Mile 0

Last weekend we hit the road and headed south for Seward. After beautiful 2.5hr drive down the Seward Highway, through Chugach State Park and onto the Kenai Peninsula, we arrived in Seward.

The rain let up long enough to see this rainbow along the Seward Highway

Sadly, it was pouring rain almost all day, limiting what we were able to do. We didn't see much of the Pacific, or glimpse Mt. Marathon, or see the day's catches down at the docks. We did, however, find the original starting point of the Iditarod. The annual race now begins in Anchorage and runs a much shorter 1112 miles. Kelly and I tackled about 1.5 miles of the course last weekend. Stay tuned as we rack up the rest of trip.

Blast off!

Kelly and I found Jupiter yesterday! We were out for an ordinary walk along the Tony Knowles Costal Trail and as we rounded a corner, we came face to face with the gas giant. We noticed that Jupiter seemed a bit small. After closer inspection we realized we were following the Anchorage Lightspeed Planet Walk. Starting at the Sun in downtown Anchorage it is a 5.5hr walk to Pluto. From the start, it takes as much time to get to each planet as the light from the Sun does. One of these days we'll start at the Sun and begin our journey through the solar system. We might bring out bikes to up the speed to warp 5.

The House of the Midnight Sun

On Thursday, Kelly and I headed down to Midnight Sun Brewing Company in Southern Anchorage to start checking out the local beer scene. Midnight Sun offers free tours on Thursdays, and growler fills starting at $9. We had dinner and some 6oz taster pours before the tour. With beer names like Kodiak Brown Ale, Sockeye Red IPA,  Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter and Panty Peeler Tripel, We knew we were going to enjoy our outing. The food was decent and the beers were delicious. We especially enjoyed the special release Black Light Cream Ale and the Pride - a beer with Brettanomyces yeast added to sour the beer - one of our favorite styles. I got my $9 growler of Black Light and we waited for the tour to start.

Kelly enjoying Pride

About to sample some Sockeye Red

Our tour guide gave us samples of unfinished beer. We got to try Kyoto, which is part of a limited release series designed to incorporate brewing styles and ingredients from all over the world. Kyoto is brewed with rice and seaweed. Unlike those corporate brews, the rice actually added a nice nutty flavor to the beer. The seaweed wasn't very present aside from making the beer super clear.

You can guess where the beer comes out

The current location for Midnight Sun is their second. They used to share a building with Knight's Taxidermy, the shop featured on Mounted in Alaska. As a parting gift, Knights made Midnight Sun an Alaskan Tap Handle.

Unpacking

Easily my least favorite part of moving is unloading and unpacking all of the boxes. We had been at our new house all over 2hrs before the moving company dropped off our trailer. Our stuff had been in Anchorage for about a week. It had been almost 3 weeks since we had seen it. Kelly and I were both very anxious to see how our belongings fared during the long move. Once we opened the trailer, we were relieved to see that the boxes were still stacked much the same way they were when we left. Some slight listing, and a few smushed boxes were the only evidence the trailer had moved at all.

End of Day 1

It's gotten smaller, I swear.

5 days in and we're almost done. The kitchen, bedroom, and dining room are unpacked (it's really easy to set up a dining room when you don't have a table.) We need to get a couch for the living room and some book cases to set up the office, but for the most part, we're done. Next up: Our first Alaskan Salmon.

Moving Day

Moving is never easy, especially when you are headed to the Great White North. Almost three weeks before our move date, Kelly and I shipped nearly all of our worldly possessions. We slept on an air mattress, ate off of paper plates and drank out of solo cups. It felt a lot like college - my back was a constant reminder it wasn't. Air mattresses just aren't that comfortable.

After pushing through some home renovations, it was finally time to pack our bags. The night before we left, during a flurry of cleaning and packing I noticed that the brand new carpet in our living room seemed to be wet near one of the radiators. To my great dismay, the radiator was leaking! After heading to the basement to shut off the water to the radiator I noticed what looked like a leak underneath the oil burner. When it rains it pours...which oddly enough was the source of one leak. Fortunately the water under the oil burner was run off from the torrential rain pouring down the chimney.

New Carpet

Water leaking from the Oil Burner

One problem solved. It took a plumber coming out the morning we left to fix the radiator. It was odd trying to arrange for the plumber from O'hare International Airport.

Last minute home issues aside, Kelly and I woke up at 2am the day of our flight. Her parents drove us to the airport so that would could make our 6:05am flight. We got to the airport before anything opened. We had to wait until 4am for the ticketing agents to start their shift so we could check our bags. With some careful packing we had 3 bags each within a pound of the 50lb max.

2 flights and 11hrs later, we landed in Anchorage, AK, our new home.