Bed, Breakfast, and... building products?

August 23, 2012
Daniel's Lake in Nikiski is small and owned by the people who own property around it. It isn't as amazing and majestic and some other Alaska views, but it is quaint and cozy and still known to a popular spot to hang out if you are a member of the moose community. This is where we checked into our bed and breakfast for the night. An actual bed was seeming pretty exciting about now, it seemed we hadn't really slept in two days. I guess the four hours of time difference was wearing us down a little. We settled into our room and were tempted to just go to sleep, but it was only 4pm and this was the only time we had allotted for exploring this area. The living room area had a bookshelf with some area books and maps so we grabbed a map and decided to see what was around. Cook Recreation Area sounded exciting and we figured it was probably our best bet to see some wildlife (hopefully the bears would only appear if we were safe in the car). I refilled my water bottle, locked our room door, and we headed out.  It was a short and pleasant drive to the park. We thought a short hike would be nice, but we couldn't find much of that. We ended up parking and walked to an overlook type area where we could see the beach and some nice views of Cook Inlet. I couldn't help but turn around every so often to check for massive attacking grizzly bears, but there were none. We took a more scenic route back to the B&B and decided to order pizza for dinner. It was pretty good. Andrew decided to pour over the maps provided and I was busy reading a book I had brought with me when another couple arrived. They were spending an entire week in the area and were really nice. We opened some wine and chatted with them about our crazy venture. They shared some information about past trips to AK they had taken and before long we were having a slightly drunk good time. We talked construction, customers, kids, you name it. By 10pm I was damn near falling asleep on the bar, I swear I felt myself sliding off the barstool a time or two. I told Andrew I was gonna have to go to bed. I said my goodnights and slipped away from the conversation. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Andrew ended up staying up another two hours chatting with the couple before coming to bed himself. I didn't even hear him come in.
You know that awake when you physically open your eyes and look around, but everything is still dreamy and unreal? 3:30am I wake up and forget for a minute where I am. Our room had a huge picture window that overlooked the lake. I looked outside and saw this faint green glow really low in the sky. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, but when I looked again it was still there. I turned and shook Andrew violently, "Look, look, it's the Northern Lights!" He grunted at me with his eyes closed. "LOOK!"  Slowly, Andrew opens his eyes, rolls my way, and looks out the window. Let me point out here that he isn't wearing his glasses of course. " See the green? It's the northern lights, right? Do you see it?" I am probably yelling at him now.
"Ggggguhh" was all he can manage and then he lays back down and is immediately asleep. I was so disappointed. I watched the sky until I fell asleep again myself, wishing I was brave enough to go outside with my camera.
August 24, 2012 Andrew's 31st B-Day
Andrew and I wake up early, around 630am, and begin getting dressed and ready for the day. We meandered into the kitchen to get breakfast. Andrew enjoys cooking and I am lazy in the morning so he got out the eggs, reindeer sausage (which scared me a little) and the orange juice. I went back to our room to pack up all of our stuff while he cooked. Scrambled eggs and pan seared reindeer sausage awaited my return. I took one frightening bite of the sausage and kindly offered the remainder of my serving to him, for his birthday and all you know. I ate my eggs and some toast. We packed up the rest of our stuff, left a little goodbye note to our "neighbors" and got into the car. Today was our property viewing day so we were gonna be in and out of the car a lot and driving around to find our new home. We had picked out 7 properties to view and had prioritized them with our first choice first and so on. Let's just say that no one should ever buy property sigh unseen. SCARY! The first property was very close to town, a plus, very close to brewery, a major plus, and the photo provided online showed the most promise. Well, upon arriving there we liked the road, the neighbors, the views. Then we started walking the property to get a better feel for the size of the place. The closer we got to the back of the land, the spongier and mushier the land was. Okay, so first choice was out. Our second choice was a little too close to the road and therefore a little noisier than what we wanted. This property, however provided a really cool gift for the kids. As we were again walking the property, Andrew happened upon a moose jaw (pictured below). It was creepy and neat at the same time. We joked that we should bring it back for the kids, especially Angelo, who would think it was the coolest thing ever. Of course this is probably not allowed so Andrew told me to turn around and cover my ears. I did, and he proceeded to crack the skull and remove the teeth. "We will just take the teeth then," he says as he shows them to me. "Only our family," I reply and we go back to the car to get a plastic zipper bag to store them in.  The remaining properties were a little farther away so we decided to go back into town, pick up some food to take along and check out Soldotna Building Supply. Exciting, right? Well, maybe not, but necessary. It is actually really cute. It feels like a combination of classic hardware store and large lumber yard. Andrew compared prices for a while, we looked at some wood stoves, and headed on to Freddie's for some groceries. We bought sandwich meat, rolls, cheese, pretzels, fruit, and chocolate enough for lunch and dinner. We knew we were heading up Funny River Rd. next and that the rest of the properties were up there. From what we had seen so far, we weren't sure what the others would look like. We were a little worried that we wouldn't find one that would work for us. We had no idea what was coming.