Alaska State Fair & Mountains

We ate our way through the Alaska State Fair on Saturday! The food was delicious! 

 

Fried Dough

 Nachos

 Bison Burger

 Alaska Brewed

 Delicious White Chocolate Dipped Ice cream bar (my favorite food of the night)

We didn't find any caribou hot dogs- very disappointing!

We did however find some giant vegetables. What's a fair without farm animals and veggies! 

 Giant cabbage competition

My favorite part of the fair was the Our Body exhibit with actual human bodies and body parts. So interesting! It was worth the price of admission alone.  

Today we went to Gravity Hill, one section of road in Anchorage where you put your car in neutral and then your car is pulled up a hill. The car gradually picks up speed. Pretty cool! 

We also went for a short hike. 

 The mountain in the background is Flattop- the one we climbed last weekend!

Hope everyone had a wonderful relaxing weekend!
xoxox

Stuffed Peppers

Happy Monday!

Look what I came home to today.....

Stuffed peppers--yummmm! Such a nice way to end a long day! What a guy : )

Flattop Peak--We did ittt!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Here's a recap of ours!

We enjoyed our first local meal out Friday, at a very popular brewery!

 We did some relaxing and car shopping (I'm on the hunt for a new car!), and today we did Flattop! 



Flattop was recommended to me by several people. It's a 3 portion hike that overlooks Anchorage. We made it to the top of the 2nd level and decided to go for the peak! I thought I had climbed a mountain before, but this was REALLY climbing a mountain. The top was basically rock climbing with no ropes. It was the most challenging hike I've ever done, but it was amazing!!!

 There WAS snow!

 Phase 2 of the climb!

 Phase 3! All rocks, straight up!

Made it!! The wind was so strong I couldn't stay standing straight up! It was crazyyyy! Felt so good to make it to the top!!

Alaska

I'm starting to learn more about things that are special to Alaska. There are so many! Here are a few...

They have an ice rink in the mall.

They have drive thru Chinese restaurants.

They have "Eskimo Ice Cream". The far out villages only receive non-perishable food, so they make their own "ice cream". It is made of Crisco, sugar and berries...all mixed together and then sometimes frozen or just eaten at room temperature. I almost had a heart attack when this was explained to me. Isn't that crazy--Crisco?!

They eat seal oil. Also in the villages, seal oil is used in place of typical vegetable or olive oil. It is made out of seal blubber and from what I've been told, it tastes pretty bad!

At fairs they sell food like fried halibut, reindeer dogs and caribou sausage. We'll be going to the Alaska State Fair at the end of the month, so I'm sure there will be more exciting foods to share!

Here's a picture from one of our walks this weekend. We visited earthquake park, which is the area most devastated by the earthquake of 1964 which caused catastrophic damage to Anchorage. We had our first view of the inlet from the park- Turnagain Arm!

Hope you are all having a great week!
Already missing everyone!
xoxoox

New!

New street:

New home:

 View from our top deck-- mountains between buildings : )

Amazing Taku Campbell Park-a very short walking distance from our apartment at the end of our street..with a walking loop around the water and tons of benches and picnic tables:

 

Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

xoxox

Getting Settled!

Hi all! Hope everyone is having a great week!

I haven't gotten around to taking any pictures these last couple days, because I've been busy/consumed with unpacking and trying to get settled into the new apartment! I promise I will take some pictures by the weekend though! 

I had my first day of work today, which went great! My job is at an outpatient speech and hearing clinic here in Anchorage. I'll be working with kids from the ages of 2 up to 18. I think it's going to be a perfect fit! I wanted to share one quick story with you all...

One unique thing about clinics/private practices in Alaska (in comparison to CT) is that insurance coverage for therapy in the clinic setting is pretty good, therefore a large number of people who desire services are able to receive them and afford them with their insurance coverage. My caseload is very diverse in all aspects (economical status, culture, race, education level, etc). I saw one patient today who had traveled to the clinic for therapy from a northern village. For this particular 18 year old boy, this means traveling 500 miles, taking an airplane (since that's the only way out of the village), and renting a hotel in Anchorage for a night with his mother, in order to attend therapy for 2 consecutive days. He has been doing this every couple months for the last 2 years. He lives in a village (in the "bush") that has less than 100 people. He has lived in the village his whole life. He attended a one room school house with less than 20 kids, throughout all of his years of schooling, which needless to say, does not offer any specialized services. What a different world! I was so interested to learn about his life and hear about his culture. It is completely new to me, but I find it fascinating and am so eager to learn about a culture that is so different from anything I have been exposed to before!

Enjoy the rest of your week!
Love you all! xoxo
 

Day 6 & 7 Yukon to Anchorage!!

The rest of the Yukon continued to be amazing! As we were leaving the town we stayed in, Watson Lake, they had this "Sign Forest". It was created for military men who were homesick. It contains rows and rows of signs from around the world. So cool!

The mountains were of course beautiful for the rest of the ride! Tree covered, snow capped, rocky, redish...we saw it all!

 On Sunday night we drove over the border and made it to ALASKA!! 

 Then we drove for a few more hours and camped for the night. It was such a great feeling to finally be sleeping in Alaska! We were so eager to make it to Anchorage, that after sleeping for a few hours we woke up and drove the remaining couple hours. We made it to Anchorage in the morning and love our new place!! (pictures to come) It was so nice to have dinner in our new apartment, to sit on our deck and see the mountains, and to sleep in my bed!

Day 4 & 5 Saskatchewan to Yukon

We made it to Yukon and have been traveling on the Alaska Highway for the last day and a half! What an amazing, beautiful last two days of traveling we have had!

Here's what we've been up to.....

We've been surrounded by endless mountains. It is literally unreal and words and pictures do not come close to explaining the beauty! Completely breathtaking! They are unlike any mountains I've seen before. I wish you all could be here to experience it!

We slept on the side of the Alaska Highway!

We buy gas at little stores in the middle of the mountains.

We've seen so many different types of wildlife--right next to us and in front of us while driving! Insane! We've seen a black bear, several moose (several young moose, who are adorable), mountain sheep and goats, herds of bison (they're HUGE), and elk....so crazy!! I wasn't able to take pictures of most of the animals because I was driving when we saw them!

                                                                            (bison)
The driving is intense. Up, down and around mountains, with all different types of animals in the road! I literally feel like a race car driver.

We're hoping to make it over the border into Alaska tomorrow for our last night on the road...and then make it to Anchorage on Monday!!!

**Still no cell phone. Once we're in Anchorage I'll get a replacement!

Hope everything is GREAT with you all!
xoxox