Alaska! The "Work" Part

I was hoping to get this all into one post, but I can't seem to upload any more video files, and well, I want to. I guess I will have to do this in a few different posts.

Anyways, you can only imagine my excitement when I learned I was going to get to go to Anchorage, AK for my Regional EIS Conference. The other options were Denver - I could have made a ski weekend of it; Hershey - I could have headed into NYC to see friends for the weekend, and Indianapolis - I can't think of any pluses. Since I had never been to AK before, I feel like I got really lucky. After learning of my destination, the hard part became deciding what to do after the work part was over, but I'll come back to that in a later post.

I flew up via Seattle on Monday, March 29. I took the earliest flight I could so that I could get in and get settled, leaving the rest of the day for a bit of exploring. It was cloudy for most of the flight up and I didn't have a window sea,t but what I did see out of the window was pretty spectacular as we were approaching Anchorage. There was a brief moment of clear skies and I could see mountain peaks below me. The snow was so deep that the whole scene looked like meringue. Once we landed in Anchorage and I emerged from the gangway, I was greeted by huge windows filled with the views of the surrounding mountains. It was quite spectacular. I grabbed my luggage (had to check a bag since I had to bring a suit) and a cab and headed to the hotel.

View from the taxi on the way to the hotel.

I was the first one to arrive, which was good. It gave me time to iron my suit, check e-mail, and run through my presentation a couple of times. By the time I was finishing up with all of that stuff I got a text from my friend Christina saying she, Meagan, and James had arrived at the airport and would be looking to grab lunch once they got to the airport. Yay - company and food!

James, Meagan, and Christina enjoying fresh Alaskan oysters on the half shell. Meagan had never had one before. I believe her verdict, at least for this one, was it tastes like cocktail sauce.

After lunch, we took a stroll through downtown Anchorage and came across a souvenir store selling mostly fur items. Christina and Meagan purchased a few post cards, but the real entertainment came from exploring the fur items.

Beaver head - yick!

James looking aristocratic in a sheep skin.

Meagan sporting a nose warmer and breaking the rules in the process. Apparently I was as well, since we were told that we should not be taking photos or trying on the nose warmers shortly after taking this photo. Sadly, this request came before we discovered the fur bra and thong set and fur jock strap. If only we would have found them sooner...

Our first encounter with a Mexican restaurant in AK. It seemed somewhat out of place. Little did we know there would be Thai restaurants on nearly every corner and all of the cab drivers seem to have immigrated from countries with tropical climates. We were all curious as to what brought them from their steamy climates to Alaska, of all places. I was curious enough that I asked my cab driver from the airport what brought him to AK after he mentioned he had been in AK for 31 years. He told me it was God's will. Not quite the answer I was hoping for.

We noticed this little thingy and extended our walk a bit just to get a better picture of it. We all thought it was chicken, but now that I am looking at this photo a bit closer I'm not really sure what it is.

Taking in the views from the hotel post walk.

James, Christina, and Meagan

Sleeping Lady on a cloudy day

Sleeping Lady on a clear day

This might be Mt. McKinley. My understanding is that it is visible from Anchorage on a clear day and was in the general direction that I took this photo. I've been wrong on this before though...

Eva, Me, Meagan, Christina, James, Willy, and James heading to lunch during our break from giving presentations. We, of course, dined on Thai food. Christina gave it a thumbs up given we were in Anchorage.

After a long day of giving and listening to presentations, we headed to a seafood restaurant for dinner. I was having trouble deciding if I would get salmon, halibut, scallops, or crab for dinner, but once I saw the menu my troubles were over. I was able to dine on smoked salmon wrapped scallops and Dungeness crab stuffed halibut - it was so yummy!

After dinner there were a couple of activities to partake of. One group went out to a bar, and based on the photos I've seen from that group it looks like it was a fun evening. What evening that ends with an EIS Officer hanging upside down out of tree isn't fun, right? I opted for the sledding option. Willy's family lives in Anchorage, so we had access to sleds if we could get to them. Luckily Betsy, the statistician for the EIS Field Assignments Branch that we are all a part of, was interested in joining us. That gave us access to the car our supervisors had rented. It was pretty funny watching her ask Diana, one of our supervisors, to use the car to take us sledding. It was very much like watching a kid ask their mom to borrow the car. Once we got to the car, we decided that perhaps Willy should drive since he knows the area. An entire conversation ensued debating whether or not he could actually drive the car since it was a rental and he wasn't a listed driver. In the end, we decided he should still drive. The next morning, Diana informed Betsy that any federal employee can drive government rental cars. Apparently, Betsy had pocket dialed Diana right at the moment we were having that conversation - the timing! We got a good laugh out it.

We made the rounds to Willy's sister's and mom's places to pick up the sleds. Three of them fit nicely in the trunk of the car but one was a bit too big. We made it fit, although it did mean driving around Anchorage with the window down.

Betsy, Me, Christina, Meagan and the sled

Willy took us to a "not dangerous" sledding hill. I thought it was a pretty good hill, maybe not as steep as the one I used to go down as a kid, but we had enough near missess with the trees at the bottom to get my adrenaline going.

The sledders - Meagan, Betsy, Willy, Christina, and Me

An early run

Me testing out the depth of the snow. Knee-deep was the verdict.

Our final, and fastest, run. We nearly hit the tree at the bottom, but Willy was able to stop us just inches from the hay bale that would have supposedly kept us from being injured.

Our second work day was filled with presentation critiques. It was less painful than I thought it would be, and this is coming from someone who had to make fairly substantial changes. We went out for pizza for dinner and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our real Alaskan adventure. More on that soon!