Fairbanks

Denali - Early Morning

Last week when I was in Alaska I took a business trip up to Fairbanks.  Fairbanks is about a 7 hour drive north of Anchorage and about an hour by plane.  The flight was early and the sun was just starting to come up.  Our route took us directly over Denali National Park and we could see the mountain that gave the Park it's name commonly referred to as Mount McKinley or Denali (Athabaskan for "The High One").  Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America and the United States, with a summit elevation of 20,320 feet above sea level.  The morning sky was filled with pinks and blues and the moon was full.  The pictures just do not do the scene justice.  A person I met was telling me he flew in from Fairbanks the week before and the mountain is usually covered in clouds.  It was so clear and so calm that day that the Alaskan Airlines pilot asked the FAA to clear them for a "go around" and with the FAA's permission, they were granted a flight deviation and were able to circle Denali in a commercial 757.  Life's different here and in so many wonderful ways.

Tundra - Fairbanks

As we passed over Denali still headed for Fairbanks, the terrain immediately and abruptly shifted to a flat, trowelled tundra, rich with small bushes, grasslands and rocky areas.  The colors were beautiful as the sun was coming up.  There were rivers and pools of water reflecting the pink sky. 

We landed in Fairbanks and I was surprised by the size of the city, second to Anchorage in size in AK, it was pretty sprawling and easy to get around.  The University of Alaska, Fairbanks has nice campus on the edge of the city.  I hope when I have time that I can visit the museum they have on campus that showcases the Native culture and houses thousands of artifacts.  I was hoping that it would be a cool, clear night in Fairbanks and I would have a chance to see the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).  If so, another one of my bucket list items could be checked off.  I've always been interested in the Earth's magnetic field and how it moves and fluctuates based on solar interference and the Northern Lights are a true indicator of how the sun's energy affects our magnetic poles.  As night fell, the temperature dropped and the sky was clear. As I left the restaurant and headed to the hotel, I kept checking out the sky but didn't see anything.  I watched from my room for about thirty minutes and had been told that early morning was the best time to see the Aurora so I figured I'd have to catch it on my next visit to Fairbanks.  For some reason, I woke up around 3 am and peered out.  At first I thought I was seeing clouds and then it was clear as the bands of whitish green color moved in slow snake like whips across the sky.  The bands that I saw would move rapidly and change color and shape.  Some started out low in color and then would intensify into a brighter green.  It was pretty cool!  The University of Alaska Fairbanks has a great video about the Northern lights that can be viewed by clicking the link below. 
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5qvas_alaskaorg-aurora-borealis-northern_travel

Denali - Mid Day Sun

The next day I headed back to Anchorage and Denali was in full view and I was able to snap this shot.  Notice the wind whipping the snow off of the top.  Yea, it was just that strong when we landed in Anchorage - 45 to 50 mile gusts and yes, the pilot landed the 757 in a hell of a cross wind and it was jumping and dropping the entire descent.  It was the second most violent landing of my life.  The first was flying into Anchorage this same time of year last year on a prop plane.  On both flights all of the passengers clapped and cheered at the end. People here are used to the weather and to the extremes and just go with the flow and don't get too excited, they just ride it out and hold on.

Anchorage

Anchorage

  I spent the last two weeks in Anchorage.  I met the wonderful team that I will be supporting, spent a ton of time driving around the city looking at the area trying to figure out where I wanted to live.  Thanks go out to Larry Dykes http://www.larrydykes.com/ with Prudential here in Anchorage, he was great to work with and showed me some beautiful homes for purchase.  I've decided to rent a home at this time and found a wonderful home close to Lake Hood.

The Lake Hood is the largest and busiest float plane base in the world so I'm sure I'll hear a lot of buzzing going on when the weather is good.  There are tons of bush pilots who make their living taking customers fly fishing, bear watching and on glacier tours.

Float Plane at Lake Hood

To me Anchorage is about the size of a cross between Columbia and Greenville, SC.  Good size but not too big.  There are several military bases on the North side of town and the highway leads to Eagle River, Palmer, Wasilla (Sarah Palin's hometown) and on towards Denali National Park.  South takes you towards Seward, Kenai and Homer. 

There's a beautiful area called Hillside on the South side of town that overlooks the city.  There are Mountains to the East and the Bay to the West. Everyone here refers to the city by directions, North, South, East or West and then there's downtown.  It's easy to get around and hard to get lost.  Ton's of people ride bikes and for me I am going be very careful and will have to watch for bike riders.  I'm just not used to seeing them back home. 


View from the Hillside area

On Monday I was out to lunch with one of the members of the leadership team and we were in Quiznos and there was a low rumbling sound. The sound grew louder and the ground started shaking pretty good and then there was this pretty significant jolt that felt like the floor just shifted about three or four inches in one direction and abruptly stopped.  It felt like it does when you are riding a ride at the fair and it comes to a stop at the end.  Needless to say, it was a pretty good sized earthquake that registered over 5 on the Richter scale.  Earthquakes are a part of live here and they don't generally get people all rattled up.  However, there are a bunch of people who vividly recall the Great Alaskan Earthquake that hit in 1964.  Anchorage was hard hit as were most of the coastal rim towns in the State.  There are villages that were claimed by the sea and never rebuilt.  There is a great link to the Alaska Earthquake Center http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/recent/sub/index.html that will show you on a daily basis all of the earthquakes that have taken place in Alaska during the week check it out you might be surprised by the numbers! 

Earthquake Damage 1964 - Anchorage








You're WHAT? Moving to Alaska???

Alaska's State Flag

That's been the general response when I've shared the news.  Most often there were some words mixed up in there that I just don't want to post and most of them started with the word "WHAT" and went south.

I'm sure it seems pretty strange that a soon to be middle aged woman from South Carolina would want to move to Alaska. 

Then I'd hear it again..."YOU'RE WHAT?!!" would be exclaimed a couple more times by the person I was telling and then the strangest thing would happen...they would start to laugh and then they would roll into deep belly laughs only stopping to ask "You've got to be kidding, right?" and then start rolling with laughter again and then they would get quiet.  "You're not kidding are you?"

I have to say I have found all of the reactions to be quite amusing.  And yes, I am moving to Alaska. 

I had visited Alaska twice in the last year once in the Fall of 2009 and again in the Spring of 2010.  While there, I fell in love with the scenery and the wildness of the small portion of the state that I saw.  On my first visit I flew into Anchorage and hopped a prop to Homer to visit a friend who moved there from South Carolina and built a nice cabin on the ridge overlooking Katchemac Bay.  The site and the view from his home of the Bay and the glaciers was just breathtaking!

Walt and I fished in the Bay and caught Halibut, Skates, Dog Sharks, Bucket mouths, Cod and one Feeder King Salmon.  We drive up to the Anchor River twice and fished for Silvers that were coming in to spawn with the high tide.

Wildlife was everywhere in Homer.  Moose cows, calves and young adults were common along the roadside and were often seen standing in people's front yards eating their flowers and shrubs.  Eagles screeched, darted and soared in close clear view out on the Homer Spit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Spit  The fresh salt air smelled sweet and pure and the volcanoes that were visible spit a steady stream of steam out for the Cook Inlet breeze to play with.

Homer Spit - Home to the Salty Dawg and the Time Bandit

On my second trip, my long time friend Carole Amick and I flew to Anchorage and she took the Alaskan
Railroad GoldStar http://www.alaskarailroad.com/travel/Vacations/tabid/121/Default.aspx  glass car train trip to Seward and I drove the rental car and stopped a million times along the way to take some of the best shots of my life.  The landscape is a constant post card.  No wonder the Seward Highway is one of the deadliest roads in America, it's so beautiful it's really hard to focus on the blacktop when the views are so impressive and your mind just can't comprehend what you're seeing.

We spent the night in Seward at the Swan's Nest Inn  http://www.seward.net/~swannest/ and headed to Homer the next morning.  Along the way, we stopped at the Exit
Glacier National Park http://www.nps.gov/kefj/planyourvisit/exit-glacier.htm and then headed on to Seavey's Ididaride Dog Sledding Adventure  http://www.ididaride.com/  and rode on a summer dog sled behind a team of Huskies.

Exit Glacier

When we arrived in Homer, it was adventure all over again for the remainder of our trip!  Our friend Walt took us out in his boat fishing for Halibut, we went back up to the Anchor River twice and fished for King Salmon, hung out at the Salty Dawg Saloon out on the Homer Spit  http://www.saltydawgsaloon.com/  and saw lots of "Mooses" as Walt says, along the way. 

While in Alaska this last trip, I called home to Charleston to check on Dad every day.  He was tired, mentally and physically worn out and we all knew it was only a matter of time until he was called home.  Hospice came on Wednesday and when the medication kicked in to help ease the pain, he stopped speaking.

Carole and I arrived at the Charlotte airport Friday morning, grabbed our bags, caught a cab and headed to my office to pick up the car.  My Sister called me five minutes into the cab ride and said Dad had passed.

For some reason, I just felt like Alaska was calling my name.  Now that Dad was gone, my daughter was in her second year at Carolina (that's USC people - GO GAMECOCKS!) it just seemed like the time to see if there were any options in Alaska.  I clicked off of Face book and typed Jobs in Anchorage into Google Search.  The first job that popped up matched my qualifications to a tee so I applied.  To one job posting. 

That's how it started.  And here I am...MOVING TO ALASKA!  Yooohooo!  Can you tell this soon to be 50 year old female South Carolina transplant is excited?