So Much Travel

Leland and Donetta's cabin on the Tanana
The last week has been something else. After our first night in Tok, Leland and Donetta continued to be incredibly welcoming and kind to us. They had us over for dinner a few nights, took us to their cabin so we could see the Tanana River, and found a local teacher to buy the Volvo. We befriended their cat Dusty and dog Toughie, and they are just the cutest pair.

Trouble makers
We bought tickets on the Interior Alaska Bus Line to Fairbanks leaving Tok on Wednesday, and by the time Donetta dropped us off at the stop, I was a little sad to be leaving. They had welcomed us into their home, fed us, made sure we had a plan and would be safe, and treated us like family. I truly hope we're able to stay in contact with them for years to come. Without them we wouldn't have been able to leave Alaska as stress-free and easily as we did.

When we bought our bus and plane tickets, we decided we didn't want to spend four hours on a bus to Fairbanks, then another six on a plane to Seattle then Salt Lake. We booked our flights for Thursday night, so we could have a night and a full day in Fairbanks to recharge and relax a little before the final leg of our journey. We booked an AirBnB in a neighborhood just outside the airport, and the host Dave went above and beyond. He picked us up from the bus terminal and took us to the AirBnB, and even offered to take us to pick up the car we had rented for the next day. We took a little while to just hang out before we headed out to a bar for a few drinks before turning in for the night. 

The AirBnB neighborhood
The next morning was absolutely beautiful. We woke up and it was -20˚ and clear skies, which compared to Tok's -30˚ to -40˚ was a welcome change. We went to the UA Museum of the North for a few hours and looked at the AK Native exhibits. The museum is on a hill, and the view from the picture windows was absolutely incredible. Fairbanks is a different kind of pretty than Anchorage or South Central. Fairbanks is mostly flat, and foggy from the Chena River. But when it snows, the snow just stays on everything. They don't have windy days, so the snow doesn't fall off of trees and power lines. We drove around Fairbanks for a little while and then had dinner at the Pump House before heading to the airport.

Our flight left Fairbanks around midnight, and landed in Seattle at 4:30 AM. The plan was originally to take a 1:30 PM flight to Salt Lake, and spend a little time in Seattle for breakfast and to explore a bit. We were dead tired though, and the thought of shuffling around Seattle for a few hours on an hour of uncomfortable airplane sleep just wasn't what either of us wanted. We were able to change our tickets to an earlier flight, so we landed in Salt Lake at 9:30 AM, thank God. 

We didn't get the adventure we wanted for our move to Utah, but I still wouldn't trade the last week for even the most well planned vacation.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beginnings and Endings

Image
I’ve been struggling with what to write for my first post, there’s all this pressure to make the first post of a new blog excellent, to set the bar to future entries. To be honest, I’m not 100% sure what direction this blog is going to take. 2018 holds so many major life changes for me that I could realistically focus on any one little part and have more than enough material to publish. For now however, I think I want to focus on the beginnings and endings in my life at the moment. It’s never easy to leave someone or something that you love and have come to cherish, even a job or a career. My least favorite thing to do is to quit a job I truly enjoy, even more so a job with coworkers and a boss that welcomed me and made me feel truly appreciated. I know I’ll have one hell of a time finding another job in a place that was as good to me as the neurology office I’ve spent the last eight months. Giving my notice today was probably one of the most nerve wracking and stressful things I...
Read more

Funemployment Isn't So Fun Anymore

Image
I have officially been unemployed for two months now, and the novelty has worn off. I have really enjoyed being able to sleep in and run errands during the day, but I'm bored out of my noggin, and broke. I've been job hunting and going on interviews for the last few weeks, hoping to find a job that compares to my last. Last week I interviewed with medical software company based in South Jordan, and they offered me a position with them, at the same pay rate I was making in Alaska (it will go so  much further in Utah). I start with them on April 9th, and while it is a hot minute away, I don't think I've ever been so excited to go back to work. My vast amount of free time hasn't been completely spent sleeping and playing Fallout 4 though. I've been able to decorate and organize our apartment, so it feels more like a home now. I went to the D.I. the other day and by some miracle I was able to find the exact same poster frame we already own for $1.50. After spendin...
Read more

In Which I'm a Grown-Ass Adult

Image
I’ve been really terrible about blogging, I know. A lot has happened since I last wrote, but none of it felt particularly exciting or blog-worthy, even though it might have been. I’m convinced that no one reads these, no one cares, my writing is terrible. I’ve written at least three posts since my last one in July, but I’ve deleted all of them. I’m trying to get better and to see this more as a record of what’s going on in my life so I can look back on it later. Since July; I turned 26 in August and I feel weird about it, like it’s still not quite sunk in. I went out with friends for the night and had a good time. I only got some pictures of Dustin and I, I wish I had gotten at least one of the whole group. Birthday shenanigans at Tinwell Dustin went on a TDY to Tucson for two weeks. The first three days I got to stretch out as much as I liked in bed, the next nine days I had to sleep in an empty bed. The novelty of having a whole queen sized bed to myself wore off r...
Read more