Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Last night, Steve and I went to the First Friday Grand Re-Opening of The Stash. We only stayed for about 40 minutes, and the place was packed while we were there! My friend Abby (her jewelry is there) stayed for almost two hours and told me that after we left, a bunch more people came through. I’m so glad that people are checking out the place.

Steve and I planned to get a bite to eat while we were out, but couldn’t decide on a place to go. Then he reminded me that he had a $50 giftcard for Chilis that he had won playing golf a few months ago. Chilis is on my ‘three strikes and you’re out’ list, but since we weren’t spending any of our own money, I decided to go with him.

Surprisingly, the meal was good (for chain restaurant fare), although the service - as always - was slow. I had the Chicken Caesar Pita, and Steve had the Quesadilla Explosion. We both had a bottle of Guinness to wash it all down. The bill came to just about $43.00, so with the tip, that card was spent.

After our meal, we stopped to get gas ($4/gallon at Freddies with our discount card - will we EVER see prices below $4 up here????!!!), and then I asked Steve to drive me back downtown so I could take some photos of the riverfront area at night.

I took this from the pedestrian bridge. On the left side of the photo is Golden Heart Plaza, with the Marriott Hotel behind it. You can see in the plaza, the ramp leading down to the river. This is the ramp I photographed when the river was at flood stage and the water came up on it. The bridge spanning the river is the Cushman Street Bridge. It replaced a wooden bridge in 1959. The old wooden bridge used to wash out or become damaged every year during “break-up”, when the ice floes came downriver. This is where the Yukon Quest starts and ends in February, when the river is frozen.

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It snowed yesterday, and this snow brought a couple of inches of accumulation. A glance out the front window shows a temperature of 22F.  Steve took his truck to work this morning, because my car still doesn’t have its studded tires mounted. He said he hit several slippery spots in the hills and had to slow to 30mph for the majority of the drive to avoid sliding. Thank goodness, he doesn’t  have to deal with any traffic on his morning and afternoon commutes.  His shift starts 30 minutes before the rest of the employees (and ends 30 minutes earlier), so he doesn’t have anyone on the road with him when he comes and goes.

I put together this video, from footage I shot yesterday as the snow was falling:

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