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?