Life in Alaska

Moving to Alaska from Georgia was a bit of an adjustment.  I remember getting to Anchorage in the middle of June and having to wear a jacket.  It was at that moment that I just did not miss the summer in the south.  That first summer was amazing.  It was a bit of a pain that the sun didn't really set, but hey, we are living in Alaska!  The temperature barely hit 70 the whole summer.  We have no air conditioning here.  Thinking it was going to be rough not having one, I was really surprised that we didn't even miss it.  Open the windows and turn the ceiling fan on and after a while, it was really cool in the house.  This is pretty much what our summers looked like.  This is our backyard, see the mountains?




Then, winter came.  I hadn't seen significant snow since we had lived in Virginia.  Our first snow I think we got like 10 inches.  10 inches that didn't melt.  It fell in November and stuck around until April.  That took some getting used to.  The majority of the year looks like this (or similiar):





As you can tell, the world is pretty black and white with different shades of grey.  Plus, the sun doesn't shine very much at all.  Maybe 5 hours a day.  That picture was taken at around 10am and the sun was just then getting around to coming up.

While we are extremely excited about moving back home to TN, I will never forget our time here in AK.  Yeah, the winters are dark, dreary and cold.  The summers?  Well, they are just amazing.  We actually got to live somewhere a lot of people only dream of.  This is what we got to see that most people don't.




Moose across the street from our house!!




The harbor in Whittier, AK



Portage Glacier



Ice floes!



Matanuska Glacier!



More Matanuska Glacier!

How many people can say that they actually *walked* on a glacier?  There are parts of Alaska I will miss, some that I won't but this has definitely been an amazing place to be for the past 2 years. 

Thanks for the memories, Alaska!