New Summer. New adventure.

Hellooooo everyone. I don't even know if people will be reading this since let's face it- I'm not biking across the country anymore (as much as I wish I were again). But alas, I have embarked on a different adventure this summer and people have asked if I'll be blogging about it so they can hear what I'm up to. So here we go again...

I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Anchorage, AK. I'm off to Denali National Park tomorrow to start a summer job working in the Lynx Creek Store (which as far as I know sells gasoline and groceries). I'm actually not supposed to be sitting here in Anchorage today but should be in Denali already, however due to my forgetfulness and distractions of the past week (which there have been a lot of...graduation, moving, wedding in IN) I managed to forget to pack my social security card so was unable to go to the park today. Instead I had to entertain myself in Anchorage after going to the Social Security office early in the morning to apply for a replacement card. And as overwhelmed I was earlier today after being told that I had to stay in Anchorage an extra day, I've actually managed to entertain myself pretty well.

I flew into Anchorage after spending the weekend in Indiana attending a Bike & Builder's wedding (which was great because it was a reunion of B&Bers and was so great to see them). I arrived at the airport in Anchorage early early this morning (1:30am AK time, which is an hour earlier than Pacific time...4 hours earlier than where I came from in Indiana). I just slept in the baggage claim area for a good five hours until around 6:00am -at which time the sun had already been up a while. So my body doesn't quite know what's going on. The company I'm working for in the park is called Aramark, so after being driven to the Aramark Anchorage office I was told I needed to stay to get a new card instead of getting on the shuttle into the park. So a very nice girl from the office drove me to the social security office, made sure I had a map, a place to stay, and some recommendations for some things to see while I was there. After going to the social security office I went to a museum in Anchorage, grabbed lunch, took a much needed shower (it'd been either 2 or 3 days...I'm honestly not sure which with the 4 hour time change). Then I relaxed a bit in my room before exploring Anchorage some more by walking through downtown and along a coastal trail. So far it's beautiful.

I've realized that since graduating college I'm no longer going to have to take classes in order to learn things. This will be nice to not have the papers and deadlines and overall stress. However, I've been thinking that I also don't want my mind to turn to mush. SO, I'm still going to try to learn new things as often as I can.

So I made a list of things that I learned today during my day in Anchorage, Alaska:

1) Alaska was the 49th state to become a part of the United States and they became a state in 1959- so this year they're celebrating their 50th anniversary! Happy 50th Alaska! You're almost as old as Disneyland!
2) In 1964 there was an earthquake in Anchorage that registered a 9.2 and lasted 5 minutes!!!! The museum showed pictures of the damage and it was incredible. I can't imagine a 5 minute long earthquake..
3) When you are the only person staying in a single hotel room, you still receive 2 keys.
4) Subways in Alaska have $6 footlongs. I'm curious if they have commercials for them as well. ("six dollar foot longs" doesn't have the same ring)
5) Halibut burgers are deeeeeelicious.
6) Alaska has no sales tax. (so when you buy a $6 footlong...you pay exactly $6)
7) I walked into a bookstore in downtown Anchorage and learned that there is an entire book about the story behind the youtube video about Christian the Lion. (If you haven't seen the video search it. And watch the one with Aerosmith singing in the background, it makes me cry. So type "Christian the lion Aerosmith")

I think those are the main things I learned today. Way better than sitting in a college class, yeah?

I'll be sure to write about things after I get to the park tomorrow. Until then I'm going to try to trick my body into thinking it's night time even though it's as bright as if it were afternoon time right now. We'll see how that goes.

Hope whoever may be reading this is doing well! Thanks for being interested enough to read about my summer. I'll try to not disappoint, and I'll do my best to keep this up as often as I can. :)

Here are pictures from the 1964 earthquake.