We made it!

We made it! I am not quite sure how we all got here unscathed and in one piece, but we did it! We started our trek early yesterday morning. To get us going, we started our day with Jack in the Box (a fast food place) and Bradley started his with a yummy tranquilizer. Our driver picked us up at our storage unit in a Black Lincoln Navigator. He was wearing a black peacoat and black hat to make the experience that much better! During the drive to the airport, Bradley started whining in his crate. We were worried that his dose of tranquilzer was not going to do the trick, but once we got to Sea-Tac, he was drooling and had a loopy look on his face.

At the airport we used the curb-side service. We have both never used such a service before and it was awesome. The lady was very helpful and did everything for us. Bradley was very well behaved while he waited patiently on the cart, but it was all a little too overwhelming for me, so of course, what else is there to do but cry uncontrollably in public. Everyone was very nice and supportive, even the strangers standing around us. With checking in behind us, it was then time to take off our shoes and go through security. We looked like a couple of crazies who had never done this before. We had sneakers, jackets, backbacks, laptops, a purse, and a duffel bag to get through the XRAY machine. They scolded me for my purse placement, patted Dan down and riffled through our duffel bag. It was so funny watching the man inspect Bradley's food, stuffed animals, Dan's shoes, and all of our other odds and ins that got stuffed into the bag! Once we got to our gate, we spotted a Chili's and I relaxed once I had a mango margarita!

The flight was uneventful and long. It took about 4 hours and we worried about Bradley the whole time. It was really cloudy, so we could not see much until we were landing, but we did get some pictures of the mountains. When we met Bradley at the baggage area he was so glad to see us! It looked like a tornado had gone through his crate and he was still drooling and looking a little silly.

When we got settled into our rental car, (a silver ford F150 with 4 wheel drive), we turned on our trusty Ellen the Magellan to get us to our new home and to our dismay, she did not know that Alaska existed. Luckily, the ladies at the rental place gave us a map and after a few wrong turns and one wrong stop, we made it to our new home!

Bradley was instantly excited about the yard and inspected the strange white stuff on the ground. Our place is the lower unit in an old house, mostly underground. It has 2 bedrooms, (this is an open invitation for any visitors), 2 large closets, and one bathroom. The kitchen is small, but it has nice appliances. We also have front loading washer and dryers, so I am very excited!

Our upstairs neighbors are very nice and they have a 5month old sheepdog who is so cute and just a little bigger than Bradley right now. They are getting along great and love to chase each other around the yard.

After we got aquanted with our neighbors, we went out to do some exploring and to find some food. Anchorage looks pretty plain, just like any other northern town. They have lots of one way streets, which drives me crazy and makes us take several tries to actually get to where we are trying to go. We will get the hang of it soon hopefully, along with everything else. We finally found a Wal-Mart and were thrilled until we actually got inside. It was just a regular Wal-Mart, nothing super about it, which I didn't know still exsisted. You all remember how these stores were pre-super, so I will not go in to detail. I will tell you that as we were walking out, Dan approached the door expecting it would open. When it didn't, he just kept right on until the cart was touching the door and he just waited, thinking it would remember that it was supposed to open for us. Once we realized it was just an ordinary door, we opened it and made a beeline for our car, laughing at what these people must be thinking about us. It reminded me of those car commercials about the cars that do things on voice command and the owners start trying to use voice command for ordinary items that will obviously not respond. Hilarious!

This morning we woke up around 7:30 and it was still dark outside! Sunrise was not until 9:03, it will definatley take some getting used to. After our depressing trip to Wal-Mart, we were ready to see what the mall and grocery store would be like. As we were getting ready to leave I looked outside and it was snowing! It was so exciting to see! The mall was very nice, 4 stories! After the mall, we ate lunch at a local pub called Humpy's. We both tried some local beers. I tried one that tasted like raspberries and it was really good! Next, we were off to find a grocery store. We finally found a Safeway, but it is called Carrs here and it was wonderful!

Tomorrow we will do some more exploring and maybe more playing in the snow!