May 30, 2005

There are never enough hours in the day, but at least things are getting done. The website has had some major updates (there are finally some pictures, Fred). We have our DSL working and we have networked our computers so that we can both do online activities at the same time. It is a nice system and the speed is more than adequate.

This past weekend was the holiday weekend so we layed low, staying out of the way of the locals who seemed to be crawling out of hibernation with their campers and fishing gear. We spent the better part of the weekend organizing things in the apartment. It is still a tight fit in a one bedroom apartment. Since everything fit in the trailer, it seems like everything should easily fit in our apartment, but it is tough to organize and to make things look neat. We are not too concerned, since the apartment is really only a storage and sleeping/eating/cleaning stop for us. It will be interesting to see how tough it will be with visitors. We get to find out in two weeks when Joyce and Jim arrive.

We got our driver’s licenses on Friday. We are official Alaskans now. We had to take a test. We each missed one. We still have to get plates for the car to complete our transformation.

We have continued to try to figure out fishing. Kris now has caught the first fish. We were fishing a small lake in a park only a few miles from our apartment. Kris walked out on some swampy point and was casting a small spinner. She caught a small rainbow trout. I was on the other side of the lake at the time and saw her with a fish. She looked over at me and yelled "now what?" She figured it out on her own, though, actually removing the fish from the hook and releasing it. A local saw her fishing there and waded out in the mud to fish nearby, so she got a few good tips for the future.

A bear was caught a couple blocks from here, Friday. It had apparently been roaming around for a few days before they cornered it right near our insurance agent’s office. It was a nearly mature black bear. They tranquilized it and sent if off to Fairbanks to be part of a hibernation study. The news reported that it will be destroyed at the end of the study in about a year. I found it interesting that they would report that since I know that would stir up trouble in Ohio. It is a different culture up here. A bear that has become comfortable around humans is considered a bad thing and there is no real advantage to relocating a problem animal. The majority of people here are comfortable with that.

Speaking of bears and cultural differences, we bought a gun. We had owned guns in Ohio, but we lived in a rural area and had room for a shooting range in our own yard. The people at the gun store were very helpful. We bought a small Ruger 357 revolver. It is the most powerful small handgun. It is a not a gun you would hunt bears with, but it is reassuring to have a third tier of safety. The first tier is knowledge, awareness, and general avoidance. The second tier is pepper spray. There are those who wouldn’t go out into the wilderness without something more powerful than a 357 and there are those who go out without anything (some without even good knowledge about bears). Attacks are very rare, so it is really about how much safety you want and how much weight you want to carry. There was an attack in Denali last week. A grizzly grabbed a woman by the ankle. A 357 would be useful in that case with the opportunity to shoot at point blank range (of course it would be illegal in the national park). Anyway, we never had to think about these things in Ohio. It is also interesting to note that the signs at the state park near town state that target practice is illegal in the state park but clarifies that it is legal to discharge firearms in defense of life or property.

There are other cultural differences that we have noticed. I had commented in an earlier post about the park rules in Ohio. An example is the use of signs that say to stay on the trail. These things are necessary when there is high usage. In our climb to the top of Flat Top, we noticed that there was an old trail that led to the top. There was actually a fence along the main trail where this old trail forked. There was a gap in the fence and a sign, pointing out the old trail, stating that it was not maintained, and expressing a preference for people to stay on the main trail, but it was clearly not a requirement. The letters to the editor in the paper seem to repeat the sentiment of ultra conservatism in its truest sense, the sense of not letting the government get over-involved. It is easier to see that point of view when the population is smaller and life is simpler.

There is a significant homeless population in Anchorage, at least their signs say they are homeless. We see them at major intersections begging for money. I think I saw a dead person laying on a park bench, with two police officers standing over her radioing for help. The visitor center had a sign urging people not to give these people money as it would only perpetuate the problems, it would only be used to buy drugs or alcohol. These are the cases that give Alaska its reputation for alcoholism and drug abuse. I wonder what they do in the winter.

We took a trip to Eklutna Lake last Thursday. It is a large lake, about 7 miles long and a mile or so wide. It is used as a water source for Anchorage and surrounding communities. We rode our bikes on a trail along side the lake. It was an easy trail, mostly gravel and not too much up and down. Past the lake, the trail goes uphill slowly for about 5 miles, but only gains about 300 feet in elevation. The trail ends near the bottom of Eklutna Glacier. There is a hiking trail that takes you to the glacier, but we didn’t hike far enough to get a good look. It was raining, we had a long ride back and didn’t want to leave our bikes just laying along side the trail. We rode almost 25 miles. It was beautiful scenery. There were two cabins, one way back with a view of the glacier, and two campgrounds that are accessible only by hiking, biking, or ATV’s. It made us think about the possibility of using the mountain bikes as transportation to access the backcountry. We could have never covered that much distance hiking. They do sell trailers to tow behind mountain bikes. It is something we will keep in the back of our minds.

We tried a pizza place that was actually attached to a Vietnamese restaurant. It was run by the same people, so I guess we had Vietnamese pizza. It was OK, but we will keep trying to find our replacement for Augies. We tried another Mexican Restaurant, but I will leave the comments for Kris’ review.

We saw a bunch of firetrucks only about a hundred yards from our apartment when we got back from the restaurant this evening. The news said there was a brush fire in our neighborhood. There is a great deal of concern in the area about brush fires since there is plenty of fuel in the form of spruce trees and fires can spread quickly. We have seen public service announcements about protecting your home from fires. They apparently got it under control since we haven’t even seen any smoke.

We had our second weekly grocery shopping trip and only spent $85. We had overbought the first week so it is looking like the cost difference isn’t going to amount to that much. We still need more data to get a better feel for budgeting purposes.

We visited a few open houses over the weekend to look at condominiums. Our goal is to spend less than $175,000 for two bedrooms, two baths, and a two car garage. It looks like we will be able to meet that goal, but most of the places seemed a little large. Living the last month and a half in guest rooms, tents, and our one bedroom apartment, makes everything look like a lot of work to clean. We will probably meet with our real estate agent sometime soon and get her working on finding us a place. We are in no hurry, but we are now more confident that we can find something nice without busting our budget.

We seem to be getting comfortable here. There is still a sense of being overwhelmed, but we are getting through it and still finding time to get out and play.