While in Seattle, I found out Aaron was going to be finished working on May 23rd, so I decided to fly up so we could do a quick tour of Alaska. We didn't have much time, but we made the most of it.
Let's take a look at the map:
This was our route (yes, maps screwed up and I had to tweak it in Paint, which is why it looks a little hokey at the top). Seems like we did a lot (and it felt like it too), but let's zoom out a bit:
It wasn't quite as large a dent as we thought (again, I had to white out the route in Paint because maps screwed up). Ah well, we only had 5 days.
Either way, we had a fabulous time! It was a tiny, mouthwatering taste of our old travel life, not to mention we hadn't seen each other in over a month and what better place to reunite than Alaska?? I've ALWAYS wanted to go and in fact, we'd talked about making Alaska our next vacation! We just had no idea it would be so soon!
On May 24th, I flew from Seattle to Anchorage and saw this at the Anchorage Airport:
Conoco Phillips and BP have their own airline!! Only in Alaska!
From there I took the tiniest plane ever to Kenai.
It fit about 30 people and had propellers, which if you've ever been on a plane with propellers, let me tell you it is an entirely different flying experience. Let's just say not for the squeamish.
However, after only 30 minutes of roller-coaster in the sky, I was there!
Aaron was waiting for me at baggage claim (basically once you enter that door, the entire Kenai airport is just one big room). I forgot to take a picture of our reunion, but he bought me pretty flowers:
They were beautiful! I kept a petal and dried it in my Mindy Kaling book.
Then we were off! We decided to run to the hotel and shower quickly before heading over to the town of Homer for a quick looksie (it was already almost 6pm).
We better get moving!
Here's our lovely rental:
It's very expensive to rent a car in Alaska, but totally worth it. I named him Reggie.
Badass state slogan!
And we're off!
I can see mountains already!
We stopped at a gas station and this was right beside it:
Yup, squirrel pants made it all the way to Alaska. These abomination pants have seen the world and they're still kickin'! I'm in the process of hiring a hitman to take them out for good.
Random tiny town:
We made it to Homer!
Just gorgeous!! I think I can see Russia from here!
We drove all the way to the end of the Spit. We knew it was the end because we saw this sign:
Kind of a big clue.
We stopped and got out to walk down to the "beach."
All the rocks were flat, perfect for skipping!
Aaron's pretty good, I'm lucky if mine even lands in the water (Aaron's had to duck a few times).
Where's Sharmeela??
I'm not really hiding, but these buoys are huge!
We drove back a bit and stopped at another beach on the other side of the Spit:
A bit on the morbid side, but nice sentiment (I think).
Drove back a bit further:
Yay puffin!
Stopped for a quick walk inside The Salty Dog, recommended by a friend of Aaron's and it sure didn't disappoint:
It's completely covered head to toe in signed dollar bills. My pictures are horrible because I was trying to snap them covertly. No one wants to be that loser snapping pictures of strangers in a bar. However, when you're camera is giant, it's hard to look normal holding it in front of you. Oh well, you get the idea. We didn't leave a dollar because we didn't drink anything. Next time, Salty Dog!
I drove on the way back, but managed to snap a few more (yup, Aaron was THAT tired that he actually had me drive! That rarely happens, especially after I scraped our rental in New Zealand (remember Tui?)):
There are supposedly moose everywhere! The speed limits on most roads and highways don't exceed 55MPH because of all the moose that can just appear out of nowhere. Aaron had already seen a bunch during his month stay, but luckily none jumped out in front of me while I was driving (although I was dying to see one).
Can you tell where the trees stop and the water begins?
Loved the name of this road on the way back to Kenai:
We made it back to Kenai around 10pm and went to Walmart for a few supplies:
I don't know why I took a picture of Walmart, I just was surprised this tiny town had one. Trust me, the Alaska Walmart clientele were no different than back home (take that how you will).
We had a fast food dinner and went back to the hotel to sleep. Aaron passed out right away, but I had a hard time because even with the curtains closed, I could see a sliver of light. This was 11pm:
This was 12:30am:
It doesn't get much darker than this and the sun comes up again around 5am, so you really gotta just tune out your circadian rhythm and just sleep in the daylight. I had a hard time because I'm not typically a daytime napper, so it took some major adjusting and some really good curtains to fake the darkness.
So far Alaska is a win and there's lots more coming your way!
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