17 Hours

We've officially passed the 17 hour of daylight mark... sunrise about 0530, sunset about 2240. It makes for quite the time warp in the evening. My mission this weekend is to buy light blocking curtains for the bedroom (which faces the east). It's been difficult to find purple ones, so I might just have to settle for black.

As you can see from the pictures below, we've been very busy exploring. I've kept busy finishing up orientation and I started working on the floor this week. It's great to be back with patients, especially the tiny ones. I'm looking forward to taking my own patient load and becoming more familiar with the unit. It's been quite busy there on the OB unit, at least a few births a day. Cody's continued to be busy at work; getting home before 7 is a rarity. The course opens the back nine on full greens tomorrow, and with the nice weather we've had the last couple days, this weekend is looking very busy for him. All is going well though, he's been excited to be involved in all the changes and continues to come up with more ways to improve the course.

We're open to visitors too :) So anybody looking to vacation up here, just let us know and we'll check our reservation schedule.

And an early congrats to Erin on her hooding ceremony tomorrow! I dedicate the following moose montage to you:

Kincaid Park and view of the inlet

First bull moose

Begin montage

Point Woronzof

Only one picture of this one- I was still hurting after flipping over the handlebars of the bike after I slammed on the brakes when I spotted him. I have the bruises to prove it.

Believe it or not, there's a momma bear with two cubs at the edge line of the grove

Trail on Flat top

Lazy Sunday, obvs

Moose on our coastal trail walk. Shortly thereafter, a growly moose would block the trail and force us to venture into the woods to make it back to the road

View of downtown Anchorage from the coastal trail- May 11, 2011

We were able to spot Mt McKinley today from the course, some 200 miles north of Anchorage- what a sight!

55 and Sunny

Armed with a State Parks parking permit (which I didn't need for Kincaid Park, but oh well), I went out for my first hike today. After completing base orientation this week, I was given this weekend off before doing hospital orientation next week. Cody's been busy again this week, but it should slow down a little for him next week once more staff arrive. Today was 55 degrees and sunny, so the course and range were busy, and with the greens looking better, the full course is looking to be open in 10 days or so. We were able to take a cart out tonight before we had dinner at the course restaurant.

I'm hoping to make it to the library book sale tomorow (I found the main branch... it takes up an entire city block- it's huge!). Then apparently this is the first weekend for the farmer's market, so I'll check that out. Cody found me a bike for a reasonable price, so perhaps I'll be able to take it for a spin tomorrow as well while Cody slaves away.

We've continued to gather information on hikes, fishing, scenic drives, etc... so the wedding weekend is looking to be quite busy. Unfortunately, wedding plans are still up in the air as far as the church, reception site, and photographer, but we're hoping to figure things out very shortly.

Mirror Lake- just north of Eagle River (our drive on Wednesday night didn't yield as many sights as we'd hoped)

Another view of Mirror Lake and Chugach Mountains

We had to fight over who got to chop the veggies with our new pairing knives that I got for my birthday... Thanks Mom & Dad!

Little Campbell Lake in Kincaid Park

The entire trail was a cross-country skiing route

And I made it around to the other side

Still icy

A view from the western edge of Kincaid Park

Where Caillat's been spending most of her time (above the fireplace)

Cody on his course

Typical cart picture

Back nine

Front

Our Apartment

Ah, what a week it's been! Our goods arrived Friday afternoon. It only took the movers 2 hours to carry in and help unpack all of our boxes and furniture. I spent the next few days getting unpacked, then organizing the place. It was quite the task. I picked Cody up from work on Friday evening and he was quite impressed, but weary at how much work was left. He gladly went back to the course on Saturday. Then, when he got off work Saturday, I'd stocked the fridge, set up the guest bed and organized the closet. Whew. It's finally looking less like a wind storm came through. We haven't hung anything on the wall yet, and we're needing living room art (Elysia). I did include a few pictures of the furniture assembly, much to Cody's dismay.

The course opening went without a hitch on Friday. Here's the link to an article about the course that was run in the Anchorage Daily News: http://www.adn.com/2011/04/28/1834771/major-course-renovations-on-horizon.html It looks like Cody came at just the right time. He's been working close to 12 hours most days, but hopefully just until he gets all his staff hired and trained. His boss treated us to dinner Friday night at Firetap (first Alaskan beer tired: Glacier Brewhouse Blonde Ale: tasted like beer).

Opening day (wearing the sweater I found for $5!)

I thought I'd include a few prices for comparison, in case any of you were wondering:
Gal of milk: $4.40 ($3.30 on sale)
Gal of gas: $4.11 (on base)
12 pack of pop: $5
44 oz at Holiday: $.99 :)

I've found a lot of things are much cheaper at the commissary on base, so I'll plan most of my shopping trips there. However, I will continue to follow Fred Meyer sales because it's right down the road. It's been staying around 45-50 degrees and been mostly cloudy most days, making it perfect jeans and sweatshirt weather.

Today is my last afternoon off. I took care of our housing paperwork and filed all my travel expenses so hopefully we'll start getting paid regularly. I had base orientation the next couple of days, then I'm set to report to work on Thursday morning. I'm not sure from there, but I hope to make it to the public library's book sale on Saturday.

Below are a few photos of the apartment and other adventures:

The den/extra bedroom, with Cody's new shoes (there's a closet to the left there too)

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Our empty kitchen, gas stove, how exciting for Cody

Bedroom, obvs

Closet: big mistake to get a place with a huge walk-in closet- I will forever be spoiled (especially with the upgrade from my wardrobe at home)

The living room, complete with clutter

The 'outdoor living space'

The view from our balcony

Our front door, on the left

The stairwell and dutiful greeter cat

Furniture assembly 1

I call this one "The Thinker"

Finally reunited with her favorite chair

I rewarded Cody with 4 new sweaters, all for $12! (One was $1.15, almost beating my all-time best find of $1.12)

Last night we found a trail close to our apt: we left around 5/6 of it to be discovered. Apparently this creek with be teaming with salmon is a couple months