Anchored down in Anchorage

WOW! I made it. I swear it feels like just yesterday that my boss, Duffy, called me and told me I got the job. I remember thinking May was so far away! I've been in Anchorage for a day now and I leave for Valdez tomorrow evening. I'm laying in the sunroom at the Anchorage Guesthouse resting my knees. What a beautiful day it has been! Well I'll go ahead and give a little recap of my past shinanigans. Becky dropped me off at the airport Saturday morning. What a trooper! She was out celebrating her graduation and was still willing to take me to the airport at 7am. :) Thanks Becky! I think I hugged the girl 50 times before I let her leave me. Got my luggage on the plane and I was ready. I sat next to an older couple on their way to see his 98 year old mother for Mother's Day! Now that's a trooper, haha. As we got to talking, I was quickly informed that he had been on a sea kayaking trip once as well! What a coincidence! :P He was messing with me and made sure I knew that I better not kill anyone because he thought he was going to die on the beginning of his trip. They were very intrigued in what I was doing but the woman couldn't quite figure out why I would want to sleep in a tent for four months. Ha. I'm sure some of you are thinking the same. Then, in front of me was a guy my age reading a guidebook of some kind and wearing a Patagonia t-shirt. I knew he was off to do something cool, I was just too involved in my discussions with the couple to get a chance to ask. We landed in Seattle and flew over the mountains. It was beautiful and reminded me of my NOLS trip. I love Seattle. Memories rushed into my head and I wished I was able to get off the plane and stay for a day or two since I was there already. I've gotta figure out how to do that next time. Quickly changed terminals and I was on the plane to Anchorage. AHH! Sat next to a family and a guy who was in the window seat. He refused to open the window until the last 30 minutes. I was like it's not like we're flying to Iowa or anything. We're going to ALASKA! If you could open the window so I can see the epic-ness... that would be awesome. He opened it a little for me and then when he had his eyes closed I reached over and lifted it up a bit more... two times. Next thing I knew when I turned back around from looking on the other side of the plane he had completely shut the window. I felt like a bad dog. When he finally did open the window... this is what I saw.

I cannot tell you how beautiful it was because words can't do it justice. This picture is definitely not even close to worth a thousand words from what my eyes saw. Hopefully one day some of you will be able to witness this. That's when I realized... It's really happening. I'm actually here!

I got off the plane, got my bags and headed for the information desk to check and see if there was a bus map. I told the woman at the counter that I was looking to get onto bus #6. I then proceeded to find out only bus #7 comes to the airport. Well crap, I guess I won't follow the hostel directions anymore. I walked out to the bus stop and there was the guy who had sat in front of me on the way to Seattle. He and his friend must've had 7 backpacking bags of gear. I told them I felt like I was stalking them and they told me it was because I was. Naturally :) So we exchanged our stories and they took a picture of me and my "excited to be in Alaska" face and I did them as well. They were on their way to climb Moose's Tooth, a really awesome climb near Denali. If you're interested you should Google it. It's awesome. They both live in Crested Butte and are just a year or so older than me. We had alot in common and they also had no idea where they were going... we were gonna get along JUST great. Tried hopping on the first bus but it left without us before we could even put our bags on... what a jerk. Next time, we were ready. Exchanged e-mails on the bus and parted ways. I got dropped off in the general vicinity of where I was going thanks to the bus driver. Stood around there for a while trying to figure out which in the hell direction I was supposed to walk from here and started walking. Finally I made it to the guest house.

Later on I decided to go to the Bear Tooth, named for the climb next to the Moose's Tooth. My boss and friends who live in the AK told me those were the faves in Anchorage. They brew their own beer and I was in definite need of one. But there was something missing... someone to share my beer with! I picked up my iPhone and e-mailed Chris and Andy telling them my location and that they should come get a beer and share my chips and salsa. Little did I know the shinanigans that would follow... let's just say it was an AWESOME first night in Anchorage. I even have a bruise on my head and scrape under my eye to remember it by. Oh did I mention margaritas were involved. Thank GOD the Mexicans made it all the way up to AK.

The shinanigans do not need to be explained in full detail but involved were gay bars, karaoke, crazy natives, darts, shuffleboard, big white work vans, and a nice old lady who let us borrow her darts and then proceeded to steal my wallet. She decided she didn't want to do that actually so she gave it back to the bar tender, said sorry and left. Nice... crazy natives. How awesome was it that the sun didn't go down till about 11PM. AWESOME. You can party all night here! This summer is going to ROCK! Who needs sleep?! ;)

Walked my butt back to the hostel after I parted ways with the mountain climbers. I owe them a beer or 5, by the way. Woke up, went to REI and the Alaska Mountaineering & Hiking shop, grabbed a coffee and some freshly squeezed juice and made sure to stop back by the bar to retrieve my debit card.. :) I spent all day walking around downtown Anchorage. It was a beautiful day. All the locals kept making sure I knew how nice it was that the sun was out. They said they LOVE to soak it up! And let me tell you... everywhere I turned there was some one just laying on the ground literally soaking it up. I made sure to take some pictures.

Well it's off to Valdez tomorrow... The final destination. Much love to you children. I'll talk to you next time.

(Anchorage in the background)