Anchorage FINALLY

After our day "off" in Whitehorse, which was spent napping and walking around to stretch our legs, we had a rather unsettling night in our tent. Around 1am I got up and made my way to the toilets, leaving Leigh behind to sleep. While I was gone we both heard a man screaming very loudly, dogs barking, etc. Just a lot of ruckus. The entire region of Whitehorse where we were was filled with camping, open road, and woods. Not exactly the great outdoors, but not exactly civilized either. This was pretty nerve-wracking. We knew we were safe, but had no idea why we had heard screaming (which sounded like he was saying "he's standing up, he's standing up! Get him!" amongst other unintelligible things). I tried to dial 911 from a pay phone at our campsite but lost the connection on the line. Leigh and I decided to hop in the car and drive a mile or so South to see if we could figure out what was happening. There wasn't a peep from the surrounding area- not even a police car coming through to check things out. Weird.

Anyway, on the way back to camp I told Leigh I'd had about enough of car traveling and just wanted to drive straight through to Anchorage. The end result was a very, very long day of driving with just a quick stop off in Tok for dinner. It was too short of notice to find a place to crash with any acquaintances in Anchorage and by the time we made it to Mat-Su area the fog was too thick to drive safely, so we pulled over and slept in the car. Safe but uncomfortable, and Juneau the Cat had had just about enough of us by this point.

We drove into Anchorage around 8am, stopped to grab some necessities at a grocery store and then found our new apartment complex with great ease. The leasing office was just opening when we arrived and within an hour we were hauling our stuff upstairs (to the third floor) from our car. Juneau the Cat found a sleeping nook on top of the cabinets and stayed there for most of the day. I guess she needed some personal space!

For the next few days we trolled Craigslist for furniture, did LOTS of shopping for housewares and slept on the floor. Luckily our new place has a built-in table top so at least we had somewhere to eat. Now it's four days later and we have successfully purchased our living room furniture, dining chairs, a new TV, a mattress and box spring set and countless odds and ends like a rice/slow cooker Leigh fell in love with at Costco and new lamps. All we really need now is a bed frame and some dressers, but that can wait until the right opportunity comes along. Today four of the nine boxes of housewares we shipped to ourselves (from Virginia and Seattle, respectively) arrived. We eagerly await the boxes containing our hangers and cooking tools.

Pictures of new apartment to come when it's all set up!

Another thing we purchased recently were new phones. While living in France I had a crappy prepaid phone, which served me well, and since coming back to the US I've used a hand-me-down prepaid phone. Today I received a Blackberry Bold, which I've decided I'm not really thrilled with. It's kind of hard to use, doesn't have a touch screen and I just feel like I fumble around with it a lot. After four years of devoting myself to Apple products I think I'll make the switch to an Iphone as soon as possible. Phones should be fun, not a source of headaches!

So we're mostly settled in and I start my job on Thursday. I'm not terribly nervous because there seems to be a lot of training involved in the transitional period between last year's clerk and myself. I expect there will be a lot of "hand-holding" the first few days, which is good. I'm even getting a Westlaw training session, which a year ago I would have scoffed at because I used to use Westlaw all day, everyday. After my "gap year" in France I will really appreciate a reintroduction to this vital online tool.

from Whitehorse

On day four of our journey to Anchorage, Leigh and I have arrived in Whitehorse. We left Seattle on Sunday afternoon, slept over in Cache Creek at a cute little campground just off the highway then went on to Dawson Creek. The camping in Dawson Creek left a great deal to be desired, so we took a risk and went on down the road to Whisker's Bay Resort to sleep. This place was really great because our sight was tucked between two small RVs housing adults, children and dogs (so we didn't have to worry about bears) and it was right on the edge of a beautiful bay. The only down side was we didn't have access to showers, in spite of the place advertising showers. Anyway, it was pretty nice.

The third night we got a [very expensive] motel room in Fort Nelson because everyone, including Juneau the Cat, needed a break from being cramped in the car or the tent. Fort Nelson itself is a hole- it's muddy and everything is overpriced and under-par. We left early the next morning to put in a long day, all the way to Whitehorse (about 12 hours). Luckily we were well-rested for a long day of driving and Juneau was feeling better after having a proper dinner and some space to run around for a few hours.

Whitehorse was the first normal sized town we'd seen in days. It has a variety of businesses, so the inflated prices are less inflated, and the town sees a number of travelers from all over the world, usually traveling in RVs. Our campground is actually an RV park with cheaper "dry" sights. We're the only tenters here, but it's really nice because there are people around, it's near the road and just outside of downtown, so no bears and an easy drive to get food, etc. We've decided to stay here an extra night to take advantage of our long haul yesterday. There are hot springs just outside of town, a Starbucks and some yummy restaurants to check out. Plus our apartment won't be ready until Saturday morning and our only other option was to hang out in Tok an extra day. From what I've read Tok is a tiny town, so we're more likely to find things to do for the day in Whitehorse.

On another note, we've noticed a lot of texts translated from English and French (of course, this is Canada) into German. I've seen a lot of touristy stuff in German before, but usually in addition to Spanish and Mandarine or Japanese. Then we heard a lot of German being spoken around our campgrounds, not just our neighbors last night but several other couples and families. Finally I asked the owner of the campground in Whitehorse why this area is so popular for Germans to take a vacation. He said it's because there are two direct flights between Frankfurt and Whitehorse (a city of 20,500 people!) and Frankfurt and Anchorage each week! The flight is 9 1/2 hours and apparently very popular all year round. Wie uberraschend!

Southeast Asia

For some reason the amount of traveling I've been doing the past year or so just isn't enough to occupy my mind. Over the last few weeks I've seen a lot of travel shows about Asia, plus my uncle told me some pretty great stories about his travels through Southeast Asia. There are tons of reasons I want to visit SE Asia, not the least of which includes the cheap cost of living, the culture, the weather, etc.

So, of course, I did some googling and found all kinds of exciting information. So I made an initial itinerary and a Google map:

View Southeast Asia in a larger map

The links may or may not include little details about the stops.

Basic Itinerary:

Hanoi- (1 week) get over jetlag, stay in Old Quarter, visit museums, temples, war sights, opera, water puppet theater, outdoor markets

*train to Danang $25 each (800 km)+ $15 taxi or take tourist bus (45 minutes) to Hoi An

Hoi An- (1 week+) old town, swan boats, Japanese bridge, rent motor bikes, boat tours and beaches; visit orphanage for the day to play with kids;

*train to Saigon (930 km) for $30

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City- 3 days or so to rest; water puppet show, war sights, markets, silk shopping; French influence in city, lots of Pho, kebab, gelato etc YUM!

To Bangkok the long way via:

• Saigon to Phnom Penh, Cambodia by boat/bus for $9
• Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Siem Reap by boat $25 (see Angor Wat Temples for 1-2 days

• Taxi to Poiphet (3 hours), cross border then take bus/tuk-tuk to main rail station
• Train to Bangkok $1.50, 6 hours, runs twice daily

Bangkok- (up to 1 week); visit temples, old city, etc See Four Days in Bangkok for things to do

*overnight train to Chiang Mai (15 hours) $15 each for comfy sleeper car*

Chiang Mai- (2 weeks) temples, elephants, motorcycling in mountains, rafting and swimming, meditation courses, cooking classes :-)

*train back to Bangkok, maybe visit some Thai islands or travel down the peninsula for some fun in the sun*

Fly Bangkok to Anchorage--> HOME

We'd take this trip over about 7 or 8 weeks and would visit Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. I want to visit a few major cities and some smaller towns for a slower pace. I'm particularly excited about the cultural sights and the food, plus having the opportunity to travel in the "mid range" rather than the "backpacker" level of comfort. Also, my uncle says he didn't get to see as much of this part of the world as he would have liked the first time around. Plus his wife is Thai and would enjoy visiting her family again (she's in Thailand now, but this would be sometime in the future of course), so we're going to try to coordinate this trip so we're all there at the same time! Fun!

Did I mention that Leigh and I won't be able to take any trip even remotely this long or complicated for at least 2 years? Yeah, I'm thinking ahead of myself... again. Maybe I'm just a tad bored these days and am creating projects for myself or maybe I just really enjoy planning trips.

Final Days

6 days and counting- that is 6 days before Leigh and I are scheduled to drive away from Seattle toward Alaska. Our plans have changed a bit providing greater flexibility, but also a bit of heartache.

Leigh and I wound up quitting our summer jobs about a week early. It was a series of events, mostly us being pushed to our limit and our boss/family ignoring our pleas for time off to prepare for our trip to Anchorage. Basically, as of Monday this week, we hadn't packed a single thing to leave and were scheduled to leave Seattle 7 days later while working 40-50 hours during those remaining days. Of course, when working with family these "changes in plans" never go over smoothly and one cannot walk away from a toxic situation as easily, but in the end a person has to look out for their most important interests. In this case in particular those interests include my first ever real job (that I studied 7 years to be qualified for), a very important move to a new city and the strength and health of my marriage and our physical well-being.

In the end this situation is far from simple: we've both been really concerned about how it will affect our long-term relationships with certain family members and we've been really hoping to reestablish some communication to put the issue to bed before we leave town. I'm not counting on that happening, but it would certainly reduce my worries. However, this also allows us more time to get things done and possibly even leave a day or two earlier than planned so we can actually make a holiday out of this very, very long drive. We'll just have to see how we're feeling at the end of the week and how ready we are to leave.

In the meantime, I had a tattoo date with my favorite uncle on Monday evening and wound up with a tattoo of a Taize bell on the front of my right shoulder. The artist did an amazing job. This is the second time I've gotten a tattoo by this guy and I'm again very pleased. Though I don't live in Seattle I can see myself making appointments with him when I'm passing through for many years to come. Photos to come very soon.

Work! Apartments! Tattoos! What?!

SOoooo many new developments in my little life since I last took the time to blog.

First off, Leigh and I are still workin' our fannies off. This is ultimately a good thing because we are leaving for Anchorage in 12 DAYS! Our trip North will include 5 overnight stops, camping each night, enjoying local cuisine at Mom'n'Pop places, hot springs and wildlife viewed [hopefully] from the safety of our cars rather than from the inside of our tent!

We applied for a kick ass apartment earlier this week at a complex in Anchorage. The rents are a little steep, especially compared to cities like Buffalo, but we figured since all Anchorage housing is pricey we may as well live somewhere with a lot of cool stuff. The place we decided on has a health club on site, a laundry room that uses prepaid cards and not coins, nice floorplans, etc. This morning I got a call from the leasing agent saying we'd been approved! Yay! The best part is we can move in the day we arrive in Anchorage! So basically we arrive in town, park in the parking lot and drag our stuff inside- Voila! Moved in! Plus now we can arrange to mail ourselves a bunch of [non-breakable] stuff instead of packing my little car to the gills, thereby risking a flat tire in the middle of the Yukon.

Tattoos, you say? Yep, my uncle lives here in Seattle and ever since I was 17 we've had a tendency to go on "tattoo dates" when I'm in town. This year is no different. I went back and forth between two designs and ultimately chose the one that I felt best commemorated my time in France. It's going to be a grape vine draped over my right shoulder complete with bunches of grapes and three bells to symbolize the bells at Taize and their ringing 3 times per day.

Inspiration for the bells. Inspiration for the grapevine.

My uncle is getting an old fashioned bicycle poster tattooed on his leg. He already has one and wants to eventually have three in a row going around his leg. The one he has now was beautifully done by the artist we are meeting with on Friday to get our ideas sketched up. Then sometime next week we're going back for the actual tattooing. This will be my fourth tattoo and my third tattoo with my uncle. Some family traditions are just too cool.

So, yeah, probably not going to accomplish most of the things on my Seattle List like seeing a Mariner's game, but this summer is proving to be both useful and memorable. With that said, Leigh and I are totally ready to start this new chapter of our lives in Alaska and see where that takes us.

Time v. Money

Leigh and I have been going back and forth about whether to take a few days off before we head North. For a few days we were thinking it best to just trudge through, earn as much money as possible and sleep when we're dead. This was based on the assumption that we would have normal work weeks until the end of August. "Normal" meaning 40-50 hours with a day or two off to get the house cleaned and errands run.

Turns out this week we're driving roundtrip to the farm twice, plus working markets 4 days per week! That's a lot of driving, lifting, early mornings, being dirty and tired. So now we're back to thinking we'll take off a few days next week, if for no other reason than to get our stuff packed so we can get on the road in time. To quote Leigh, "I don't know if I can drive 8 hours per day, twice per week and then pull 12 hour days the rest of the week and THEN drive all the way to Alaska!"

She has a point. So even though giving up our time means earning more money, sometimes you have to put the money aside and take a small loss to gain some time. I suspect that towards the end of August our free time to take care of our personal needs like packing for the drive North will seem as valuable as earning money from working extra hours.

So that's about where we are right now- trying to find a balance between building our savings and maintaining our sanity. We're applying for an apartment in Anchorage today and *fingers crossed* will have that lined up by the end of the week!

So many tasks, so little time

So Portland was a huge success. I bought plenty of work clothes to get me through the first several months of my clerkship and Leigh stocked up on biz-casual stuff for whatever job she winds up finding. Plus we found some awesome gear at REI including a tent tall enough for Leigh to stand up straight in that is shaped like a hobbit home and great sleeping pads. Now we're all set to start our new jobs and tent camp our way to Anchorage rather than paying $150/night for motels along the way. At the end of the day we saved well over $100 by not paying sales taxes which covered the cost of our gas to drive to Portland and most of our hotel where we stayed (which had a jacuzzi tub in the room, a much-needed splurge after weeks of laborious work!).

Now we're back in Seattle and prepping for the last few weeks of work and our big drive up to Anchorage. We need to find an apartment and I think we're pretty close to securing one. Now we just have to apply and pay a deposit, no big deal as long as the application is approved (for some reason this always makes me nervous!). But we also have to go through all of our stuff [AGAIN!] and choose what to ship and what to pack in the car. In the meantime we also still have some things we really want to do before leaving and there's just never enough time in a week!

So on Monday we're hoping to go camping with our new gear as a test run and either see the Olympia, WA area or the Wenatchee National Forest in eastern Washington. Both are gorgeous areas with lots of stuff to do, so it just depends on which camping areas look like the most fun.

Anyway, we only have about another 2 1/2 weeks here before starting yet another adventure! Eek!

Oh la la!

After a long day of shopping for suits and such in Portland, I'm still not finished! Today I bought my requisite suits (4 total) and a few odd pieces also. Now I still need a few things like shoes and shirts. Hopefully tomorrow will be fruitful.

In the meantime I'm looking at Shoe Porn on Anthropologie. These are totally out of my price range, but worth a look! Called the Park Guell, after the Gaudi Park in Barcelona, I'm in completely in love! Not sure if they're outlandish enough to qualify as Guadiesque, but still so fun and gorgeous!

But these are more what I will likely get for standard brown work heels. They're comfy and attractive, plus great for snowy days unlike the cutout T-straps I owned when I lived in Buffalo.