Chena Hot Springs Resort Part 1 Dog Sledding

I did do some fun stuff while my parents were here before they left.  We went to the Chena Hot Springs Resort about an hour outside of Fairbanks.  We did four things while we were there the first was Dog Sledding.  A female dog sledder took us on a two mile round trip.  

Statue of Balto:

Sample Sleds:

Dogs waiting to sled

Dogs actually sledding

Car Shopping

So we did car shopping in pretty much two days.  After hitting all the dealers with a better reputation we found three cars in my price range that had 4 wheel or all wheel drive.

The 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee
The 2003 Jeep Liberty
and a Nissan Exterra

We decided the Jeep Grand Cherokee would be a fine car for me and we decided to put a offer on it.  The offer came back over blue book and we decided against purchasing it.  Which in all honesty I am okay with that.  It had a broken windshield, a broken tail light, the check engine light was on and Car Facts said it was in an accident and had recalled parts.

The next car we went to was my brand new amazing Jeep Liberty =) it has 55,000 miles, no accidents, and is very pretty =) It is a manual though which is a little difficult getting used to.  But I love it so much.  We spent all day at the dealer.  I filled out the application and I got approved but I need proof of income.  So I called my HR office and they said they couldn't provide it so I called my supervisor and she wrote a letter and faxed it over.  I finally got approved for the loan.  I couldn't drive it off the lot with out car insurance though.  So I got a bunch of quotes online.  Progressive was the cheapest and it was really cheap. Well soon to find out I typed 97701 instead of 99701 in the zip code box and it was half the price because it was in Oregon.  I wound up going with Progressive anyways and only spent 4 hours at the Car Dealer.

My apartment

A Tour of the Apartment:

First stop the bedroom:

The dining room and temporary office until I get a desk

The Hallway and closet

The Bathroom

 The Kitchen

Apt Hunting

I'm not adding pictures to this post.
The first day in Fairbanks we didn't do anything productive in terms of apartment hunting.  We just went back to the hotel.  It was New Years day and nothing was open.  The next day however we have four appointments to look at some studios.

Day 1:
The first studio of the day was supposed to be at 9:00am.  She showed up at 9:20am.  Then she showed us her two studios.  They were in walking distance of the university and they were disgusting.  They had rust, mold, water damage and dust mites and any thing you could think of they had.  It was painful not to run away in fear.

The next apartment was also a studio and this particular land lord decided not to show up.  It was difficult to find so I had called her about 20 minutes before our appointment to make sure I was in the right place and her phone was off.  When she didn't turn her phone back on by the appointment time I left.

The third was actually a furnished one bedroom apartment.  The land lord had told me to call when I was on the way because he lived across the street.  So I called when I was on my way.  He asked me to call when I got there.  So I did. He showed up 15 minutes after I did.  He did not live across the street. The apartment was a tad small and the furniture was incredibly out dated.  For the most part it was a good first look though.  The building was secure and looked like a good neighborhood.

The final landlord asked me to call him between certain times to have him show me the studio he had available.  This is the same land lord that I called a month in advance and he told me he had plenty of apartments I could look at once I got here.  He is kind of a liar.  When I called him to make appointments to see all of these amazing apartments he only had one and it was his, pardon my language, his shittiest one.  He ignored my phone calls and showed me the apartment hung over.  It was a very pleasant end to my day.

Day 2:
I had only planned on seeing one apartment today but after the duds of yesterday I wound up with two more showings including the husband of the woman who stood me up.

The first showing started the same as all of the others, LATE.  Once I got inside though it was my absolute favorite showing.  It was a furnished studio with a jacuzzi tub.  It used to a hotel and was renovated into apartments.  It had a full sized kitchen in it's own room.  It was amazing.  The woman who showed me the apartment said there was also a one bedroom we could look at but she didn't have the key for it at the moment.  We had to call the office and make another appointment.

We went to go see the apartment we got stood up at next.  The man that was showing it to us was there 15 minutes early.  That was so exciting to see.  He showed us a one bedroom and a studio.  The studio was kind of gross again but the one bedroom was really nice.  But he wasn't sure if he was renting it out yet.  That obviously didn't work for me because I was living in a hotel.

The last apartment of the day was a one bedroom apartment by the same land lord that said call I live right next door.  He didn't show up.  I then called the office of the first apartment of the day and got a showing of the one bedroom.

The one bedroom was even better then the studio.  Fell in love!  I took an application and the woman who showed it to me said the person who runs applications won't be in until the next morning so nothing could get processed until then.

The next morning I brought in my application and the apartment was gone =( It was very disheartening.  The studio was still available though and I took it.  That evening I got a phone call and they said I could move in at noon.  This is so exciting I finally have an apartment.

At 11 they called again and changed it to five.

Anchorage

Pictures will be added when I am caught up!

We got to anchorage at about 8:00pm local time.  This is 11:00 Midwest time. We waited for our bags at baggage claim and then hopped onto a shuttle to the hotel.  By the time we got all settled in it was midnight Midwest time.  So we said "Happy New Year" and went to bed.  So exciting I know.

The next day however we went to downtown Anchorage.  The adventure started dark because the sun didn't rise until 10:30 or so. The place seemed like a ghost town all the touristy stuff was closed the season.  We went to the mall and we went to see the ice sculptures. It was a good time.  The really cool thing about Anchorage is it is completely surrounded by mountains until you get to the harbor.  It is so beautiful.

I had my first experience with a raven in Anchorage.  Ravens look like crows and we are all used to crows.  Well ravens are 3x the size of our crows.  They are disgustingly HUGE!

Traveling

I will add more photos when I am caught up!

Our Flight from Cedar Rapids to Minnesota wasn't really cancelled.  The fog lifted enough that we were able to make it out.  As soon as our flight started to load other flights started to get cancelled because the fog started to get thick again.  I feel like we were really lucky to have gotten out.  We had three bags per person and made for a lot of baggage.



The flight to Minnesota was only about forty-five minutes. Once we got there we had a few hours to do as we wanted.  Not only did we have a two hour lay over but our flight was delayed.  The air line attendant was offering to check bags for free because this large plane didn't have enough overhead space for all the luggage.  When we finally boarded the plane it was taken to get de-iced.  We sat on the plane for over an hour even after it was delayed waiting for the plane to get de-iced however we were also able to watch during that hour all the luggage that wasn't checked that got checked for free be loaded into the bottom of the plane.

During the flight they offered a movie for free it was called "Going the Distance" about a couple who met in New York but she really lives in California.  How they struggled with a long distance relationship.  Awesome right? That is the kind of movie someone moving to Alaska from Iowa wants to watch. Well the movie ended within the first third of the flight and the bordem set in.  I tried to read but it was too loud.  I put in head phones and listened to music so I could read.  The two wonderful gentlemen sitting in front of my talked so much and so loud it was impossible to concentrate.  After the third hour I had, had enough flying for one day and we were only half way there.  So I tried and got some sleep the rest of the way with mild interruptions. After the full six hours of flight we were finally able to land.  We got to Anchorage almost three hours later then we anticipated.

My next post is about Anchorage so lets move on to the next day.  The next day our flight to Fairbanks left in the afternoon and it was only a half hour flight.  But oh boy was it a terrible flight.  There was so much turbulence I would compare our flight to a roller coaster.  For those who don't know I get mildly motion sick.  It isn't terrible but I get it on the highway and definitely on planes. I don't throw up but I usually go into some sort of state of sleep to deal with it.  It is impossible to sleep on a roller coaster.  This flight was so bad the stewardess (<- I don't know how to make that plural) were buckled in their seats almost the entire time.  It was wonderful to have landed absolutely wonderful.

Sorry I'm Lame

I will update my blog tonight Sorry I'm so lame!

I moved into my apartment later that day and didn't have internet so I am updating right now!