And We're Back!

Got a behind the scenes view while at Brewin for Bruins at the Alaska Zoo

Whew. Sorry for the long absence. April got pretty crazy there for a while. Breakup (the melting season) came and went without any major incidents. It started with lots of standing water and slushly puddles. After a week snow piles started to compress. After a few more weeks the snow was gone. It seemed like it was sunny approximately 37 days in April. The extended sunshine counts as extra days. 

Got a hair cut and shave to go along with breakup

At the end of April, we moved. The owners or our first rental want to sell their home. They offered to let us out of the lease anytime before it ends July 31st. We decided that rather than waste the summer looking for a new place, packing, moving, and unpacking, we'd compress the experience into about a month. We found a sweet new place on the East side of Anchorage, in a neighborhood called the "scenic foothills" near the base of the Chugach Mountains. We're on the second floor of a house. We picked up an extra bedroom and half bath, along with a bigger yard, large shed (complete with electricity!), and a deck that looks out to the mountains. The move at the end of April went smoothly and Kelly and I have settled in nicely.

Nice big dining room windows that look out at the mountains

Ellsworth has had a big of trouble with the move, but that's a 

story for another post.

...Maybe not that much trouble 

Days in Anchorage are topping out at almost 18hrs of daylight. It's been hard to go to work everyday, when the sun is shining so brilliantly outside. It seems to be much nicer during the week than on the weekends. After this winter, that's just cruel. Fortunately the long evenings make for perfect hiking opportunities. Now that the snow is gone and the ground is drying, we'll be getting back out on the trails. Stay tuned for summer adventures.

This is what Alaskan summer are all about

Cold & Flu Season

Our adventures have been rather lame of late. First I got sick, then because I love to share, Kelly got sick. It's put a bit of a damper on our outdoor activities. We planned on hiking last weekend, but opted for something even more fun - shopping. My mom is coming to visit in a couple days and we thought it might be nice for the guest bedroom to have such luxuries as curtains and bed sheets. We have quite a few Alaskan activities planned for my mom, so stay tuned.

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.