Alaska-versary

Tuesday marked our one year Alaska-versary. Has a year already passed? Everyone told us that our time in the military would fly but...can it slow down a little?

{View from our hike in Denali.}

{Kyle and I at Flat Top, one of the most popular hiking spots in Anchorage.}

{About nine miles south of Girdwood on the Seward highway.}

{Graffiti at Resolution Park.}

I've learned a lot in the past year.

• I learned how to drive on show and ice. (It makes driving on rainy roads feel like a cakewalk.)
• I learned how to bundle up. I mean really bundle up.
• I learned that there probably isn't an animal that people won't eat.
• I learned that it's called a snow machine, not a snowmobile. (Even though snow machine sounds like a machine that makes snow.)
• I learned that I can live without chain restaurants (or chain stores, for that matter.) Local food is better, anyway.
  
• I learned how to snowboard! (Kind of.)
• I learned how to fight the urge to snuggle up on the couch on cold days. (The secret? Live somewhere cold. Then every day is a cold day and you know you can't stay inside every day.)
• I learned how to shovel snow. (Badly, but still. I can do it well enough to pull the car into the garage.)
• I learned that even though I love hiking, it's just walking through the woods. (Which is why Kyle now says we're going walking though the woods. He likes to mock me.)
• I learned that there is a land without snakes. It's called Alaska and if it weren't so dang cold, I'd never leave because my fear of snakes is reaching phobia levels. (Florida is ridden with snakes. *shudder*)
• I learned that a Subaru is the best car for ice & snow and why it's such a good car for those conditions.
  

That's (part) of what I've learned in my year in Alaska. It's a gorgeous place full of mountains, moose, and beer. All of which I approve.