Live from the Iditarod

 Iditarod day! It actually happened! The thrill of it all! We were up at 8:30am to get dressed and ready to head downstairs for breakfast real quick then rush out the door to the start of the race. The lounge isn't open on weekends but we do have access to the downstairs breakfast for free. We didn't quite know what we were doing though, because we just walked in but there were people in line but they were likely looking to pay and sit down for breakfast so we figured it was ok to go passed them, except we didn't know who we told we were gold members who go this for free. We figured it'd work itself out though and we were in a hurry so we threw on two bagels to toast when someone came over to verify we were her for the complimentary To-Go breakfast. We said yes and Jess went over to get the box and give her our room numbers. She apologized to her for before when we'd been standing by the desk trying to ask for help while she was helping another guest but we said of course we understood she was busy we were just confused! So all was well!

We threw our bagels and three croissants into the box, chugged a glass of cranberry juice, and blew out of there to go check out the festivities! We walked up the street and got handed a cool pair of foam husky ears each, which were fun but also free! So that's awesome already! We also got some stickers, clappers, and a cinch tie bag we chucked all out belongings in to carry around. There was also an Iditarod booth with all kinds of race merch and Jess decided she really wanted a travel mug and I was gonna think about one of the pins. They didn't really have a line to check-out, they just said every so often "Anyone ready to check out?" which worked for me because I am bold and brash and just got to jump in with YES! I am ready! So despite the crowd we were done with that in a flash! We then wandered around checking out the sights, booths, and enjoying the hubbub of every bustling to and fro! We ended up crossing the street and going down to the left but we decided we wanted to be right at the start of the race, really be part of it all! It was actually snowing a touch and it all felt so right! What says Alaskan Sled Race better than a snowfall! Positively perfect!

We actually got a spot RIGHT at the start before everyone crowded around us so that was awesome! Now, we didn't know there was gonna be people inside the fenced area on the street kinda blocking the way, but it wasn't a huge issue and we saw around. Now, before the race starts they have an aboriginal singing group come to sing some native songs and dance to wish the mushers and the dogs luck and safety. That was wonderful to watch, and it was led by the man from the Blanket Toss and he was fun yesterday so it was nice to see him again! We watched the film crews navigate around and give mini interviews, which was of course fascinating and fun! We just love being a part of all of it, you know? Then the anthem for America and Alaska were sung and the singer did a wonderful job, but everyone kept looking around to see where some weird cheering sound was coming from but Jess and I knew it was the huskies doing their yapping. Huskies are LOUD dogs who just LOVE to bark and whine and they sound so weird when they do it so it's not surprising people were confused cause they make some ugly noises!

From there an announcer appeared in the back of a truck, funny enough, and he started hosting the opening of the race! It started with the mayor of Nome coming riding in on a sled dog team, then the first contestant slide into place! Because the dogs can't be too close to each other the racers can't go off all at once, even for the Ceremonial Start, which is what was happening today, the mushers are all set off at different times. Now, for those who don't follow the Iditarod there are two starts to the race, the Ceremonial Start, and the Official Start or Restart. The race doesn't actually officially begin until the day after the Ceremonial Start where, to ensure the dogs don't end up running into each other, the teams go out one at a time every hour. Then the judges just time how long each team takes to do the race and compare the times to determine the winner. It's convoluted, but it works, and it's safest for the dogs. But, since hour long gaps for 58 contestants isn't a spectator event, there's the Ceremonial Start! This spaces the start of each musher 2 minutes apart so they're all basically backed up all the way down 4th street to be ready to move up every 2 minutes to the start line. It still takes a while, but it's obviously much faster! They go about 25 miles to Willow where they spend the night and await the official start of the race the next day.

With that information covered, we all got hype and cheered as the countdown began for the first team and we cheered our best and loudest as he took off down the street. The dogs looked wonderful, excited, and barked so much! It was fabulous! We then stood and watched for about 10 teams take-offs before we decided to jump into the Fun Rondy HQ to warm up a little bit. I could no longer feel my fingers so I was ready to get a little warmer. We stayed there for about 10 minutes then went out to go up the left but we kept seeing people walking around with what looked like posters in Exxon Mobil bags and they looked like free swag, and you know how we feel about free swag! Intrigued we asked someone and she directed us all the way down to the right, saying there was a tent. So we turned right around and trudged through the massive crowd gathered where we had been at the very start of the race. We also had to push past the PETA protesters, also known as Idiots, but we got to see the anti-PETA protesters reminding people that PETA is trash that kills more animals than they save, which is true. The anti-PETA protesters also had the most beautiful malamute with them which was lovely to admire and pet!

Having toughed it through the crowd we finally saw an Exxon Mobil sign next to a tent and at last saw a woman basically throwing free posters to the crowd passing by! I love when people are ecstatic to give out free things, makes it so much less awkward! We grabbed our posters with glee then swung around to try and figure out how to cross the street to get back on the side of our hotel. One street way told us they would open it after 18 contestants had passed, but we kept walking up the street, looking around and enjoying ourselves, despite the cold! We made it to a street way eventually that was allowing people to cross between teams and got over to the correct side to walk back down towards our hotel. We checked out a craft faire inside one of the mall areas, but didn't see anything we liked, then headed back out to the race. There we found a mini-donut stand and decided we just NEEDED some of those warm, wonderful cinnamon donuts so we spent $7 for 13. More money, yeck, but it was worth it for the warm-up and just a nice tasty treat! From there we actually found this weird spot to continue watching the race. It was a wall of sorts right in front of the starting line but it had these large circular holes people were standing in to get a good amount of height to see right over everyone's heads! It was a perfect place to stand, eat our donuts, and watch more contestants start! We actually saw Mitch take off, a multi-time winner of the race and notorious veteran of the race take off, which was super sweet because Jess read his book a few years back! Talk about cool!

At that point we were at contestant 30 and we we're feeling cold enough that we needed a break from the cold and headed towards the hotel. On the way I formally decided I NEEDED that Iditarod pin and parted with the $8 dollars. We got back to the hotel at 11am, having been out for 2 hours in the snow, and warmed up while watching the race on the TV. I decided I really wanted to see the last contestant go, so at contestant 50 we got dressed again and set off, right back to the circle gap to see the last 3 teams take off. We got to be part of the rousing cheer for number 58 as the very last one took off, which is what I really wanted, and we got to see everyone disperse to their next activity! We were off to the carnival then for the Ferris wheel!

These set-up carnivals always cost a fortune to get tickets for rides, but all e cared about was the Ferris wheel so we parted with $5 each and got in line! The ride was AMAZING! They'd faced the wheel so you could see the mountains and they were just gorgeous! They look like a fake backdrop, how unreal and stunning they are! It was just amazing to see, and amazing to think about people living so close to such majesty! Unreal. Following the ride we had until 4pm before we were going to go see the Running of the Reindeer so we headed back to the hotel for a mid-day break where we could relax for the next about 3 1/2 hours. We made hot chocolate to drink out of our fantastic new travel mug, ate some of our snackies, and watched some Love It Or List It while we recharged for our evening agenda.

We got redressed and headed out at 3:40pm to head up the street. We figured the best spot to watch the Running of the Reindeer would be the weird circle-thing we were in before, so we headed a little up the street to check if it was still available and it was! Looks like most folks didn't even know that was an option and we got a few head nods and "Good idea!"'s from passing people! We got there just in time for the announcer to begin MC'ing for the first heat (as there are 4 because too many people sign up for there to be only one!). We were at the end of the race where we were standing which we couldn't figure out because we didn't know which was the run went but we didn't really care where what we saw of this as long as we saw something! As we stood the MC gave the mic to one of the singers at the even who sang a Run of the Reindeer rendition of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer which was great and then he started the countdown to the start!

The first heat was HILARIOUS! I have never seen anything like this! The first two heats have 'leaders' of sorts and if you pass them you get $20, but the lead for the first heat was a dude wearing only his underwear and it was ridiculous! He was followed by a ton of people in funky costumes from pizza's to tutus to reindeer onsies and a man wearing a rabbit fur thong. These folks are being chased, and inevitably passed, by about a dozen reindeer. I can't imagine running, only to turn around and see a fully antlered reindeer approaching from the rear, that's a no from me. But these folks were down with it and they looked like they were having a fabulous time! Now, some people were't AS into it as others, and you ended up seeing a slew of people near the end of the run who just gave up and were walking. It's not a long run, only 2 blocks, but I feel like a lot of people were just in it for the novelty and I get that.

The second heat was just as funny with more wild costumes, including my favourite, a reindeer onesie with a a bikini on top, and more rampaging reindeer! The third heat had the most participants, so many in fact that the reindeer struggled to even get through the crowd and many folks got to where we were and just stopped to wait for the reindeer. Musta been about a hundred people in that heat, so it took forever to get them all to the end (cause a lot gave up and just walked, as usual), and then to get them funneled out of the street so they could walk the reindeer back. So, after each heat the handlers have to take the reindeer and walk them the whole length of the way back to reset. It takes a while, but in this time the MC, that same guy from the Blanket Toss (who sounds so much like Jim Belushi), took some time to talk with some of the runners. He talked to some of the non-American runners during one heat and was very excited to meet a woman who came all the way from Australia to follow the whole of the race. He also gave the woman and man singer a chance to sing some funny songs, including a fantastically funny rendition of Let It Go. The woman sang more then, but the man played a silly country song each time the race got going which just added to the humor of the whole thing.

We stayed for all 4 heats, cheering loudly and proudly all of the way from our hole in the wall. After that we walked back to Grizzly Gifts to see about any more souvenirs and had a swell chat with a cashier who remembered us from last time. We discussed how easy it is to get away with stuff when you just pretend to be a silly girl cause all people, men and women, just buy it and let things slide. It gives you a reputation for being stupid, but it sure does work! From there were decided to finally spend the $6.50 on a reindeer dog. It actually end up costing $7 flat because he didn't offer my 50 cents back but I didn't care to ask for it, figuring it counted as a little tip. We got the dog in mild, threw some mustard on it, and headed back to the hotel. As we ate we went to the 5th floor to check out the hot tub situation. The pool was down for some reason but the hot tub was open and ready to go so we hopped on back to the room, threw on our bathing suits, grabbed a soda and pack of M&M's, and headed up! It was funny though, we saw a family leaving the pool deck the first time we showed up and even though they said the pool was out of order they were definitely swimming in it so we laughed about that as we made our return. There was a woman in the hot tub when we got back but we just chilled until she got out, then we popped open our drink and started being our usual idiot.

So, the heat from the hot tub literally filled the pool area with so much steam that the ceiling was dripping with condensation, but a light fixture by the hot tub was also just, like, leaking water from it. So... that looked safe. We still got in though, cause we're not ninnys afraid of a little thing like Electrical Fires or whatever. We talked about this with a man and what looked like his son who got in about 20 minutes after we did. I initially made a comment about how you're probably not supposed to drink around the hot tub but people pee in these pools so honestly Sierra Mist isn't gonna hurt it worse and the dad was just like "We could've all gone our whole life not thinking about that" so we had a laugh then and another one when I said the leak might be coming from a bathroom upstairs and he went "Is there a psychological reason that's where your mind keeps going?" The pair commended us for making the 9+ hour flight just for the start of the Iditarod because, yeah, that is a little crazy but also adventuresome!

They left after only about 10 minutes, you know, a respectable time to be in a hot tub, but we stayed and hung out until we'd been in it 45 minutes, leaving at 6:30pm. We would've stayed longer but the steam was filled with chlorine and it was making our eyes water pretty bad. Back at the room we both took showers, watched some Home Town and other HGTV nonsense, and settled back in for the night. We decided we were actually gonna go for it around 8pm and ordered room service! To our room! We just got the $12 nachos, but the guy on the phone was...confused about the whole thing. He was like "What kind of nachos?" to which I had to respond "Uh, the ones on the menu?" Like, there's only one listed? But we eventually sorted it out and got to enjoy a wonderful tray of nachos delivered right to our door! How luxurious and excessive! A perfect end to a perfect day!

Snow Sculptures, Scavenging, and Strangers

There is nothing better than sleeping in the day after traveling. We were both pretty justifiably exhausted and we were ready for a long comfortable sleep somewhere that wasn't a plane seat. Now, to be fair, we only slept until just about 8:45am, but in Floridian-time we slept until 12:45pm, so yeah, we slept late! We got up, refreshed and ready for the day, and headed right up to the Club Lounge for breakfast. We got a heaping plateful of scrambled eggs, with a bagel for Jess, and English muffin for me, and glasses of cranberry juice. It felt so luxurious, being up in a specialty lounge for Gold and Diamond members staying in VIP rooms. We felt so chic, so now! On the way out we took a bagel covered in shmear and two apple pastries to keep with us as munchies for snack-attacks, then got dressed up for our day out. We put on each two layers of long sleeve shirts, two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, jackets, scarves, gloves, and headwear. With our room temperature jacked up to 80 degrees we were very warm. Bundled up and ready to go we trotted out into the open air and it was... actually ok. Again, we felt pretty ok in the cold, we weren't bothered too much at all. Guess we still have some New England blood in us, no matter what we tend to say!

We tried to follow the instructions on Jess's phone to our first destination, the Snow Sculpture Contest, but as we were walking downhill we were actually able to see the Comfort Inn we knew it was across from the display so we just followed that! The sculptures were awesome, mostly, a couple were kinda just weird, but there were different categories with some being done by corporations, some by individuals and teams, and a few done by families and schools. The latter two tended to be the, uh, less good of the group, but all of them were still awesome to look at! We voted for AK Okay team that featured a bunch of winter animals attempting to take selfies for the Public Favourite part of the competition, but it was a close tie for us with the one of a guy pulling himself through a portal. We were there until about 10am when we wandered over to a shop across the way called the Ulu Shop, named after some cool ancient knives they (and every other gift shop in Anchorage apparently) sell. It was neat in there and we got to look around to get a feel for what kinda tacky gift shop stuff they sell in Alaska, and also search for some more charming items. We were on the hunt for Iditarod and Fur Rondy specific items and we found some nice little trinkets for keepsakes, but we were still on the hunt for more! 

In a stroke of good luck we found a sweet Things To Do map right outside the Ulu Shop so we located a few places we wanted to check out and headed off. The city is on a grid, so Letter Streets going up and down, Number Streets going left and right, which means it's WICKED easy to get around! Everything is organized! Everything is logical! Everywhere else is wrong, this is so effective! We navigated our way to the Anchorage Museum where we checked out the gift shop, because I believe museum gift shops are basically museums all on their own, but we found out that today is the First Friday so the museum is free from 6pm-9pm tonight so we figured we'd just go back later tonight if we still felt up to it rather than cough up $20 because we're, how you say, cheap Scrooges.

We found our way then to a local and well known little shop called the Kobuk (after stopping in a tacky tourist shop called Polar Bear Gifts), which is half novelty items, half coffee and tea cafe. They have hot chocolate there which Jess and I thought about getting but elected to come back and get it when we were sure we really wanted it. While there, however, we saw a woman wearing a cool Fur Rondy pin and asked her if they sold it there. She said no, but she couldn't remember where she got it. Either the 'Tourist Center' or the 'First Floor of the mall'. Not a lot to go on, but we checked our map to try and see if those places were listed. We went first to the 5th Avenue Mall, which we'd passed earlier and kinda knew where it was, but the only shop that seemed to sell tourist-y stuff, Once In A Blue Moose, didn't have it. We then checked the map and located something called the Visitor's Center and figured that was likely what she meant and headed over. That was also not the correct place, but the woman working there was very helpful and enthusiastic to tell us anything and everything she knew about being in town for the start of the Iditarod. She directed us to the Fur Rendy HQ, saying that was where we'd find anything we could want for keepsakes, but told us to also stop into the log cabin next door, the original Visitors Center. It also operated as a visitor center of sorts in there, but a lovely, cozy one. There was all wood furnishings inside and a wonderful fireplace, so it was nice and warm and welcoming! There was also, cool enough, a free postcard service they do where you can get up to five free postcards to fill out and they'll post and mail them for free! Must be part of an advertising campaign to encourage more people to travel to the area, and I think it's great!

We were right down the street from the Fur Rondy HQ so it only took a few minutes to get there. Inside we were ask if we could fill out a Fur Rondy survey, which we're always happy to do, so Jess filled it out while I went looking about and lo and behold! I found it! Along with a bunch of other memorabilia stuff from past Fur Rondys which was cool to look at. After debating with myself because I HATE parting with money, we got our little trinket and headed back out into the snow, satisfied with all our purchases for the day! At that point we'd been out and about for around 4 hours and were ready for lunch!

We got back to our hotel at 1:40pm and went to check out the hotel shop, which had been closed when we'd left in the morning. We didn't find anything we liked, EXCEPT the EXACT pin we'd been chasing all day! The hotel sells it too! We had a great laugh with the store manager, who let us pet his dog who was at work with him for the day, and discussed Twin Things as he is also a twin! We all really bonded over the stupid questions we get asked and how much we enjoy being twins. It really is the best. He had to get back to work though so Jess and I said our good-byes and ordered some Buffalo Chili to-go from the Hooper Bay Cafe in the lobby ($9, eck, but I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation) and headed up to the room to settle in for a few hours. The Blanket Toss, our next task on our agenda, wasn't until 4pm, so we had time for a little lunch break. The chili was totally amazing and I'd say actually worth the $9, it was a pretty decent portion size, and there's nothing better than a warm bowl of chili on a cold winters day! We ate a couple of our other snackies, the bagel and the apple pastries, and chilled out watching Home Town on HGTV to unwind and relax a little.

At 4pm we got ourselves ready and headed out into the cold again for the Blanket Toss! It's an Alaskan tradition of basically strangers using some kind of skinned blanket to chuck people in the air. Sounds great to us! So, we took off to find... nothing. Nothing anywhere. We wandered around the carnival, which we're gonna formally go to tomorrow, but we didn't find anything that looked like a blanket toss. We asked a worker at the carnival and she said she didn't know anything about it. Another worker said it already happened yesterday. Yet another worker said it already happened on the 29th of February, then looked it up and said it as happening at 5:30pm on a different street. So no one knew anything about any of this is the gist we got. We elected to head back towards the Fur Rondy because if anyone would know anything about it, it'd be them. We tried to ask the Iditarod Booth on the way but the man there as hard of hearing so we moved on and got to the HQ where a man finally pulled out a magazine with a pamphlet that said it would be happening around the carnival, and had happened every day for 3 days prior as a repeating event, but it was actually at 5:30pm, not the 4pm that was advertised online.

All that was fine with us as it gave us time to hit one more gift shop to look around then hit the hotel lounge to get their evening appetizers before we headed out again! We stopped in Grizzly Gifts and got all caught up in the Russian Dolls. While opening one of them to count how many were inside we dropped the tiniest one under a cabinet and while pulling it out I found two more lost doll pieces. We then spent the next 20 minutes trying to locate where they went but we had to relent and realize it just wasn't going to happen. When a worker came to ask if she could help we had to sadly hand over the two lost toys and she placed them on a shelf with more of them. Apparently this is a notorious issue. Having spent so much time playing with them, though, we decided it was a sign to buy on and parted with the $20 and I'm so glad we did! It's so cute! Then we headed back to the hotel, purchase in hand, to the appetizers. The food was ok, it as some weird cheese dish thing and the most bland salsa and chips known to man, but food is food so we ate up! We also decided to just make a trashy sandwich using the complimentary bread slices for the cheese dish, and the meat and cheese platters. Again, food is food! We ate until 5:20pm then go re-geared up in our room to face the cold and headed out once more. From our window we could see people getting ready and we were hype! Firstly, because it's cool, but also because we weren't crazy and this event was actually real. 

There was a bit of a crowd forming so we just stood around for a few minutes until we found an opening to grab a bit of the blanket rope to help toss, because we really just wanted to be part of it all! It as pretty simple, there's like 40 people holding rope threaded around the outside of the blanket and on the leaders command we gave three stabilized bounces before we hurled the person on the blanket skyward! We threw mostly kids at first, cause that's the easiest on everyone to toss, but he said adults who were tossing were first in line before children to get tossed, and Jess of course asked to get sent up! She was so spooked! Her face when she got chucked up was just priceless! But she had an awesome time and I was so glad she got to do it, this was one of the main things on her list to even just watch so to be part of it was fantastic! We both continued to toss for while, but a lull in children lined up occurred so Jess told me to volunteer to go and he sent me on!

I actually managed to stand on my second throw, as you get 2 throws but if you manage to land in a stand you get 3, so I got to go up a third time, but I didn't land that one. Still, it was wild up there! The trust you have in people, the weightless feeling, the crowd cheering as you go up and land, just outstanding! A girl next to us, Elena, also went up and we volunteered to hold her purse and film her flying. The three of us chatted for the rest of our time throwing, until 6:30pm when all our hands just gave out and we had to say our good-byes following an hour of tossing! We were on our way to the museum for the free night and that as on the way to her hotel so we kept talking and were happy to invite her along to the museum with us since she was chill and we were having a good time! She trusted us to hold her purse, there's a bond.

It was bedlam on the first floor of the museum, because of course, but we got our free cookies and wandered around the Discovery Center where we played with bubbles, sand, air, and water in the name of science and saw the homelessness gallery. The second floor had a beanbag section where you could sit and watch outside the giant glass windows so we chilled there for a little bit, remembering that it was 11:30pm back in Florida so we were naturally getting tired. We still pressed on though, checking out the Inuit art and clothing exhibits before heading to the fourth floor in the elevator, specifically to see a strange 3-piece country band that was playing in the enormous elevator for apparently the whole evening, so that was super cool! The fourth floor was just a movie, which we didn't wanna sit and watch, but it had a fun lever-pull swing thing here you could sit, pull yourself up by the rope, then drop yourself down. I have no idea what it was supposed to represent or teach, but it was fun! We walked down the stairs to the third floor to see an exhibit on Snow Travel, featuring exhibits of old skis, snowboards, snow mobiles, snow plans, snow sleds, and more. They had the whole exhibit covered in white carpet though, so you had to put on these weird shoe-covers before entering which begs the question "Why carpet it at all? Does it really add that much to the exhibit?" Not that I really cared or was bothered, it was just odd, but hey, that's art! Right?

We needed to get back to the hotel in time for our 7pm-9pm deserts so we sped through the last to floors a bit, just fast enough to keep ourselves moving, and walked a bit of the ways back with Elana. We had to part at a street crossing but we asked for her Insta and hoped to see each other again at the start of the race or the Running of the Reindeer the next day. Jess and I shuffled back to the hotel, dropped off a few layers of clothes at our room, and hit the lounge to grab some cocoa, soda, juice, and today's treat: mini red velvet cupcakes! Delicious! We talked to another couple there briefly about the blanket toss then headed to our room at last to relax! We got into our comfy winter jammies, threw on My Lottery Dream House, and settled in with our cocoa and snacks for the evening, ready to relax to be prepared for the next days race, the whole reason we're here and the most important part of the trip! No pressure, but I expect tomorrow to exude brilliance and perfection. But no pressure.

Expedition to Alaska

We're back at it once more! Adventure calls and we are answering! This time, we're going on our own dime though. Sort of. Since our (well, mostly my) last post Jess and i have graduated from Stetson and have both collectively decided we spend too much of our lives doing nothing and we both got jobs working at a Hilton hotel nearby in order to get that sweet, sweet discount on hotels across the world! We figure for such cheap rates we'll have to convince ourselves to have a little adventure, and so far it's been working out! Our discount gets us $35-$45 a night rooms usually, with the exception of big, grand hotels costing up to $75 a night, but considering most hotels are at least $100 regularly, and the larger hotels are sometimes $300+, we're getting and awesome deal, all in exchange for 5 days of work a week. Considering what we're paid salary-wise, this discount is really the least they could do.

Well, since getting out discount we've stayed a lot of local hotels, just taking some days-off trips to enjoy some hotel amenities, but we started planning a trip to Alaska almost as soon as we started work, about 10 months ago. Jess just said "I think we should go see the start of the Iditarod" and we just decided "You know what? We should!" So we let everyone at work know we were planning on going and were told we'd have to wait until 4 months out to formally request the time off because the system certainly isn't designed for 10 months advance notice requests. We went ahead and planned the days off though, using 2 PTO's for Thursday and Friday, then just lining up our 2 days off a week for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, leaving us with 6 days off and one remaining PTO! Slam dunk! Then we got our hotel all books and ready and shopped around for prices, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. We waited to formally book the flights for our time off request to at least get looked over and verbally approved by our boss because Lord knows with our luck we'd book the flights, the one thing you can't cancel, and our boss would tell us we'd done something wrong. But no such even occurred and we booked our flight about 5 months out. Then it was the waiting game. And boy did we have a long one to play.

Around a month in advance we ordered new suitcases, but only Jessica's arrived in time so I'm just using one of our mothers old rolling ones, and shopped around Goodwill for new coats, long sleeved shirts, and durable shoes since all we have are work sneakers, flats, and sandals, all of which are worn within an inch of their lives and are in absolutely no condition for Alaskan weather. The stuff we got...probably isn't as well, but it's better than what we had SO it's gonna have to do! We actually got the shoes just a day ago because I scored and found shoes that were the exact same style just two different sizes, which is perfect because Jess likes her tighter and I like mine looser so it totally worked out! Love a good thrift find!

Well, since that find Jess and I had only a day to get ourselves organized. I made the worlds most perfect packing list of everything we needed before we could reasonably begin packing because I LIVE for lists and it really helps so you don't end up panic-packing things too early only to have to pull them out to use, resulting in you forgetting them. So, list was made then everything organized on the table, then we finally packed them yesterday into Jess's suitcase and the rest just in the car so when we arrived at our parents house we could just chuck it into the bag and be ready to go. I worked 7am-3pm yesterday, and Jess worked 3pm-11pm, as usual, so she packed her suitcase in the morning and I loaded the car and did final checks in the evening. AT 11pm I went to pick her up from work and we drove the hour or so to our parents place. Our parents house is closer to the airport and they volounteered to drive us so we wouldn't have to pay for a ride or parking, it just meant a midnight drive which I was fine doing. We arrived and all hung out in the guest room as we packed up our remaining items into mom's old bag and discussed the morning plan. We all ended up in bed around 1am, leaving only a few hours of sleep until our 8am wake-up.

I was so excited and used to getting up early anyway) that I was up around 7am getting things ready while Jess (who's accustomed to sleeping in and working late) rested until 8:15am. We had some breakfast burritos, started a Bang! energy drink just to keep us vibrant, though we really didn't need it with all our energy, loaded up the car and started off on the drive! It only took us about 20 or so minutes so we arrived at the airport around 9:30am. We said our good-byes, which are always emotional for us because we're a family of ninny's, and entered the airport!

There is nowhere, NOWHERE, I feel more alive than an airport. It's just so hopping, with lots of people, all kinds of things to see, and of course, the anticipation of adventure! It's so deliriously vibrant at airports that I get so excited I almost can't stand it! We found where we needed to go pretty quick and were actually super organized for TSA! We've done this enough times we knew what was gonna go down and our suitcases weren't so stuffed to the brim that we could easily open them up to pull out our larger electronics, liquids (4 Bang! energy drinks because I'm coming prepared this time! Only got a few days to enjoy ourselves and we are not going though this exhausted because of some silly iron deficiency and not eating enough food. Pah!), and had our boarding passes and ID's at the ready. They haven't started the new rule about having that whole Real ID thing yet, but we brought out Passport ID's anyways because better safe than sorry! My suitcase got pulled for inspection, definitely because of all the candy I packed, but the agent was so friendly and cool! We laughed the whole time about how much chocolate we were bringing and how we could use it in the event of a sporatic bear attack. You know, Idiot Conversation!

Once through that we jumped onto the tram headed to 112, our terminal, and reorganized our luggage so everything was put back in it's place. We had a lovely chat with a couple on the tram who asked us if we were twins (which had already happened once before and twice after because we get asked at least 3 times a day every time we're spotted together). We had a lovely chat with them for the brief ride which we didn't een notice because we were conversing and organizing. We, naturally, immediately found the bathrooms as soon as we were off and located some seats at our flight terminal. We arrived about 10am and boarding was set to begin at 10:30am to we made perfect time! We ate a little bit of the ham sandwiches our mother had packed us, filled our water bottle, and took turns making a final bathroom break before they called for E to begin boarding. It didn't take long at all to get on and get situated, after sorting out a seating issue with a very friendly woman who'd accidentally taken Jessica's seat in C 30 when we was supposed to be C 31. I was right across from Jess in D 30, so we both got aisle seats for the 6 hour portion of our flight!

We then sat there until 11:30am, though we were meant to take off at 11:30am, because they needed to inspect a nick in something on the plane, one of the propellers I believe. We were happy to chat about out upcoming adventures and further trips until the captain let us know the nick was well within flying capacity and we were prepped for take-off. We gripped hands from across the aisle as we began our ascent because Jess hates take-off and needs some emotional support. I'm always fine though, thoroughly enjoying or at least not minding flights, with the exception of the middle bit. I'm so impatient  and a creature who likes to pace and move about, so sitting strapped to a little seat bored me to tears, but I find ways to keep myself occupied as best I can. I actually made it over and hour after take-off before going for a bathroom break, mostly because as soon as the seatbelt light goes off there's a mad dash for the lou, but still, go me for some endurance. It's the small achievements, right?

The first flight was 6 hours and it felt like it would never end. Jess got up and got one of our sandwiches and some of our snacks from the overhead compartments because got a bit peakish about 2 hours into the flight. We ate the sandwich and a box of M&M's, then chatted from across the aisle to pass as much time as we could. Around 3:30pm we reverted to just chillaxing and tried to get through the last 2 hours of the flight, which always feel like the longest part because at a certain point in the air you wish undeniably to be anywhere but in the air. Mostly you just wanna be at your destination so you can enjoy yourself there. I find airplanes are the one place in the world where you can be sure everyone is wishing they were elsewhere. On boats people enjoy the ride, road trips can be a joy, and trains are always a delight, but airplanes are so confining, everyone just isn't where they would like to be.

The descent lasted forever, because it always does, and we found ourselves entering Seattle! Home of Frasier Crane! We landed at basically 3pm, our connecting flight to Alaska didn't even start boarding until 4:40pm, and our new gate as literally right next to the one we got off on, so we had some time to explore a little and relax. We wandered around a few of the shops, did some hard Yikes at the prices of crap, then sat to eat our second ham sandwich. Filled up somewhat and refreshed, we stumbled upon the cutest little macaron shoplette! Lady Yum had the coolest variety of macarons ever, including cotton candy and mint chocolate chip, so Jess and I actually unclenched our grimey paws and parted with $20 for a box of 10 macarons. We're on vacation, we keep telling ourself, we can get something nice. We're going to experience Buyers Remorse for the next 48 hours over it, but boy were they good! We ate them at our gate, C15, as we checked our phones for a second and discussed how unprepared we probably are for the cold.

At 4:50pm-ish we boarded, this time in 28 A and B, so a window and middle seat. The woman sitting next to us was super nice, a local of the area, who was more than happy to share what she knew with us,and we were more than happy to share a stick of gum with her! The flight was pretty smooth, but Jess and I couldn't get the in-flight movies to work on her computer or my tablet, so we used our boarding passes to play Hangman and Connect 4, then did the Sudoku they had in the plane magazine. We actually managed to complete it! How about that for two piles of idiot! We were exhausted by that point because while it was only 7pm Alaska-time, it was 11pm Florida-time. So, shocker, we napped a little until we finally touched down to a 14 degree Anchorage, Alaska! The end of the ride was a little shakey and Jess and I both got a little motion sick so we let everyone else pass us as we collected ourselves to exit the plane.

The airport was pretty empty for 8pm, and an empty airport is always strange, but we followed the signs that pointed towards the exit and 'Ground Transportation' as we were looking for the public transport bus to get us to the heart of downtown Anchorage. We asked a security guard on the way out and he was very useful in pointing us the right direction. We went down two escalators, took a right, went up an escalator, and ended up in an indoor bus stop. We took this time to throw on our warmer gear (remember the coats and hats and gloves we acquired) and tried to figure out where our bus would be picking up. We asked a man waiting for his bus, then one of the hotel shuttle drivers and they pointed us to an outdoor bus stop just a few feet away. We merrily trotted over just as our bus, the 40, arrived and jumped on! It cost us $2 each to ride and took us for about a half-hour ride through the city. We got off at the People Mover Transit Center and followed a shining blue H for Hilton to try and get to our hotel. It was a mess of streets and both our phones had died so we couldn't use them to navigate, but we followed the H and kept on going!

We walked for roughly 10 minutes and to be honest, it wasn't that bad. I guess I sort of expected I wasn't a complete stranger to the cold yet, but I was still worried the cold was going to, I don't know, hurt me? But we did just fine, feeling the cold air in our lungs and the crunch of snow under our feet! We hadn't seen snow in 4 years, but it all comes back to you after living in it for 18 years. Our 2 Wise Men Walk brought us at last to our hotel at 8:40pm, with 20 minutes left still to get to the Club Lounge for desert! Jess had any option of rooms she wanted for just $45 so she chose the specialty rooms that come with free access to the lounge for breakfast, dinner, and desert! We trotted up there with luggage in tow because I wanted that free food and we made it just in time for the last piece of chocolate cake and two little treaties in addition to soda and juice. We chatted with the worker there about work in the hospitality industry and the differences in our hotels before we took our sodas and trotted off to our room. While it was only just 9pm in Alaskan-time, it was 1pm in Floridian-time and we were exhausted! We both took a shower, unpacked a little bit, and totally crashed! So, we drove to the airport at 9am, and arrived at our hotel room at 1am. Total Time: 16 hours. Egads! But worth it for the adventure we're chasing!

Research Completed: The Final Product

Elizabeth and Alexio on their Wedding day

Its Jessica here, finally making a post of my own on this duo blog to give you all access to my finished work. I've just gotten back from NCUR (National Conference on Undergraduate Research) where I presented my research on Elizabeth Stetson. The feedback I received was delightful and I'm so happy that others were as enchanted by her story as I was. What an absolute journey it's been to get to this point. I have recently been informed that I am currently the world leading expert on Elizabeth Stetson and I am completely honored. The time, work, and dedication put into getting all the information I possibly could about Elizabeth has been so completely worth it and I am proud to put my name on the first complete biography of her life. 

My work serves not just as a biography, but also as a look into the fascinating transitions that American education, women's roles, and Elizabeth herself went through during her lifetime. Her story covers such a wide variety of topics, and its important to see how each interconnects though Elizabeth's story. 

My poster, which was presented at NCUR, gives a general overview and summary of her life and story and my research overall. This poster is being donated to Stetson University where it will be hung in Elizabeth Hall for all future students to be able to know and share her story. Although the poster presents an abbreviated history, it is enough information to convey some of the most important information about her life. And of course, naturally, should they be inspired to learn more the way I was so long ago, they will find access to my complete work in the Stetson Library Archives. 

Me, finally at Elizabeth and Alexio's Castle in Portugal

A year of research and work have led to this, and although I am sure there is more yet for me to uncover, I am for the moment satisfied and grateful. Thank you all for coming with us on this journey to the past as we trekked across Europe with hearts full of laughter, and minds hungry for knowledge. We'll have to all do it again sometime! In the meantime, I have posted here my work so you may all discover for yourselves what it was about Elizabeth Stetson that made me so eager to have her story told!

Forgotten Founders and Fictional Facts: The Unique Story of Elizabeth Stetson Countess of Santa Eulalia

Research Poster

Now It's Time For So Long

You can write as many lists as you want, nothing ever goes the way you plan! I made an exact list of the way my morning was supposed to go and while it worked out, it certainly didn't follow a shopping list. Life doesn't work like that, or so I'm told. The alarm went off at 5:00am but it was almost unnecessary because Jess and I barely slept. Stress does that to you. We also had only given ourselves 4 hours of sleep anyway so that wasn't too useful. After hitting stop on the alarm I went right to the kitchen to put on some toast. My schedule said to put on toast, then get dressed and brush my teeth before it popped. Well, I forgot my hair needs to be brushed, let alone that it takes forever to do that, so the toast popped while I was half dressed so I buttered it and put the next 2 slices in before I finished getting dressed and brushed my teeth. By then the second toast had popped so Jess and I ate that in pretty much silence because it was too early to speak before we continued with our tasks. We packed up our charged electronics and organize my purse before Jess decided we needed to finish the bread so we decided to make 4 more slices to eat on the way to the train station. We buttered the toast, did a double check of absolutely everything, dropped off the keys, and headed up tot he train station at 5:30am. It sucked. Hard. We got to the train station just as the 5:44am train was leaving and refilled our Zapping cards with what we hoped was the right amount to get us through 1 train ride and 2 metro rides to the Lisbon airport. We waited the 19 or so minutes we needed to before the train arrived and off we went towards the metro. We arrived at the Sete Rios station at 6:25am so we had to wait a few minutes for the metro to open but we got the first Blue Line metro to S. Sebtuale, which was 2 stops away. We then caught the Red Line to Aerporto! The whole ordeal was actually way smooth! We arrived at the airport at 7:10am and our flight wasn't until 9:40am so we had a solid 2+ hours to get to our gate!

We went through the Duty Free gift shop area of Terminal 1 that sent us looping to a main shop area. We checked a couple of shops and bought a gift for my grandfather, a chicken we'd been debating that we finally decided to go for it, while we waited for our gate to be assigned on one of those big screens they have all over airports. We sat there until 8:20am even though the gate got announced at 8:10am because Jess was still gift shopping, but eventually we meandered over to gate North 46A. We walked the extensive walk to literally the furthest gate ever to be greeted by a line of people already going through the gate. We hopped in line with the rest of them while a woman asked us if they had called Zone 2 yet. Apparently there are Zones they call for boarding but it really didn't matter because there were still Zone 2 people in line to get through their secondary security check when they called Zone 3. We were Zone 3 but like I said, it didn't matter. The secondary security is a little Q&A the airport personal give you while they check your passport and boarding pass to verify that your bag is yours and was with you the whole time and that you aren't carrying anything someone else gave you. It's probably a drug cartel thing, but it could be for a number of things! They send most people through another bag-check but they decided we were clean and sent us right to the actual boarding line where they scanned our boarding passes and wished us a pleasant journey. We took an escalator down to a line where we awaited a bus to take us to the plane. This meant we got to go up the Fun Way to get to the plane.

At this point Jess and I were definitely over-tired and were just laughing about everything so the bus ride was a hoot and boarding the plane was a gigglefest and we just had a good time with all of it! Jess got to be a hero too (sort of). A woman dropped her phone down the side of her seat and Jess rose to the challenge with her long, skinny arms and was able to rescue the phone and it the woman was quite grateful and that was our excitement for boarding. Take off posed no issues and before we knew it we'd gotten a snack, a drink, a hot towel, and our first meal (we get 2 cause it's an 8 hour flight) and that's when the fun started! Jess and I are seated at the very back of the plane, the literal last seats of the middle row. That means we're the last to get served when they bring drinks and whatnot, which Jess and I are fine with! We also didn't mind when they informed us that they were out of the chicken meal and only had thev vegetarian option left (which we were gonna ask for anyway but even if not we wouldn't have minded). But the woman seated next to us did mind. A lot. She pitched a fit about how the vegetarian option is "disguting" and she had "6000 frequent flyer miles" and she was supposed to be in a different seat but she got bumped to the back or something until she wore down the poor flight attendant enough to be given the meal they make for people in business class seats. She barely said thank you. What a goon.

That little bit of excitement over Jess and I played a few rounds of Uno, mostly to justify having brought the cards which we hadn't used up until that point, then watched some movies on our fancy screens! Jess watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice intermittently while she listened to her iPod but I decided to watch some things I'd never seen before. I rarely finish movies I start but I figured if I had nothing else to do but watch it, I would be more inclined to finish it! I watched 'Confessions of a Shopaholic', which I loved, and 'I, Tonya' which I'd been meaning to watch and also really enjoyed! Sometime between then we received our 'second meal' which was a choice of a Pizza Wrap thing or a ham and cheese croissant. Jess got one, I got the other, and we tried them both. We were, however, offered first choice this time around, a courtesy given to everyone in the back as we hadn't gotten a choice earlier which I thought was quite decent of them. From there I finished those two and only had so much time left so I put on 'Miss Congeniality' which I've seen a million times and wouldn't mind not being able to finish. I was right to do so as we landed in Atlanta about an hour into the movie.

The time was 1:00pm-ish and our flight didn't leave until 5:55pm so we figured we had plenty of time to sit around once we got off the plane. We forgot, of course, that America is crazy and we had to do a lot of stuff to re-enter our own country. First we had to wait in a line to get directed to a machine where we scanned our passports and answered a few questions about our trip. Then we stood in another line to actually meet with a customs officer (who could have just asked us the return questions himself but what do I know). Our customs officer was really funny though! When we greeted him he said "What, did you two both rail a line of coke? How are you so cheerful?" and when he asked if we were sisters and we replied twins he went "Wow, weirdos". He was very funny and we liked him a lot. After that it was, guess what? Another line! This time to go through TSA again to get to our connecting flight. Never gone through TSA to get to a connecting flight, but this is America and honestly we are a country where we need to be careful about checking peoples stuff because it's crazy dangerous to fly in America. So we did that and it went fine and we were off to find our plane! We had to get on a tram to get to Terminal A where we walked the long walk to Gate A1 where we saw a sign advertising Atlanta Airport as the most efficient airport ever. Most Complex is the term I would have used, but what do I know.

While we sat the rain began to start and Jess and I realized how much we'd missed America and the rain of the south. Here was when the whole airport discovered Southern Summer Rain because it was then that flights started getting delayed. Every single flight got delayed except, for some reason, ours. It still flashed on the screen as 5:55pm. Which was weird. We asked and the person at the desk confirmed that nothing had changed. Then, about 5:00pm an announcement was made that our gate had been moved to Gate 3, which was just one over from us. So everyone got up and sat for another half hour when it was announced our flight had been moved to 6:16pm. A 20 minute delay in an airport full of hour long or more delays seemed too good to be true. And, to some extend, it was. The plane arrived basically at 5:50pm and had to unload. We didn't really begin boarding until 6:10pm, when I alerted our mother that we'd been delayed and might be late. On board Jess and my seats were separate this time, her being in 23B and me being in 23E. AFter boarding, however, no one had filled 23C, the aisle seat next to Jess, so I gladly swapped over there and began watching Murder on the Orient Express which Jess had watched on the tail end of the plane ride from Portugal. I only had so much time to watch it so I started as soon as I was settled. We took a while to get in the air anyway though because only a few ramps were open and we had to wait in a line of other planes to take off. Once we were in the air turbulence was expected so they initially had all the flight attendants glued to their seats but when we encountered basically none they had the crew gun it to serve snacks to the passengers. We got cookies and a snack bag and life was good.

I didn't finish my movie before we landed but we ended up waiting on the ground for a while there too because another plane was in our gate and we had to wait. That took a while but we didn't mind as we'd landed at 8:00pm and our mother wasn't set to pick us up until 9:30pm. As we exited the plane, even in the 8:00pm air, we could feel the sweet humidity we had missed so much. The warm rush of hot, humid air strained through the cracks between the plane and the ramp and we were thrilled to be met by it! Following that spiritual experience, we took the tram from the terminal to the main building and poked into the Universal and Disney giftshops. We bought nothing, but we were very excited to be back in the Disney/Universal Hype Zone. SO much we'd missed in Europe. At 9:00pm all the shops closed up so we followed the signs to the pick-up zone. We'd texted our mother and she said to meet her outside the KLM pickup but we couldn't find that so we told her to meet us outside the Delta one, which was the company we'd flown with and the first pick-up spot where we were at the time. At last, Jess and I exited the building and stepped outside. It was a holy moment. A holy, humid moment. It was warm, actually warm. Not Ireland Warm, not Paris Warm, and not Portugal Warm, but honest, genuine, hot and humid warm. I took my sweater off. Outside. At night. Know how long it's been since I've done that? 3 weeks, that's how long!

Our mother came at 9:30pm almost on the dot and greeted us with warm hugs and happy smiles and we were all overjoyed to be home! Jess and I weren't quite home yet and won't be for a few more days as we're staying with our mother at her place. She took time off to do things with us that we'll hope we have the energy to do. At her place we almost immediately pulled out the gift bag of chocolates we had acquired in Portugal to try some. Jess and I were still full from the flight food and the ham and cheese sandwiches we ate during the layover so we didn't eat much but decided that was best as it saved more for the next few days to enjoy together. After that we called our brother to wish him a happy early birthday as it would be his birthday the following day, and got ready for bed. We finally got to bed at 12:00pm. In Portugal, though, it was 5:00am. Tally For The Day: Methods of Travel; 1 train, 2 metros, 1 bus, 2 trams, 2 planes, 1 car. Travel Time; 5:00am-5:00am, 24 hours. What a wild day to end a wild trip.

So, that's the end of it then. I write this final post from my mother's house in Florida, quaint and familiar. The adventure is over. I looked through pictures on my instagram earlier in the day and found the ones I posted our very first day in Ireland. I can't put my finger on why, but we look different. Is it weird to say younger? It's only been 3 weeks after all, we haven't grown that much, but looking at those pictures I can't help but feel that person is a much younger version of myself. Then again, it could just be the long sleeves we had to wear. Still, there is something to be said about growth. I learned a lot about myself this trip. I learned I can master a metro system in 2 days, not the usual 3. I learned being an American puts me at an automatic disadvantage and pretending I was French or British gave me back some of what I'd lost. I learned cultures differ but at the core a lot of places are very alike! I learned I can handle myself in a totally new environment without getting mugged, losing anything, and only getting slightly lost. I learned travel is interesting, exciting, and something I definitely don't want to do for a long time after this because boy if it's not also exhausting, expensive, and in a lot of ways, overrated. Life is short, the world is wide, but there are plenty of people ready to go see it and I'll happily be a local Floridian for those globe-trotters. Lastly, I learned perseverence. I'd like to say it was from figuring out metros or spending 17 hours traveling to visit a castle for 2 hours or riding buses without bathroom breaks in Ireland but I honestly learned it most from this blog. There were a lot of days I didn't wanna write my posts and times I told myself I didn't have to. Only like 3 people are reading this (Hi Mom, Alex, and Auntie!) so it wouldn't have mattered to anyone if I'd skipped a day. Anyone but me. I made an agreement with myself to write a post everyday and I held true even when I was dead tired and overwhelmed and I made it happened and I couldn't be prouder of myself! So if your reading this, thanks. This was a labour of love and excessive (or unnecessary) effort that I will always have as a momento of my time in Ireland, Paris, and Portugal. If we ever travel again we'll be sure to be back here (we meaning me but hey, maybe Jess'll show up too), but until such a day, it's time for so long.