B&B Culture

Today was a busy day. I started off by doing a little to get the B&B going - just random touches around the house. There were christmas lights on the house from some people that stay here in the winter to help Frenchy out. After some deliberation the consensus was that they were tacky to leave up, especially since it's light out most of the time here. While Frenchy was out teaching I started to take them down. What a project. This house was WIRED. Not only were there about a million lights up, but they did a shoddy job putting them up. They were stapled right to the house, which is standard, but some were so tightly stapled that they actually cut through the rubber sheath on the lights, exposing the internal wires. Some of the extension cords had staples piercing right through the wires! The sheer number of lights coupled with the multiple exposed wires was such a fire hazard. Stupid people.

We also went over to another B&B that's closing up shop to pick up some stuff they were getting rid of. Mattresses, a fridge and some other odds and ends. This couple was just so nice. They had a beautiful place perched up on a hill with a great view over the coast, which features mountains, like every view here. They were quite an interesting pair. The husband was a retired chemistry teacher who plays 4 instruments. He told me all about how I can find places to look after for a living allover the world, which is what they'll be doing for a bit once they finish selling their house. The wife was this cute little woman that was really artistically inclined. It seemed like she did everything - sort of like a Martha Stewart, but more on the artsy side. They had sixteen grandchildren. Fourteen of them were from ONE SON! Half were his, half were adopted. As we looked over the pictures she joked, "it's like the united nations!" because the kids were from allover the world.

I love the way the B&B community is so tightly knit. They're a little family. Frenchy is supposed to go to some sort of meet and greet for B&B owners in Anchorage. I'm pretty sure I'm going. She said it's all about networking so she'd probably give me a stack of business cards and send me chatting. Sometimes I can be reserved in new situations, but if these other owners are anything like the ones I've met so far, I'll be golden. I suppose it's to the benefit of a B&B owner to be a welcoming personality. I'll have to work on being a welcoming individual for when I'm the lone hostess at the cabins in Sterling! Sometimes I can have a bit of a shell, but I'm thinking in this setting I'll do just fine and be able to toss the shell aside.

Oh, by the way! Turns out things are open later here in the summer when it's light out longer! Frenchy happened to mention something about it, which I was happy to hear because I meant to ask her about it anyway. They actually start the school year earlier, too, so that the kids aren't in school when it's light out really late because they find the kids are zombies then from being up late. As Frenchy said, people here live for the summer, so why not let them have it? The only thing that could make such a dark and snowy winter worthwhile is a beautiful light and bring summer, I guess. Some people get the best of both worlds and are seasonal residents - the ones that stick around are the true Alaskans. A breed of their own.

This is a very hairy place, but I'll write about that tomorrow. It deserves its own entry.

Moose in the City!

Today I got stuck waiting for a moose to cross the road. . . just outside of downtown. I was still in Anchorage, but I was outside of the very heart of the city. Silly moose.

Midnight Sun

I've been really tired tonight because I'm in need of some sleep but I've been trying to keep myself awake for a while longer so I don't go to bed too early and wake up ridiculously early. I've been fighting off my tiredness like a champ, that is until I realized it's actually 10:30 pm here (2:30am EST), not 5pm like it looks outside. This is going to take some getting used to. I'm going to go take a picture to post. Okay, I went out and took a picture - it was taken at about 11pm:I put more pictures in an album, the link is at the top right of this page titled midnight sun.

I wonder if businesses stay open later here. I know 7 O'Clock is 7 O'Clock (or whatever time stuff closes) no matter how light it is out, but if it's light out then people will be more likely to be out and about, right? I know bars can be open until 5am here, but something like a coffee shop or a grocery store is a different deal. I wonder if the light makes it more likely for a business that would normally close at 7 to stay open late. It sure sounds like it's still bumpin' outside and it's almost midnight here.

My Hair

Of course it deserves its own post. It's really dry here so my hair has been behaving. You know, as much as my hair ever behaves. Just thought I'd let everyone know.

Also, in the spirit of my idiocy, I thought I'd post this picture I forgot to post before. I tried to take a picture of myself using the timer and I tried to count in my head and time it so I'd be jumping when it snapped. Don't ask. I didn't succeed, but this is what I ended up with:

Frenchy at Last!

I finally got to meet Frenchy. I had spoken to her on the phone and through email for a while, but that doesn't give you a true picture of a person. She is even better than I thought she'd be, which is a nice surprise. I instantly felt comfortable with her because she's a really warm and welcoming personality. Her real name is Karen French, but everyone calls her Frenchy. At first I was surprised because I've never heard of anybody actually being called that, but after meeting her, the name really fits.

I'll tell you a little bit about her so you have some sort of picture of her. She's the type that seems to have done everything and been everywhere. She has a PhD, so she's Dr. Frenchy to you. She is originally from upstate New York, went to school in California then she went to Alaska and has been a resident since. She's a published children's author in a few languages. She is a retired Elementary School science teacher, but still helps out at the school when they need a Special Ed teacher because she's worked with Autistic children in the past. She owns a B&B in Anchorage and vacation rental cabins on the Kenai Peninsula, which she started doing sort of on a whim and it stuck. She also travels quite a bit to lots of random destinations. She seems to have a friend for every situation, probably because of her welcoming personality.

So, we met last night and talked for a little while. It seems this thing will work out well. I'll be staying up in Anchorage for I'm not sure how long helping her get the B&B up and running and exploring a bit and then I'll be headed down to the cabins. I'm excited for the drive down there, she says it's the most beautiful drive in America. The drive I've just been on is the prettiest drive I've ever been on and would be hard to top, but I trust what she says is true considering all of the places she's been.

Anchorage people and places

So yesterday was another fun filled day in Anchorage. I went downtown and did a little gift shopping. There is gift shop after gift shop which really serves to remind you how much the population must swell with tourists in the summer. This is the very beginning, so I'm sure I'll be surprised to see what it's like in mid-summer when everything is in full swing.

I got some good stuff for people and had a good time looking for stuff. My favorite items are the earrings I got for Leah. I usually get her earrings for gifts, but only if I find a pair I really like. I looked in every gift shop between Dawson Creek and here for a pair that was nice and really representative of where I was. I had a really hard time doing that! Everything was ugly! I wanted to get her earrings that she'd actually wear and I don't see Leah wearing Moose on her ears anytime soon. Yesterday I came across the perfect pairs. I got two because I couldn't decide. One pair is a neat series of little off-white beads sort of in a dangling cluster and what's cool about them is that they're made out of prehistoric mastodon tusk. The others are made of prehistoric walrus tusk and are just a single piece dangling. Both were found in Alaska, probably in some sort of archaeological dig investigating the ancient peoples. So, being the nerd I am, I'm really excited about the earrings. I might have to borrow them when I finally get my ears pierced.

I did a lot of driving around yesterday just checking things out. I've had some trouble getting my bearings on these roads because they're mostly one way and they also sometimes take a 90 degree turn off of the general grid setup so it gets confusing that you could be going north on a road and then be on the same road going east. It's fine when I'm driving, but when I have to pull out of a parking lot and go the one way I can go, I never know which part of a road I'm on, the one facing east or the one facing north. wow, I hope nobody actually reads that last paragraph.

So, in my meandering I came across a park on the ocean. I've been looking for one to look out across the water at the mountains so I was glad to find it. I was taking some pictures and one of the ones I snapped had some birds flying somewhere in the foreground. . . or so I thought. I looked up and away from the camera and noticed the birds were acting awfully funny and I realized that I was looking at the air force doing drills. Some sort of fighter jets. It was actually neat to watch - they may have been doing touch and go drills because I kept seeing them loop around in a big circle and land. I'd see three do the loop in a spread out line, land and then there would be no planes in the sky and then minutes later three more would appear out of nowhere and there were still 2-4 more other planes that weren't landing at all, they were flying much further out and doing turns etc, so I really couldn't tell you how many planes were out and about at a time. When they'd loop around to come in for a landing they'd turn so you could see almost the full wingspan. I tried so hard to get a picture of one like that with the mountains in the background. They were far enough away that I didn't have trouble following their speed, but they were also in the digital zoom zone, which is tough. following an object in the sky with digital zoom is NOT easy. Every little shake of your hand throws you miles off course. Luckily they were doing the drills over and over, so I had time to get used to where they'd be and when, so I did get a few okay pictures. There were actually a lot of other people sitting in their cars at the park looking over the water, possibly watching the same thing I was.

After then planes I went for some dinner. I went to a Vietnamese place and got ginger chicken and boy was it good. I'm thinking I'd better get my ethnic food fill while I'm in Anchorage because they probably won't have much variety down in Sterling. It's funny that Sterling is now DOWN to me. It's been UP there for so long. I can't believe how far north I am. Surprisingly it isn't too cold. I'd compare it to a very early spring at home. Where you could have temperatures anywhere from 35 to 65 during the day.

It's funny how I seem to find home connections all the time. I saw this little old woman who must have been 90 who had patches all over her jacket from places she'd been. As I walked by her I happened to notice on her shoulder facing me was a Patch from Salem, MA. I said "hey, that's where I'm from!" We talked for a minute about New England and all of the history there and about how driving around is a pain. She said she was trying to get to Bunker Hill and they just kept going in circle after circle. I told her she wasn't missing much. What I really wanted to tell her is that she was driving in circles around Beacon Hill and that Bunker Hill is actually in Charlestown.

Another fun one was a narcissistic liar I met at a gas station. He saw my license place and asked where in Mass Whoa-burn is. My car is from a dealership in Woburn, so it says it on the plate bracket. I guess his sister lives in Easthampton or something like that. In our 5 minute conversation he told me he's a doctor starting a new medical center in Anchorage, he speaks 15 languages, he owns a Lincoln but would rather ride his bike and he hangs out at gas stations because he likes meeting people, etc. Basically I didn't believe anything he said for a second, but he was entertaining so I just let him think I believed him. He was knowledgeable in several subjects. He was an intelligent guy, so who knows, maybe he was a whacked doctor. You never can tell. I should have asked him what field of Medicine he's in to try to separate fact from fiction. I've got a pretty solid medical knowledge base for an uneducated buffoon, so I probably could have tripped him up if he was lying.

He asked me what I do for a living and I told him I quit my job and just moved here yesterday, so nothing. He insisted on knowing my field of expertise. I wanted to tell him I'm a professional dabbler, but I just told him I did computer stuff so I wouldn't have to give any sort of further explanation. He looked up and to the right in thought and said, "hmm, computers. . ." then turned back to me and said, "when we get this medical center started, you've got yourself a job. Just ask for Dr. Donaldson and you've got a job." Fabulous! I found my calling - working in a pathological liar's fairytale. I told him I actually wouldn't be in Anchorage, I'd be on the Kenai, so thanks, but no thanks. He instantly told me I should go to Cordova instead because Anchorage is like Russia, and Cordova is like Seattle. Then he said, "Russia is bleak. I speak Russian, you know?"

He was a piece of work, but it was interesting.

I added some more pictures - the album is titled Anchorage1. I uploaded them full size this time so that the detail will be better on the air force jet pictures. I also added some edited pictures taken from ones you've already seen for detail purposes.

Happy Mother's Day

Look, Ma, I remembered this year!   

Also, I just posted some pictures.  They're in a link to the right under the top section labeled Pictures.  I've only put one album up, but I'll post the pictures from the last few days later.