HallmarcDotNet

Sun, 05 Feb 2012

Anchorage Day 2

Snowed in?

After my nap, I got up and saw that the snow was still falling. Discouraged but not undaunted, I organized my luggage and sorted through all my email and other messages from two days. Then I called my contacts with Bergaila & Associates and GCI to confirm everything for Monday and learned that the work site was not where I was originally told. Fortunately, I had not yet signed a lease for an apartment; so I went online to find a long-term place to stay that would be closer to my office. 

I had done this before and had some contacts, but a couple of the places I had been considering had already been rented. Not deterred, I scheduled a couple of showings for Saturday. 

At about 17:15 I went down to the Slippery Salmon, the restaurant adjacent to the Ramada, and ordered a TBLT wrap and root beer for dinner. After eating, I went up to my room and crashed again until about 04:00 on Day 2 of my Anchorage Adventure.

Knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep, I got up, showered, shaved, dressed, and logged in again to look for places to stay and catch up on my news. I munched on a complimentary breakfast in the pre-dawn dark. 

Sunrise came, eventually, and I got my first glimpse of mountains east of town. They were black against the horizon until the sun was fully over the horizon in the southeast. 

In the growing light, I bundled up and went out to see how my rental car had fared.

It was bad: 

See how lonely it looks? This is after the parking lot had been plowed once the night before. 

Fortunately, Alamo had included an ice-scraper and brush with the car, so I was able to get it cleaned up enough to run some errands around town. Here's the car (the one in front) after my return from Fred Meyer and other locations around Anchorage. As you can see, I don't really even need a car, as Anchorage has the People Mover bus line that runs all year 'round. This is the view from my third floor balcony (where I keep my ice cream wrapped up so the snow monkeys don't pee on it) looking east. 

Note that these streets have been plowed multiple times during the night and into the morning; I took this photo in the afternoon. 

After my errands, I visited a couple of condos to see if they suited. Cheap rent is not available in Anchorage, even in the dead of winter; a furnished studio starts at about $1350 a month and goes up to around $1800, depending on location, amenities, and length of stay. The less expensive ones tend to be old, miles away from everything, or in bizarre configurations — or all three.

Fortunately, the weather was clear and relatively warm — high reached about 30 degrees. Totally bearable and overall quite pleasant after the previous day.

I made a few more appointments to see condos on Sunday and then went back to the Slippery Salmon for dinner — the battered halibut chipotle wrap is pretty good when washed down with a Dr. Brown Cream Soda.