Ack.... it's been a month!

Can't believe it's been a month since I blogged and we are on our eighth month in Alaska!  We've been doing so much it seems so much longer.

Still alive, busy, and happy!

We are both on our second jobs.  We bought Stevie.  We had our first visitor last month and my Mom will be visiting in August.  We survived a winter and are gearing up for another winter.  Joe was told by someone at a store "winter is coming"!  We have actively been downsizing to get ready for future endeavors.   In August we will keep up the downsizing and in September we will be in full PURGE mode.  

We signed a lease for a studio place we found on AirB&B. We are going from a two bedroom apartment condo to one big living area with bathroom!  Oh, and there is NO T.V. in the studio. Are we crazy?!  Nah....our goal is to be living out of a van or truck camper and this will be a good transition step for us. Oh... the AirB&B is furnished so by 1 Oct all of our furniture will be sold/donated/or trashed!  We were able to meet are AirB&B "landlord" and see the property, or as he said do a "site visit".  The place is on his property and the studio is an addition to his house which is also small.  Nice yard and a fire pit that will come in handy in the winter months.  It's in an established neighborhood so it seemed quiet and chill.  We will be walking distance to some decent trails and closer to all the things to do and see in downtown.  No more visitors though LOL  If we get guest they are on their own for accommodations! 

Joe and I are still narrowing down are rig for traveling but we have a good direction. All the blogs/pics/and groups that are out there of people doing what we are planning on doing are awesome to learn from. 

Like I mentioned we had a visitor this last month.  My friend from Utah came up for a week long visit the beginning of July.  We were busy but not too busy :)  We checked out the Highland Games, I took her to Alyeska, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where we saw some bears, took in Seward, and relaxed!

Amanda and I

Highland games.... Love the shag!

Alaska!

Silly in Seward!

Unfortunately since my last post we have not taken Stevie out.  We hope to change that in August and take a little vacation out and show my Mom as much of Alaska while she is here.

Trusty Stevie

New job, updated animal sitings, random outings

Two weeks down at a new job and so far I am feeling that this has been a good employment move for me.  The morale/vibe of the place is good and the pace not a regular crisis mode.  I got an office with a view which was a nice surprise.  I'm redoing my name tag.  I'm not sure why some things are difficult to make neat but it is what it is.  

My view :) I LOVE all the natural light I'm getting right now.

I'm fixing this to make it neater, sorry Army NCO this just isn't cutting it for me!

This coming week I'll take over the anger management group and then hopefully have my schedule updated in the system so I can start being scheduled with individuals.  Things are moving at a steady forward pace which as been a nice change from the last job.

After my first work week, we took Stevie to Seward for the Mermaid festival.  We were both fighting a head cold but we decided that since we had Stevie, she is warm and we can be comfortable, that we'd still make a go of it.  I'm glad we did.  It was rainy and overcast the whole time but it was a nice get away.  Relaxing and beautiful.  We stayed right on the water!  We saw bald eagles and some sea lions playing in the water while we had our morning coffee.  

Our view from our camping spot once we pulled in to Seward AK

rainy weather doesn't stop the annual Mermaid Festival in Seward!

The Mermaid Festival was a small venue but it was good, local vendors and some local music!  Since we were both under the weather we brought soup for our dinners ;) With me working it was up to Joe to gather most of the things for Stevie.  When I got off of work I asked if he had certain things, packed up my clothing etc, and we were off.  I found out once we got there and it was time for dinner that Joe does not get to pack up kitchen stuff anymore.  We were missing some key items, like more than one spoon!  As usual we adapted and had a good time.

He forgot the spoons, he got the cooking spoon!

We are currently finishing up a three day Memorial Day weekend.  We kept it low key but decided to drive up to Talkeetna to check out the town.  We went past it on the train in the winter and thought it looked cute and fun.  We were right!  It's a small town and touristy.  The place was busy and everyone was walking around, it takes about 10 minutes to walk the town!  The cruise ships have started coming to Alaska and some of them dock in Whittier.  There was a group of older ladies that were visiting from Albany NY and took the train to Talkeetna.  They were having a good time and one of them was getting ready to sign up for a helicopter ride around Denali!  It was a relaxing sunny day.

on the banks of the Susitna River... background is Denali!

air strip.... they are every where here in Alaska!

On the way home we stopped at Lynne Lake because a friend of ours was helping his folks clear out some lake front land.  It turned into an impromptu canoe ride which we did not complain about!  Joe went back the next day to help clear some more land while I went on a little hike with a friend.  

Random canoe ride!

Have I mentioned how beautiful it is around here!

It is so beautiful here, it's so hard to capture in pictures but we try.  The nature here is amazing.  A few days last week I would pass by a moose with her two calves.  Today we were driving home and there was a moose having her dinner on the side of the road!  So far we have not seen or come across any bear but we have our bear spray that we take with us when we are out and about ;)  At the end of this blog I added our animal siting updates....it's fun but we are getting to the "lost count" range with some of them.

When we are not out and about we enjoy our lazy time at home with Tux the Judger.  We have a wonderful bay window that looks out towards the mountains so we always have a great view, once we look over the roof tops!

Animal sitings update:

Buffalo: a big herd

Caribou: 9 alive and 1 carcass
Deer: 5

Dall Sheep: lost count

Rabbit: 1

Prairie Dog: 1

Tundra Swan: lost count
Moose: lost count
Bald Eagle: lost count
Porcupine: 1
Sea Lions: 4

Rando: Stevie, death hike, glaciers, and research.

I've had a collection of photos on my desk top thinking that I have been meaning to use in a blog post...so here we are.
Since going to Homer with Stevie we haven't taken her back out, but we have a plan to in away a week for a Mermaid Festival in Seward AK :)
During our first outing, our shake down, with Stevie there are some things that we figured out:
Although a spot looks level, it probably isn't!

Joe's awesome make shift leveling job!

If it's going to fall over in transit and spill everywhere, it will. On the way home our bottle of olive oil spilled.  There are worse things to spill, so we are grateful for the nice smell in Stevie.  We did manage to get it all cleaned up, just kicked ourselves for wasting the expensive stuff :(
We did a pretty decent job at keeping our packing down to a minimum with not a whole lot of extra stuff, but we did realize that some other things would have been useful.

1 for food, 1 for kitchen stuff... this was just for 2 nights/3 days

We are traveling with a notebook so we can write everything down for our next travels!  It is helpful to plan meals for the weekend and think about making the meal and pack along those lines :). 
Another thing we found out traveling early in the season is that a lot of dump stations were not open and we had to figure out where to get potable water.  

Thanks Sanidumps.com!!!

Sanidumps.com is a great website/tool that will let you know where the dumps/water is at in your area, what they provide, when they are open, and if there is a cost!
Overall... a good first outing with Stevie!  We need to get a new mattress which is a pain but will probably throw a topper on for now and hope for the best :)

As was noted in the previous post, both Joe and I are "in-between jobs".  He's working on his last two classes for he bachelor's degree and as for me, I'm trying not to spend money on things I don't need just because I'm bored.  One thing about Alaska is there is always a hike to do near by!  There is no excuse not to get out and enjoy the beauty of this state!  I have a book of local hikes and the app AllTrails, which is awesome!  
One day we decided to hike Bird Ridge.  We've past it numerous times and I've noticed the sign for it.  It's right across from Turnagin Arm in the Chugach State park.  It's an out and back hike, 4.6 miles, with 3218 ft of elevation gain!  We've done other "hard" trails so we didn't think about this one too much.  We just packed up our packs, grabbed our hiking sticks (life savers), and headed out!

pay the $ people!

I've noticed that a majority of "locals" don't pay the $5 that most of the hiking tails ask for.  It's FIVE DOLLARS and it keeps the trails nice and the trail heads clean.  Please give or pay for an annual ticket!  

The views were amazing! It's always a tad easier going up!

We took a decent amount of breath breaks going up and to appreciate the scenery.  We see a lot of folks just flying up trails but we like to stop and look around.  It's so quiet at times and we saw a good amount of bald eagles doing their thing!  So much amazing beauty in our back yard!

We might have been half way up!

tide is going out...

Getting above the tree line we came across this bench.  We thought about taking our snack and a rest here but it was windy.  Plus we wanted to get to the top and then rest so we took a breather and moved on.  What is so amazing is that someone carried that big slab up there?!  I was worn out with just a small pack of essentials!

Be awesome!

One thing about this hike is that there is multiple false ridges and it does kill one's motivation after walking straight up!  We found a place to hunker down to avoid the wind, enjoyed the scenery while having a snack and water, then went back down.

our break spot before going back down

hiking sticks, don't leave home without them

I took no pictures going down due my knees were screaming at me!  My body is not use to that type of extended movement, straight up and straight down.  Whenever I found a some what level path my knees were praising the lord!  We both need to strengthen our legs for this type of hike before doing it again.  We were both proud of ourselves for doing it and getting as far as we did but we were exhausted!

After the Bird Ridge hike we took a small time out from hiking.  Yesterday we drove to Whittier.  I remember going there with my guard unit back in 2010 but it was Joe's first time and it's just about an hour drive.  We stopped at the Portage Glacier.  In 2010 you could see it from the road but now you have to take a boat :(

Glacier is back there...

One thing that is fun about going to Whittier is the tunnel.  It's a one late train tunnel that you drive through.  It's about 2.5 miles long.  Whittier itself is a small port town and in my view could make for a great setting for a suspense slasher film!  We drove around, took some pictures, and headed home.  

a lot of wooded wet areas for a killer to hang out in 

only two, maybe three, ways in...the one way train tunnel, boats, and a small prop plane or helicopter

The Buckner Building!

waiting to go through the tunnel to leave Whittier

We've been keeping busy but not too busy :P. This is my last free week before starting a new job which is always a wee bit nerve wracking.  
Joe and I are amazed daily of the beauty and how much nature we see around here.  Just driving around we see moose and bald eagles regularly.  The bears are waking up so from the stories I hear, we will be seeing them on hikes.  We have bear spray and we are trying to be smart about what we are doing and where we are at.

So here we are... I'll be back being an "adult" before I know it but we will keep on getting out and enjoying what this state has to offer!