So B hasn't seen his first Alaskan moose yet, but it took me a few weeks to see mine. He was, however, able to experience several Alaskan beers, which I'm pretty sure makes up for it!
We were up with the sun this morning (which in Anchorage, is pretty damn early,) and got started right away with BSSD Welcome Wagon activities. Although breakfast at Denny's wasn't quite our speed, we were able to visit with other new hires and began forming some great new friendships. From breakfast we went to the DMV where I was able to obtain my Alaska driver's license...woo woooo! (Even though I semi-failed the vision test and am restricted to driving only cars with mirrors....yeah.) Unfortunately, since B doesn't have a contract, he wasn't able to switch his residency over yet. He was bummed, but at least has some time to study the manual (I missed the first 3 questions and you can only miss 4!) So to all of our VaBeach friends and families, B just couldn't let go of his residency, he'll be hanging on for a few more months :o)
After the DMV, which was a much more pleasant experience than any DMV I've ever visited, we headed to GCI, the rural cell provider here in Alaska. We will be sharing a cell phone in Savoonga, and got the unlimited coverage and texting plan, so that we are able to keep in touch with everyone as best we can! We will both still have our old numbers until Friday, so text us or call if you need the new contact info!
The only other thing on our list for this week was to finish up our grocery shopping, which we'll do tomorrow. This left the rest of the afternoon for us to relax and for B to explore Anchorage! We enjoyed some great lattes from Middleway Cafe, a great spot that some of my AKT2 cohorts and I frequented in the weeks that we spent here earlier this summer. We also were lucky to meet up with Emily, who will be heading to Holy Cross, AK on Friday. It was really nice to catch up with someone who is in the same boat as us and is having the same anxieties, frustrations and anticipations as we are. I'm pretty excited to hear everyone's experiences and share ours as well!
We had a great dinner and enjoyed some microbrews at Moose's Tooth in Anchorage, a great (extremely popular) local pub and brewery that Dad and I stumbled upon when we were here in January. After waiting out some passing showers, we checked out grocery prices in preparation for tomorrow! We are in good shape as far as Friday is looking and are eager to continue our adventure tomorrow!
We may not have seen any moose, and the mountains may have been covered in clouds, but we're enjoying the short time we have here, making new friends and catching up with fellow AKT2 participants. We are looking forward to tomorrow and are anxious for the big move on Friday! We are missing Sampson lots...the pet aisle at Fred Meyer may have brought upon some unnecessary tears, but we are dealing and are so thankful that my parents were willing to take him for the time being!! The sun is still just now setting at 11 pm and we are looking forward to another good, Alaskan night's sleep!
More to come... :o)
Those tears weren't unnecessary...pets are family. It broke my heart when Brendan posted the pic of Sampson with the "Gonna miss this pup so much" caption. I have a chocolate lab that looks JUST like Sampson (by the way...I saw in your pic yesterday that you have a Gentle Leader for him...I LOVE the one we got for Stillen). We are super sad to see Brendan leave BCT, but SO excited for your new adventures. It takes a lot of courage to just pick up and move away from everything you know. I admire you both immensely for that. But good luck to you both and I look forward to your next blog post. Safe travels tomorrow and hope you are able to get settled quickly so you can start enjoying the (I'm sure) beautiful scenery and outdoor activities.
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