Day One

This first entry will include the flight and the first full day in Anchorage.

Some basic info. about the trip for everyone:
-My aunt Katy is with me for the first 10 days to help me get settled and to tour around with me.
-I will be working at the Red Cross office up here doing event promotion and at the Anchorage Museum in the Museum Store.
-I arrived May 15th and I will be leaving August 20th.

Waiting in the airport.

First off, the flight was WAY long. It was the longest flight I've ever been on and it definitely felt that way. Luckily, there was TV for most of the longest leg.

Taken from the plane.

We landed in Anchorage around 10ish Alaska time and 2 in the morning our time so by the time we rented the car and got to the hotel (Days Inn), it was 12 (4 our time) and Katy and I promptly passed out.

Today, we got up at 9 in the morning (1 in the afternoon our time!) and went to breakfast across the street at the Country Kitchen. It was pretty good. Reindeer sausage was available for an additional $1.19. We did not partake. It's really strange walking around Anchorage because one second it looks like a normal city and the next, you see snow-topped mountains in the distance.

After breakfast we went to meet a prospective roommate. She is REALLY nice and it looks like it will work out, though it's not set in stone. It's a cute house with a nice backyard, close to biking trails and the bus stop. I'm pretty excited and hope to move in Saturday.

After meeting Christa (the roommate) we went to the Alaska Zoo. It has a lot of indigenous animals from Alaska but is pretty sad and doesn't seem to receive much financing, despite being the state zoo... There were moose (HUGE!), polar bears, tigers, wolves, arctic foxes (adorable!)


After the zoo we went to find this trail riding place I found in one of our information books. Turns out, it's a vendor that does the rides out of an equestrian center and there was a little festival going on with demonstrations and pony rides. We stuck around for a bit and watched a cutting demonstration (where a horse and rider "cut" a cow from the herd and herd it around in specific patterns).

Then we headed back up north, to see a Salmon Viewing Platform, stopping at the 5th Ave. Mall because I needed khakis and we did a little shopping. When we got to the Salmon Viewing Platform it turned out that it's not the right season for salmon quite yet because we didn't see a single fish, despite the clear water.

After not quite viewing salmon, we went to find dinner. We decided to go to Moose Tooth's, a place we had heard a lot about from tourists and locals alike. It's a pizza place and bar that makes their own Ranch dressing, brews their own beer, and is known for their breadsticks. I can account for two of the three being as delicious as we heard--the breadsticks were fantastic.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a Fred Meyer (like a Super Target or Super Walmart that has food and clothes, etc.) and got food and cutlery and stuff. The people here are very easy to people-watch. Katy likens it to Dayton, Ohio.

Now we're in our hotel, exhausted, even though we really didn't do anything very strenuous. Oh well, we found me a place to live and that was the most important thing to do. Now we can do fun stuff! Still need to find me a bike, though.

Our hotel room.

Tune in next time to hear about any new developments. Tomorrow we go hiking on the Flat Top Mountain trail aka. up a mountain! Pictures, of course, will follow. For those of you on Facebook, there will be more pictures (more than on the blog, I mean) available when I post the whole week's collection this weekend. The blog will only feature highlights.

Goodnight, guys!

P.S. The sun is just setting now and it's 11:00pm.