Life in Alaska

My apologies for the prolonged blog hiatus. It seems there is an endless amount of busy-work to take care of when you move 5,000 miles away (changing address, banks, car ins, utilities, etc.). Most days while Heather's plugging away at her new job, I'm just as busy trying to get us set up in the great Northwest.

Anyway, here's a quick update on life in Alaska.

After our road trip of all road trips across two countries in two weeks, we arrived in Anchorage eagerly seeking a new place to reside. We found The Highlands, a "luxury" apartment complex surprisingly very similar to the non-luxury complex we lived in in Asheville. Our second level unit is nice: around 1100 square feet, we have two bedrooms, a big open area for the kitchen, dining and living rooms, a den/nook area, fireplace, two full baths, and our own private staircase inside the door. The ceilings are 9 feet high and the wall corners are rounded to give it that "luxury" feeling. But honestly, I wouldn't call this luxury living. Rent is astronomical (as we expected), but it is almost made up for by our balcony view.

The first pic (see above) was taken from our balcony in the early evening. Mountains, moon and blue sky are a wonderful thing to see from the couch.

Heather's job is going great, and she enjoys the people she's working with. In mid-Dec. she will finish her intern hours and be a fully licensed pharmacist in AK (making her licensed in 2 states!).

The puptons love laying down in front of the fireplace whenever it's on. When they curl up together, cuteness abounds. It's like they create a black hole of cuteness that we get sucked into. Add Heather to the mix and it's an explosion of adorableness!

They also enjoy sporting their cold weather gear when we go on walks.

About a week ago I stepped outside our front door with Dakota for a bathroom break, lifted my head and saw Bullwinkle across the street only a rock's throw away. He was feasting on the tree next to him and just moseying about our complex. It was totally cool! This makes our second moose sighting after seeing them outside Heather's hospital one day after work. Moose are great. They're not afraid of anything because they're as big or bigger than most cars.

We had a great Thanksgiving meal with a huge ham (I cooked it!), but we missed lots of folks from Asheville. That's what we've been up to for the last several weeks. Check back, and I'll try to post more regularly.

Adios!