Birthday Weekend in Alaska

My birthday weekend actually began on Thursday. My wonderful loving parents sent me flowers to my office at the client. Thanks mom and dad! :-)
Friday, was the first day since I have been in Alaska that it was sunny and clear all day.

After work Friday, I went to a debate watching party at Bayshore Clubhouse. You can pretty much get a good view of the mountains anywhere in anchorage but there is a great view from the Clubhouse. There was a pretty good turnout of the debate watching party. They had a good food spread, Obama gear and also solicited for volunteers and announced next week's officicial Obama rally in Anchorage. I got an Obama sweatshirt and pin as well as the CD of the Alaskan Women Reject Palin rally on Sep 13.

After the debate, I had dinner with my colleagues from TSG. There are 4 of us here from other markets. Mark and Jeff have been out here for a while now and Valerie came out here just last week. This was our first outing as a group and we decided to call ourselves Team Alaska (my idea, ha!) We were celebrating Valerie coming to AK, Jeff's bday last Tuesday and my bday on Saturday.

Saturday morning I was up by 6:30 and cooking my wonderful birthday breakfast: French toast, bacon eggs and grits. Then I laid down for a quick morning nap, but by then people had started calling and wishing me happy birthday.
Alaskans for Truth held a rally at noon a couple of blocks from my apartment. They started that their goals were to hold their governer accountable to the residents of Alaska. There were at least 2,500 people there. It is interesting to walk through the crowd, talking to people and hearing their views local politics. It was a peaceful rally and everyone did not have exactly the same stands on several issues but they were all disappointed with the way the governor has been running government over the past couple of years and especially the past month.

Later I went back to Flattop Mountain. Valerie hadn't been yet so she met me there. This time we went up the VERY trail to the top of the mountain. But once you get to the top, you realize it is still NOT the top. The very top was an even STEEPER path and both decided we were cool with the views we had at that level. Hahaha!

Then we went to Eagle River. The trail was closed down to the public because of bears. Bears use that part of the river for fishing this time of year so the trail is officially closed but you can still walk down to the river. It is ill advised to try to mess with bears even if you do have bear spray.

We were trying to find a non-crowded place for dinner and ended up at steakhouse. Unfortunately they messued up my steak 3 times and I got my steak free. Can someone please tell the cooks that medium well does not mean bloody?!
Sunday morning, I attended morning service at ChangePoint church. I came back to the apartment for a steak and shrimp lunch and then a Sunday afternoon nap.
Then I drove out to Hatchers Pass. I stopped at Willow Creek at the bottom of the mountain. It was beautiful day but it was freezing and I had on 6 layers of clothes. I drove up to Hatcher's Pass but the road was closed at the very top so I parked and walked up the road to see the snow on the mountain.

So overall I had a pretty good weekend...nothing really exciting....just a nice relaxing weekend and I grateful to GOD for another year. :-)

September in Alaska

It's my birthday month and it has been another couple of weeks in Alaska. Summer is now gone, but apparently this was the 3rd or 4th worst summer on record. It has rained most days and it is getting colder. But it makes for some pretty rainbows. The high each day is between 45 and 50. There have been fewer clear days for outdoors activities and even sightseeing. I went to Barnes & Noble one rainy night and it was so absolutely packed that I could not find a parking space AT ALL. I had to wait for someone to leave to get a park.

Sidebar – I started reading this new book, Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Basically, the author is writing from the premise that the internet is dumbing us all down because we use far less mental effort to solve problems, etc.. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Anathem/Neal-Stephenson/e/9780061474095/?tabname=custreview

Okay, so the few days when it was not raining or raining less I did get to see more of the area. Chugach Nat'l Forest, Glaciers on Portage Glacier Road and View from Flattop Mountain

I was surprised at the amount of restaurant chains here. Yes McDonald's is everywhere, but Outback, TGI Friday, Chili's. But there are lots of little local places that have lots of character. Harley's is a country kitchen, KOBE Teppayaki, local Japanese steakhouse, and Moose Tooth pizza are just a few. But so far I think my favorite two places may be Glacier Brewery in downtown Anchorage and Beartooth Pub, which shows movies and serves good food.

Random pics -

Oh and I finally moved to my new place and its completely renovated, appliances and all!

View from old balcony vs new balcony :-)

Gotta run...more later...

Alaskan Women Reject Palin Rally Media Coverage

So here is some local media coverage talking about the threats to the rally organizers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8pewzwBybc

Alaskan Scenery, Housing and Obama Supporters

I arrived here about 2 ½ weeks ago and it has been an interesting 2 ½ weeks. The weather the 1st week or so was around 60 degrees each day. Since then, the high has been around 55 degrees and rainy each day. Most times, the further south I drive, the harder it rains and the harder the wind blows. I took a daily drive each evening after work down Turnagain Arm exploring stops along the way. Unfortunately the rain and clouds made for not so hot pictures but here we go:
Family of bears crossing Portage Glacier Road and Moose in Earthquake Park

Sunset in Anchorage

Here is my corp housing which was less than ready when I arrived and its NOT in a good area (a couple of blocks from the local liquor store and mental hospital). Thankfully I am finally moving next week:

Bathroom after their "upgrade" - still not great

So I explore Alaska so I won't have to stay here as much, LOL!

So last week I stopped by one of the Obama campaign offices to see if they needed volunteers and of course they put me right to work. I was surprised at how many Obama supporters are in Alaska. This morning we worked a session to train people to be registrars and authorized to register voters. At the session I got people to volunteer to work the registration at the Peabo Bryson concert next week. Someone there told be about the Alaskan Women Reject Palin Rally. Apparently they had planned a rally for today at noon, but a local radio talk show host who’s a republican heard about it and gave the phone numbers of the organizers of the rally to his listeners. The organizers began receiving hostile calls and death threats and many urged them to cancel the rally but they did not. In speaking with many of the people there, most people said there has NEVER been a rally like this in Anchorage EVER! The energy created by the crowd was amazing. When we arrived, there were almost 1,000 people on the side of the road with Anti-Palin signs and chanting “Obama, Obama!” and “Go Tell Your Mama to vote for Obama!”

The people in attendance were anti-palin obama AND hillary supporters. There was one sign that said, Palin is no Hilary. Other people held signs but admitted that they were hesitant to support Obama openly in fear for retaliation by local officials supporting McCain Palin. Here are some of the signs:

By the time we left there were between 1500 and 2000 people in attendance. The official Obama campaign (paid staffers) were not in attendance because it was not a Obama sponsored rally. They did not want to sponsor an Anti Palin rally. But many people left the rally and went to the office and signed up to volunteer and buy t-shirts. As a matter of fact, the local campaign offices said they completely sold out of all of their tshirts and buttons, etc.

Today standing in the crowd I definitely felt like I was in the midst of a movement.