Where Am I and Why?

This month, July 11, to be exact, marked the 10 year anniversary of our arrival in Anchorage, Alaska to live. Why did we move here you ask? I too, ask that question. Every. Single. Day.

Not really. More like every other day. Okay, every winter day. Which is basically every day...okay, moving on.

It all started with a really bad day at work (for me) and a well timed phone call from out of nowhere (to Darrin) and suddenly we were like, “we should move to Alaska!” Darrin was gone within the month, I followed almost two months later.

Perhaps a little back story is in order here.

Darrin lived in Alaska as a teenager. He graduated high school there, joined the Air Force there, and up until he moved to Washington to find me, lived there.

Then he moved. And we met. Then we married. Fast forward two years and I’m leaving a job at Microsoft, loading up my Toyota pickup and Darrin’s Jeep Wrangler, kidnapping my younger brother Josh and driving to Alaska. With our cat, Moe.

I should also mention that Josh and I had our wisdom teeth removed (together, on the same day, awww!) the week before we hit the road. Because we have to do everything in the most complicated manner imaginable. Plus, we were both about to lose our health and dental insurance.

It was sad for me to leave. I think my dad was pretty irked considering he’d given his permission for Darrin to marry me if, and only if, he never moved me to Alaska. Darrin doesn’t remember that part. STORY OF MY LIFE.

Anyway, our journey took an incredibly speedy and exhausting SIX DAYS. If you’ve ever driven to or from Alaska to ANYWHERE in the lower 48, you are laughing at us. I know that. It’s okay. You should be jealous. You missed out on staying in some of the seediest dives you could ever imagine because you were too busy driving all night and day to get there in two days. We’re all very impressed. Really.

As we rolled into the city of Anchorage, Darrin informed me (via CB radio) that our apartment was right near McDonalds (YESSS!!!) and I started to get annoyed as we drove past THREE McDonalds and still weren’t home. After six days of driving, I just wanted to be home. Not sure why I was so excited, because home was a smelly, nasty apartment behind the local Bingo Hall/tattoo parlor.

This is Josh holding Jack. Jack as in, Jack In The Box, antennae ball, Jack ball. We put him on brand new as we rolled out of Duvall, Washington. He’s in a lot of pictures. In the end he was missing most of his face. In this shot, we were stopped at one of the many road construction road blocks.


Also this happened a time or two. Darrin would recharge the Jeep every morning while Josh and I rinsed out our gaping mouth surgery holes in whatever local rest area had the least yellow water.


This the Alaska/Canada border. There is a swath cut through the wilderness all along the perimeter. Kind of awesome. Who has that job?


We caravanned all the way. Taking turns driving each car and having a passenger. We communicated via CB radio and it was awesome. Moe peed on Josh’s sweatshirt at one point and to this day, though Moe is long dead, Josh still hasn’t forgiven nor forgotten.


Finally home. This was what our vehicles looked like when we got there.