Only in Alaska

I never realized that living in Alaska there is only certain things you can find here that you couldn't find or get in the lower 48. For one thing there's food here that isn't normally serve in the lower 48 and that is reindeer sausage, caribou, and moose. I've tried all 3 and its not that bad. Another one is TV I hate they they can still advertise restaurants and stores that we don't have here. For instance I hate seeing the Olive Garden commercials cause they will never have one in Alaska. Oh yeah and you know how all fast food places advertise the dollar menu, well since everything here is a little more expensive there is no such thing as the dollar menu, it's the 1.50 menu.

This first picture is a shot of the race know as Running of the Reindeer, and yup it's just like running with the bulls in Spain but with reindeer in Alaska. They started the event I believe in 08 and it's been a hit every since. The reindeer are not as wild as the bulls are but I would still be sacred as hell to get pinned with one of those antlers.

So we have the highest gas prices in the nation, which is funny since we have a gas pipe line on the north slope. So why is it we have to pay more than everyone else, and I'm not talking about a few cents difference. I'm talking like almost a 50 cent difference it's nuts!
Usually people or debris in the road are cause of traffic jams. Here moose are the cause of alot of traffic build up/ accidents in the summer and winter time. They are everywhere in the summer time, downtown on the highways, side streets, bike trails, and eating leaves off your trees in your yard. We even have a big population of moose on base. We can't even use salt on the roads in the winter time because moose will come out of the woods and start licking the salt.

Good Bye's

So here we go again saying good bye to yet more good friends. It's hard being in the Air Force and having a constant rotation of friends coming and going. Tonight we are saying good bye to Roxy, Tim and Scarlet Coble. They had a mexican theme party and everyone brought a mexican theme dish. We brought or actually bought 15 orders of cinnamon twist from Taco Bell which everyone seemed to like, especially the kids. Here are some pictures from the party tonight. Good Bye my fellow red head you will be missed. Take care and be easy on those little Airman, who's young minds you will be shaping at tech school.

Thomasina getting attacked by a dead bird

Around Town

Friday's are so hard for me to stay awake sometimes. Working the night shift all week, I try to stay awake all day Friday so I can at least be on the same sleeping schedule as my husband on the weekends. So lucky for me it was such a gorgeous day today that I drove around town. Not only to try to stay awake but to take some pictures and be able to remind myself that even tho I dislike winter and cold, that with the suffering brings beauty :) We don't get very many sunny days here in the Anchorage bowl and even though it was 12 degrees today, -1 while I was work last night. It's nice to get out and finally see some sun and get some vitamin D.

Looking at Downtown Anchorage from the Coastal Trail park
I think my favorite thing to take pictures of here in Alaska is during the winter time when the trees are covered in frost, usually on super cold days you find every tree looks like this, sometimes on the heavier ice fog days the trees are so heavy with frost they lean over so far some of them break in half or start losing a lot of their branches.

Cross Country Skiing

I love where we live right now, cause right across the street is not only the Sullivan Arena. But access to a cross country ski trail. Today was my second time, and I have to say I approved a lot from last time, not only did I avoid a head on collision with other skiers. But I fell only twice today :) FYI really good workout.

This picture is a reenactment of my husband falling, to show that even he can once in awhile fall while cross country skiing, granted right before I took this pic I fell twice in a row. Not my most graceful moment.

Me in front of our apartment getting ready to walk to the trail

Some of Our favorite places to dine

So it's been awhile since I've posted anything, been so busy with work. Jake just started Airman Leadership School, and I've started working the night shift. Luckily we have a 3 day weekend to go out and take some pics around anchorage.

We have never tried Middle Way Cafe for breakfast before, but we got up so early today that we decided to go check it out., And I'm glad we did breakfast was awsome, plus they had a lot of new artwork up on the walls. The restaurant every few months will feature new local artist and you can even buy the paintings/pictures right off the walls.

Went to Moose's Tooth Pizza last weekend. I think its the best pizza I've had anywhere. Plus they brew their own beer, which is pretty tasty. Jake holding up our pizza and beer :)

Hockey, Great food and friends couldn't ask for a better night

Humpy's is a great place for beer and food, and it's crazy popular in Anchorage. It reminds me of a college hangout bar but without all the beer chugging. Also the food is awsome me and the hubby shared a huge plate of nachos. I don't think you can ever have a bad meal their.

So our beloved Ace's who were in the championship tournament last year, are in last place this year. They either traded most of the valuable veteran players, or they all went to the ACHL or NHL. So this year the team is full of rookies and a new coach, and nothing seems to be coming together for them. Plus if they have a crappy game they don't even make up for it by fighting. The only fun part now about the games is heckling the opposing team from the glass and booing the refs. So here is the picture from last night of my husband basically pouncing on me during the kissing cam in the second period, Our friends talked the camera guy into putting us on it. My lip was so sore, but he got a good laugh from the crowd and our friends, even the camera guy said i got violated.

New Year's Eve Downtown Anchorage AK

This is the beginning of ending our time in Alaska with only 6 months to go, and begining or 4 years in Misawa Japan. Me and my husband have been living in Anchorage for almost 4 years now, and we wanted to start creating a timeline of all of our travels. We met in Alaska at Elmendorf AFB and were married in August of 08. So far we have made it around the pacific, from being deployed to Guam, stationed in Alaska, and now going to be stationed in Japan. We are very excited to be living in a different country and I'm even more excited to share this experience with my husband. The last 3 1/2 years in Alaska have been interesting, with super cold temps and long long winters, from moose creating traffic jams and awsome 24 hour days in the summer. But we still have many things to do and see before we leave. This picture is the Fire and Ice show down town on New Year's Eve, there were actually fire dancers wearing nothing but grass skirts in single digit temps...crazy huh, we called it a quick night, cause it was so cold and couldn't walk downtown any longer. I'm a wuss when it comes to the cold