May 16th, 2012:
Well things have changed a bit lately! Booked a one-way flight to Anchorage, Alaska just ten days before I leave!! Crazyyy! Doing all is on a whim, but hoping to get a summer job in the hospitality industry up there. Gain some more experience, make some money, and have an amazing adventure! Really looking forward to it! Going to be gorgeous and a great place for me. City surrounded by six mountain ranges!! Yes please!! Have no intentions of coming back until September or October! Have just a week to hopefully find housing and get a job lined up! Have one job that may come through, so keeping fingers crossed.
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| All packed and ready to go! |
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| Glad I'm not driving! |
Saturday May 26:
About to board my flight to Minneapolis and then onto Alaska!! One way ticket! Quite exciting!
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| Love these pics |
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| Alaska!! |
Flight was good, longer then you would think. Nearly 6 hours from Minneapolis to Anchorage. Sat next to a girl who grew up in Alaska (and never wants to live anywhere else) and an older woman from central Florida who is on a two week trip here!
Landed and got my giant bag that weighed 51 lbs! My awesome Couchsurfer Paige picked me up with three other people in the car! Everything was so surreal- the fact that I was in Alaska in the first place and that it was still very light outside and 10pm! It's amazing how far away Alaska actually is, flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage is about six hours long!
Came back to the apartment and met three new people! Another Couchsurfer just graduated college and is moving here for at least a year or so! We all hung out and just talked and got to know each other. Played skip-bo and it was still light out past midnight! The sunlight and traveling definitely messed with me a little bit! I've never really experienced jet lag before, I always trick my body. Eventually went to bed at 1:30 am Alaskan time which was 4:30 am IL time! Quite a long day.
Sunday May 27:
So things started falling into place quickly for me, had lunch with two potential roommates and we got along well. Darryl and Shane. Ate Mexican with them and saw the place. Then drove me around some more of Anchorage, a town of nearly 300,000 people and growing more and more every year.
Returned to Couchsurfers house and we took a little road trip to Girdwood down the New Seward Highway! So so gorgeous!!!!
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| Can't believe I'm here! |
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| Never enough mountains |
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| Gloomy day but still amazing! |
Came back made dinner and hung out. Eventually fell asleep at 3am! Sleep schedule is not so good now.
Monday May 28:
Went downtown to Kaladi Brothers for coffee and then to a gorgeous lake downtown, Westchester Lagoon.
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| Westchester Lagoon |
Going to move into the apartment today and grab dinner downtown. I finally got a decent nights sleep!
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| My bedroom |
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| Living room |
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| Backyard |
Random Alaska facts:
No snakes in Alaska!
Moose roam through town.
No Chipotle or Panera bread here.
Gas is $1 more expensive per gallon
No roller coasters.
Storms come from the south and east.
Some rivers run north.
So many sea planes!
Surrounded by mountains.
49th State- "The Last Frontier"
Major major earthquake in 1964.
Nicknamed "Land of the Midnight sun."
You don't need a license to buy a gun, but if you want to go fishing you need a license! How crazy is that!
Next few weeks went by quickly and started to
get all settled in. Saw my first moose too which was exciting!!
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| MY FIRST MOOSE!! |
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| I named her Molly Moose! |
It's also not as cold as you would think here.
Driving around town you see amazing views after amazing views. LOVE the mountains!!
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| View down our street. |
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| Fake moose! |
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| Love the drives |
Kaladi brothers is a popular coffee place here- I've had it twice and still not so impressed. Starbucks... Well that's a different story.
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| Mmmmm |
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| Nice view of downtown |
Had a job interview at the Anchorage Marriott Downtown. It went extremely well and was hired on the spot! Start immediately! Woo! So things worked out well- housing, job, you know those two important things!
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| Marriott! |
Went to a restaurant, Organic Oasis- Had a big island smoothie with earth mix, healthy and delicious after a long refreshing run with the crisp Alaskan air.
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| 4th Avenue Downtown |
After just a few weeks go being here, my Grandma sent me the funniest news article!
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| No fashion Alaska! |
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| Had to get it |
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| Book reading! |
First days of work have gone well. Just computer training. Coworkers seem really nice.
Hung out with other couchsurfers and went to a house party up on hillside which overlooks Anchorage. Was a big sushi party and met a ton of people immediately! Also had Shotskis! Why did I not think of this! Four shot glasses on a ski, forcing everyone to take the shot at once!
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| Shot Ski! |
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| WOW! Mt. McKinely!!! |
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| Over 200 miles away! |
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| Love this giant map! |
Also, the state bird here is a mosquito. Okay so just kidding, but honestly have never seen so many mosquitos in my life. I failed to put bug spray on while running through the woods one evening and literally could not kill them fast enough, as they were biting me everywhere. Lesson learned.
Another random Alaska fact is that there are so many Hawaiians here! I was quite surprised, but it seems they have a bond being the two non-continental states, a bit disconnected from the lower 48.
Have been running along the amazing trails through the city. Came upon gorgeous lakes and views.
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| Trails |
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| Have to love nature here in AK! |
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| Great lake near my house |
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| Love it! |
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| Riding my bike and I turn the corner and see this!! AHH!! |
My favorite trail in town in the Tony Knowles Costal Trail though. Amazing views of downtown and the coast!
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| Mt. Susitna "Sleeping Lady" Mountain |
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| Great view! |
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| On the coast! |
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| More views of downtown! |
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| Beauty never ends up here |
Since I was living about a ten minute drive from downtown and after getting my job, figured I should get some reliable transportation as my schedule would start changing after training was finished. Only plan on being here for the summer though, so don't want to get a car, insurance and deal with anything permanent like that. Thought a good option would be to buy a scooter! Ended up buying one and named my scooter Ank! "Ank the tank!" We are in ANCHorage! Get it! Clever? I find it amusing.
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| Ank!! |
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| Legit! |
Who moves to Alaska and buys a scooter? This guy! I'm not the only one either, on a coffee run the other day I saw another scooter for the first time!!
Dark Horse Coffee(on 7th and F street)is my favorite coffee spot so far. Reminds me of a coffee shop in Austria actually. Delicious mochas. Manic Monday's and Wacky Wednesday specials! There isn't a shift of work that I don't end up going there, keeps me going through the shift full of energy!
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| 4 Shot Espresso... Yes please! |
Roommate also decided to get a puppy, Kobe!
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| Little stinker! |
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| Baby Kobe! He got so much bigger in a few months! |
Making smoothies as always... fail?
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| Well I underestimated the size of the glass apparently. |
Job is going really well though. Learning a lot for sure! Enjoying it though! Glad to get some more hotel work experience. Have worked nearly every position in the front office department now.
Weather has been GREAT lately!!! Started running like old times again!! Ran over 13 miles in two days and been making new friends as well which is great.
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| Valley of the Moon Park |
Jason, my best friend from college and traveling buddy, finally came back into town on the train! He's working for Princess Cruise Lines up here this summer as a land based tour director. We took a little road trip back south and hung out and caught up with each other.
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| Alaskan Railroad! |
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| Beluga Point |
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| Love this one too. |
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| How could this ever get old? |
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| Train, coast, and mountains. |
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| Amazing evening. |
Also went to the airport area and the point to watch planes take off! Really awesome, as most of the planes flying in and out are 747s!
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| Great view. |
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| Love planes. |
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| Downtown again. |
June 20th, 2012.
Tomorrow is summer solstice, can not wait!! Longest day of sunlight which means a lot here! There are festivals downtown, pretty much like a holiday up here. Sunset is at 11:41 pm tomorrow!!! Going to hike Flattop mountain tomorrow night!
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| Really siri?!? |
Another random Alaskan fact:
There are a lot of Subarus up here!
And also, a good majority of the Natives up here are... well how should I say it, alcoholics.
And apparently lightning and thunderstorms are very rare here, although it did happen the other night! When I was on a coffee run at work, people in the coffee shop were talking about it! It's funny how things are quite different here. Nature and even the culture is definitely different here.
June 21, 2012.
Wow! Summer Solstice!! Longest day of the year! Sunrise 4:19 am and sunset at 11:41 (although it never really sets!) Insanity! I've never been so far north in my life! Can't imagine the darkness through all the winter. Had to work at 7am this morning and then hanging out with friends after!
Went to dinner and then hiked up the mountain. Was a blast and quite the workout. We went up the backside of the mountain which was definitely more difficult.
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| Not the best weather at first |
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| At the top! |
After we were at the top of the mountain, we were exploring around and decided to hike up another summit of the connecting mountain range and randomly came upon a geocache!! That's crazy enough in itself as they are typically hidden. And to add to that, we were just having a conversation about geocaching ten minutes prior! Ironic!!
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| Geocaching in Alaska!! |
It's a tradition for many Alaskan to hike Flattop on summer solstice. People were even building fires up there. Quite a lot of people started showing up around 11:30 pm!
Had been working A LOT lately. Learning something every day and really enjoying going to work. My manager Kendra is absolutely amazing and always made work amusing! The situations we encounter with guests is always entertaining. NEVER a dull day here at the Marriott. I need to start a book writing down the crazy things that happen each day in the hotel environment. Eventually they all blend together, but definitely some stories stick out. Anything you can imagine you can expect while working at a hotel. Love the environment here.
Aside from working, I had been exploring more of Anchorage, going to dinner with friends, and running along the amazing trails through town. Saw numerous moose right along the running trails, something residents here come to expect. I still think it's amazing each time I see one.
Ready for another random fact?
Moose kill more people each year in Alaska than bears! They are GIANT and have sharp hooves, need to be extremely cautious with the momma moose and their babies. Apparently they are very territorial.
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| Green Tea ice cream and white cherries! |
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| Not a double rainbow! |
Got caught up with a lot of work and was keeping busy, planning a 4th of July house party with my new friends and was looking forward to that. My brother started having some major health problems and was going to the doctor on numerous occasions. Long story short, we found out some devastating news and I booked the flight at 1pm while at work on July 4th and flew back to Illinois the next morning at 5am. Things sure did change quickly and I was in complete shock and in a daze for quite a while. Working in Alaska one morning and 24 hours later back home with the family.
Was great to be home with the family during all of this. Thankfully my work was really understanding of the situation, things in life happen out of the blue apparently. Was not excited about the weather back in the midwest at all. A crazy drought and extremely hot temperatures this summer, especially in comparison to Alaska.
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| This is what I fly back to?!? |
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| Love my friends! Thanks Clair! |
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| Back with my best friends! |
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| Bianca! |
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| Another smoothie fail, this one was EPIC! I couldn't do anything but laugh. |
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| My brother and I. Love this pic. Still my phone background. |
Was a definite good visit back home. Was where I need to be those two weeks. Crazy few weeks though, thankfully my brother has been doing well considering all the fats, so I decided to return to Anchorage to finish out the summer. If something changed then of course I would be on the next flight back home.
July 21:
Well I'm on the flight back to Anchorage again, past few weeks have been absolutely surreal. Nothing has really set in completely.
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| Making myself comfortable. |
Back in Anchorage and started working a lot again! Think it was good to keep my mind off everything. I've been drinking Dark Horse doffee every day at work!! Except on Sunday when it's closed during the hours I work!
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| Never enough coffee. |
Decided to go downtown on one of my days off and there was a festival going on!
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| Love the grass on the roof. |
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| City farmers market. |
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| Wood carving! |
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| Park Strip near the hotel. |
I haven't seen much of Alaska outside of Anchorage as I've been working a lot of hours! Looking forward to experiencing more of Alaska. Hoping to do that more this fall and request specific days off to plan trips!
Went to Thunderbird Falls with friends and then onto Big Lake just about 45 minutes north of Anchorage!
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| Felt so refreshing down there. |
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| Climbing trees |
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| Thunderbird Falls |
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| Big Lake! Absolutely gorgeous. |
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| Almost reminded me of Austria! |
One of my roommates is slightly obsessed with ice cream and can't decide what flavors she wants. Needless to say our freezer was completely full.
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| Wowwwwww. |
Always hung out with my amazing coworkers also, Kendra and Megan! Never a dull moment with these girls.
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| The Wolf Pack! |
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| 7th Avenue- Marriott Downtown! |
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| Elevator Party! |
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| Well, we still ended up "taking" those Olympic rings! |
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| The Big Bad Wolf! |
Did I mention Snow City Cafe (5th and L Street) is hands down the best breakfast in town. Kendra and I frequented here often before our late work shifts!
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| Veggie Omelete + OJ =heaven! |
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| Hanging out with Sarah Palin and a giant moose. |
Also have been running a bit, "training" for my third half marathon! Florida, Austria, and now Alaska!!
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