weather thus far this summer. So it seems we'll be thrown right into real Alaskan weather. Awesome. Who needs a slow transition?

The other day we were at a car dealership; we were standing at the edge of the lot, directly next to a little wooded area right off the highway. The car salesman told us that a few days before, right in that little area, a bear killed a moose and dragged it out into the middle of the highway, then the bear got hit by a car and the State Troopers had to come and shoot the bear. Also right in the middle of the highway. Interesting. His colorful reenactment was, well, colorful. You can't make this stuff up!!

Earthquake Park

We went down to Earthquake Park today and walked along part of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail that wraps around the coastline of the city. It was awesome! We all had a great time, especially Rudy, who was happy to get out of the hotel room and car!

Anchorage skyline

Skyline closer up...it was so cool being on the water and seeing the skyline with the mountains behind it!

POOPED.

Yummmmm

We had our first sushi experience in Alaska tonight and OH MY GOD it was so good! We went to this place called Dish; needless to say the crab and salmon were delicious, but so was everything else. And they gave us Oreo tempura at the end of the meal, which won them extra brownie points in my book. Dish is definitely going on the list of places to take visitors, as is the Moose's Tooth (a really cool pub we went to last night). I'll be sure to keep scouting out good places to take you all ;)

Pictures of Anchorage

Here are some quick shots of the city...they were taken while we were driving so they're not great. I'll get some better pictures and close-ups soon.

We have cars and traffic lights and everything!

It's taking a little getting used to being in the middle of a mountain range and in the middle of a city at the same time. But it's not a view I'm complaining about!

Right now the sun rises around 5:45 and sets around 11:30, so we missed the height of the midnight sun. Oh well, there's always next year! As for the weather, it is usually overcast and misty in the morning, then it clears up and it is blue skies and gorgeous by the afternoon with temperatures ranging from 50s in the morning to 60s or low 70s in the afternoon.

Hopefully I'll be able to put up pictures of our new home soon! We should officially have a place and be moved in by the middle of next week. Hopefully ;)

Pictures from Days 6 & 7

The last two days of the trip were awesome; we saw so many cool things and the scenery was gorgeous!

Day 6

Here are some of the mountains driving through Yukon Territory in Canada:

No that is not another mountain, it's a bug bite!! Those damn Canadian mosquitos.

We saw so many cool animals too! Mountain goats, the cutest little baby black bear, a herd of bison, wild horses, a fox, and either weird Canadian chipmunks or baby beavers, we're not sure. Unfortunately we only got pictures of the bison, but they were awesome too!

In the town of Watson Lake, there is a place called "Sign Post Forest" which was started by a homesick US Soldier on his way up to Alaska. He put up a sign pointing toward his hometown, and now there are thousands of signs put up from visitors around the world.

I found NY & Providence! (even though I'm pretty sure it's not the same Providence)

So are we!

Completely blew out a tire. An extremely lucky string of circumstances saved our butts and got this resolved with minimal time lost.

Day 7

Getting close to Alaska...we saw our first snow-covered mountains!

Finally! :)

Nelchina Glacier: