Girdwood and Family Law

Today was my first Saturday in Southcentral Alaska and my first day off from classes! My study schedule says I'm supposed to review Real Property and write 3 short essays and 1 long essay on Alaska Family Law.

Instead, I drove south as far as Girdwood and then took a nap when I got home. Girdwood, you'll recall, is home to Ted Stevens who was in the press a lot last summer while I was working in Juneau with a rather vocal group who did not care much for Senator Stevens...but that's another post. One of my coworkers at SEACC used to live in Girdwood too. 

Anyway, my initial plan was to just go downtown and check out the farmer's market (i.e. Quaint Tourist Trap) and wander around downtown. I drove downtown, found a great parking space and window shopped at the farmer's market for nearly an hour. After I'd seen everything and realized I couldn't afford any of it, I walked around the downtown area itself. I bought postcards at a tourist shop, ate a reindeer hot dog (yum!), and went into the Federal Building for maps and stuff. 

After a quick stop back at the house I decided to just drive south and get out of the city. Anchorage itself just doesn't feel like Alaska the way Juneau does. I think it's because the mountains are just far enough away that they are not a constant presence in your sights, so I wanted to get away from the buildings a bit and see what the mountains are like on the road system. 

The drive was really nice. I stopped at a few overlooks and took pictures, saw a waterfall, etc. 

I passed small communities called Bird and Indian, respectively, and then went on to Girdwood to see what this place was like. I was imagining a hippy enclave and pretty much found a wide spot in the road with essence of hippyness everywhere, plus some really nice ski lodges. I grabbed a cup of coffee at the Grind & Girdwood Bookstore (one tiny room for the town's only bookstore and only coffee shop), wandered around downtown and drove up to the big hotel for a look. On my way out I stopped at the Great Alaska Tourist Trap store, which had some cool stuff that I couldn't afford. 

Here's my route:

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Now that I have sufficiently wasted my entire day, I'm going to hit the books. I have subjects to review and essays to write...that is why I'm up here, isn't it???

PS: Here's my new tattoo (Leigh got the same one on her arm 'cause we're cool like that):