Coffee Culture.

On almost every street, in almost every carpark, and on very many street corners in Anchorage you can find a coffee shack. These are convenient little drive-thru sheds that serve fresh coffee all day to the cold folk of Anchorage.

We couldn't call ourselves Alaskan until we had visited one. I think Daniel gave away our 'cheechako' status though, when he drove up to the window so that I had to place the order from the passenger seat...!

Winter Trails Day

The Campbell Creek Science Center and REI put on the Winter Trails Day every year. This involves an introduction to the Alaskan outdoors, and features instruction on basic snow survival skills and a chance to try out several different winter sports, all free to the public!

On arrival we were given a survival kit in case we ever get stuck out in the wild. The cool little pack included headgear, hand-warmers, a leatherman, safety lights, an emergency blanket, a water bottle, energy bars, a map, lip salve, and a mini first-aid kit. It's incredible that they can just give these out for free, but safety on Alaska's trails is a huge priority here. We also explored the ice-shelters (digloos) and snow trenches, which was pretty interesting. I hope we never have to resort to one of these!

Our main aim was the winter sports and we finally attempted some cross-country skiing. We settled for skate-skiing over classic skiing, even though it looked like harder work. After receiving instruction on how to stay upright and move forward at the same time, we practised skate-skiing round a short, icy track.

Once we were confident enough, we headed out on one of the trails in Campbell Creek Park. It was exhilarating to move through the forest at speed, and we got a good workout and had great fun at the same time! We'll definitely be trying this again soon.

Later on in the day we managed to borrow some "fat bikes". These are mountain bikes which have been specially adapted for riding on snow, and are punted as the ultimate Alaskan trail bike. They are fitted with tires that are three-inches wide, and these enabled us to plough through the snow and ice with relative ease. Bigger leg muscles would have helped my cause, but I managed to keep up with Daniel most of the way!

Fun in the (little bit of) sun

The first month of 2010 has flown by, and we've filled it with all sorts of exciting activities. We were invited to play broomball in the friendly Sunday afternoon league with a huge group of friends. Broomball is a little like Calvinball. The set-up is similar to soccer: two teams, a goal at either end, most goals wins. However, most similarities end there. Broomball is played on an ice rink, but players wear running shoes instead of skates. They use "brooms", which are long poles with a rubber "blade" at the end, and they use these to hit around a kind of mini-soccerball. Feet can be used, accidentally and on purpose, but the use of hands is discouraged (but not illegal).

We're not sure how anyone came up with this game, but we're glad they're did! It's great fun, and it's the only time we end up outdoors wearing just a t-shirt, as we get we a good run-around!

We do also play a more formal sport, although some may argue that it's less civilised. We joined a mixed soccer team and we have league matches every weekend. Neither of us has actually played soccer before, so we were quite hesitant at first. However, our teammates have embraced Daniel's speed and sleight-of-foot, and they put up with my presence on the field when one of the other girls is having a rest...

The matches are all played indoors as the outdoor fields are covered with knee-deep snow. One of the venues, the aptly-named Dome, looks a giant inflatable dome. It is white, and camouflages nicely against the white sky or mountains, which makes it quite tricky to find! Inside there are three fields surrounded by a six-lane rubber running track.

The latest sport we've tried is snowboarding! Although we knew exactly how to excel at it before we even took to the slopes, we left nursing bruised bums and egos. Snowboarding is the "cool" sport at Hilltop, and all the gangly teenagers who whizz past are clothed in baggy shirts, giant hoodies, and ski pants hanging around their ankles. We thought that if we were suitably attired, we'd fit right in, but they saw through us!

Snowboarding turned out to be not that much fun. We didn't take to it as well or as quickly as we took to skiing, and we spent more time falling than boarding. It seems that much of a boarder's time is spent sitting on the snow tying bindings or trying to stand up. It looks like good fun when it's done properly, but we found skiing more enjoyable, so I think we'll be sticking to that!

South to Seward

Our first adventure of 2010 was a trip down to Seward, a small coastal town 130 miles south of Anchorage. The drive itself makes the trip rewarding as the road winds its way through harsh, rugged mountain ranges and past frozen glacial lakes. We saw some locals ice-fishing and passed lots of holiday-makers on their snow machines. At the halfway mark, Turnagain Pass, we stopped to experience some new Alaskan trails, this time on snowshoes.

Snowshoeing allows you to walk on top of the snow, regardless of its depth. At times we were traversing snow 5-feet deep.

We shattered the surface ice and crunched our way through the forest in search of moose.

After a two-hour walk my hair had frozen!

Seward is a charming little town, but rather quiet in winter. We visited the Alaska SeaLife Center, which had puffins and seals and sea lions, but we resisted the adverts to see these creatures in the wild on a scuba diving trip. We also enjoyed some real American bars (a la Colin in Love Actually!) - the locals are ridiculously friendly!

Seward has a little walking tour through the streets of the village, but again this should be more rewarding in the summer. We survived the trail for an hour before completing the tour in our car! We saw a couple of bald eagles and an adorable little sea otter playing in Resurrection Bay. We greatly anticipate a return visit to Seward in summer to see the glaciers.

Happy New Year

We enjoyed a superbly American New Year's Eve celebration in the Anchorage Town Square. There was children's ice-skating on the rink, followed by a Fire and Ice Show, before the grand finale of a fireworks spectacular with the blue moon as a back drop. All this was over by 20h30 and the crowds dispersed home... (Thank goodness, because it was freezing!)

The square was decorated with ice sculptures, and we posed for many photos on the ice throne and with the Eskimo couple. We had a lovely evening, and we look forward to all the adventures 2010 has to offer.

Anchorage Zoo

Since we've only seen a couple of moose and lots of ravens, we decided to go and see what real Alaskan wildlife looked like. The best place for this is not in fact, the wilderness of the Last Frontier, but the zoo! The zoo here is really beautiful as it is a snow-swept landscape with a stream trickling between the enclosures.

We saw most kinds of wildlife, but the brown and black bears were hibernating. Our favOrite was the snow leopard, but he refused to pose for a photo. We also enjoyed the alpacas (apparently they make great pets), the sea otters, the wolves and the tigers. All the enclosures have proper arctic conditions, covered in snow, but a few lucky animals have heated pools!

And finally, the most exciting sighting of the day was the lesser spotted moose-ness...

Snow Angel!

We had a long list of things to achieve in Alaska, and Vanessa finally ticked off the snow angel. Although she emerged with snow in her gloves and boots, the final product was enchanting. Did she come down from heaven...?

A White Christmas

The Christmas spirit in Alaska is tremendous. We've been on a couple of 'hot chocolate drives' through the suburbs, viewing the brilliant Christmas lights and decorations outside the houses. The winner is definitely the house with six blow-up, glowing-from-the-inside snowmen in the garden! We haven't seen the 16-foot snowman yet, but apparently he appears on Christmas Eve every year.

We spent Christmas Eve skiing, and then had Christmas dinner at the Henrys' house. We were spoilt with delicious food, wine and presents, and we are now thoroughly infused with the American Christmas spirit!

Merry Christmas to all our friends all over the world! We hope you aren't too jealous of our white Christmas...

Snowing and Skiing

So, we've been here a week, and we discovered that all the rumOrs are true. It is cold all the time, the snow when we arrived was pathetic, and there really is a gigantic mountain range around the city! We were trapped in a fog for a few days, but now that it's lifted, we've realiZed that the state is even more beautiful than just our car park.

After a couple of lessons, Daniel felt confident enough to drive on the snowy streets. After four days of snowfall, our first problem was de-snowing the car.

Then we had to work out how to fill up with GAS, without an attendant! Once we were up and running, we took a drive south out of Anchorage on the Seward Highway. (There is only one highway...) We got as far as Girdwood, and we were treated to a spectacular sunset along the cold, rough, ice-floaty sea, with majestic white peaks all around.

On Sunday we actually took to the slopes of one of these peaks (just a little one, mind) and tried our hand/ feet at skiing! What a rush! It was one of the best afternoons we've had. Daniel mastered it straight away with his fearless 'where's-the-biggest-slope?' attitude, while I adjusted a little more slowly, often on my rear end! By the end of the afternoon, just as it was getting dark, we were zooming down the floodlit slopes, finally beating all those little kids...

God Bless America

Our Alaskan Adventure has begun! On paper, we left Johannesburg at 20h00 on Friday night and arrived in Anchorage at 17h00 on Saturday afternoon. In reality we traveled (yes, just one 'l') for 32 hours on three different flights; it was exhausting!

The approach into Alaska was beautiful. We flew over snow-topped mountains peaking out above the clouds, icy blue glaciers and ominous, freezing-cold ice floats.

We went out for supper with some of Dan’s new colleagues and the food portions were huge! We’ll have to be careful not to eat everything put in front of us or we’ll end up like proper Americans…

Our apartment is very dinky. It’s just a one-bedroom flat, but it’s big enough for our measly four suitcases of possessions. It's almost the same size as our MASSIVE Ford truck; it's going to be so much fun ploughing through the snow!

On our first morning we dashed outside when it started to get light at about 10am and acted like total tourists. We took so many photos of the snow and the trees and the Christmas decorations and we didn’t even leave our car park! It can only get better from here...