Sunsets on Cook Inlet

*WARNING* The amazing sunsets this past week have caused me to be incredibly click-happy. Trust me, I narrowed these down a lot, but I couldn't help sharing some of these photos. It's so interesting and beautiful with these great mountains in the background, the frozen beaches and floating ice chunks.

The best sunset view-point is right at the landing strip for the airport.

Glowing downtown Anchorage.

And moose on the road for a delightful after sunset surprise!

Blue skies

Hi friends!

Our last week has been mostly blessed with some amazing sun and blue skies and we have been taking full advantage! Some highlights of our week include:

- Trivia and dinner with our first visitor, Alanna! (she was here for work so we got a few nights of visiting!)
- Seeing Baluga whales from our walk in Anchorage's coastal trail
- Getting a beginners 3-pack of frolfing frisbies and trying our luck on our first round (there are disc golf courses ALL over here!)
- New apartment set up to begin May 1st
- Comedy Improv night with friends Tija and Zach (Tija is an old friend from growing up in Kodiak and Zach is her boyfriend, they're great!)
- Cole starting his new painting job!

So it's been a great week so far and we are feeling like things are really starting to fall into place. I have an interview at a cool restaurant here called Spenard Roadhouse and I'm feeling pretty good about it! We'll be really happy when we get into our new apartment and can actually unpack everything.

Here are some awesome photos from the last few days! Starting with a cool pic of downtown Anchorage from the coastal trail. This is the day we saw the Belugas, but sadly, no pictures.

View of Mt. McKinley from Earthquake Park at sunset.

On Tuesday we took a drive up to Lake Eklutna in Chugach State Park and it was AMAZING. Big lake that was still totally frozen over. We were hesitant until we saw this lady take off across the middle of the lake on her skis being towed by her two sled dogs.

So gorgeous, we really loved it up there.

Out and about in Anchorage

Here are some of the photos of the last week!

On Saturday morning, we went up to a small ski area called Arctic Valley because they were having an end-of-year festival called the Merry Marmot Fest or something like that. The ride up was pretty sweet because we were climbing the mountains that we see from Anchorage and therefore got some pretty great views of the city.

The festival was pretty low key so we were only up there for a while, but it was a good chance to do some more exploring.

Another day this week (what unemployed person can keep any day straight) we went on a nice walk on some of the trails around town. Lots of fowl. No moose.

On another random day of the week, we took a drive out to Girdwood which is east of Anchorage on the Seward Highway. Girdwood is the base town for the Alyeska Ski Resort. We didn't spend much time there at all, just wanted to check it out and take a drive on a beautiful day. We made lots of stops on the drive down for pictuers.

I mentioned these frozen mud flats breaking up on my last post, here's a good image of them.

We explored a boardwalk onto these marshes. Really seemed like prime moose territory, but no luck.

First week in Anchorage, Kenai peninsula

Well we've spent a week in Anchorage now so we're basically a couple of old sourdoughs now. Sourdough is "Alaskan" for any Alaskan or Yukon old-timer for all you lower-48ers.

Yep it's break-up over here in Anchorage which by my understanding can mean that it was bright and sunny yesterday, raining this morning and snowing this afternoon. I'm trying to aclimate myself to the local look and not look so much like a cheechako (newcomer). But when I am walking outside in my Target slip-ons and a sweatshirt (keep in mind, people are literally wearing t-shirts and heels at any time of day or night) and the weather gods have decided to drop 3 inches of unannounced snow on us, I feel like I'm making a terrible mistake and end up redressing myself to look like it's -30 degrees instead of +30 degrees. It's a never-ending battle.

But we are having a great time. Spending a lot of time at the library job hunting and driving around exploring and getting lost.

On Tuesday this week, we drove down to Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula. There was a job fair going on so we figured it would be a good excuse to explore the area.

The drive was about 2.5 hours and we actually encountered some of our most trecherous driving conditions going through a snow storm on the Turnagain Pass.

But the peninsula was very beautiful. This is a picture of Cook Inlet on our drive over.

This is out at the beach in Kenai where the Kenai River meets the ocean. We walked around the dunes there. Its really interesting because all of the mud and sand on the beach (and the mudflats in the picture above) is all frozen. So all over the beach are these frozen chunks of mud that look like iceburgs almost. They're all in the process of melting though and are creating some really interesting shapes. 

Melting icemudburg.

This is where the frozen beach has receded and is starting to look like regular beach again, but it's becoming this frozen shelf with water constantly spilling over the edge back into the ocean.

Cole went and got himself stuck on a floating iceburg.... byyee Cooollleee!

Fortunately he escaped! :)

Yesterday we decided to finally go explore the beautiful Tony Knowles Coastal Trail that goes right along the water in downtown Anchorage. It was a beautiful day walking in the snow.

Tonight we're planning on catching a $3 movie at Bear Tooth and then doing some more investigative research at 'Koots. There may or may not be a golf pros and tennis 'hos party happening tonight...