Whirlwind, perhaps a tornado even.

So, I know it's way overdue.  You are all waiting with anticipation as to what Anchorage is like, how I'm dealing and what's been going on.  It's the end of day 2 now and it's 11:27 pm.  I'm making the time to write a blog so that I don't keep everyone in the dark any longer.  It's been a long two days and I know that if I wait any longer I will start forgetting some of the cool things.

Here we go.  Day one was crazy.  A flight away from the ones I love to a new place I'm sure to love.  As I got off the plane I felt like a celebrity (kinda) as Kathy and I walked from the plane and were met by Bill holding a piece of paper with our names on it.  Oh ya!   It got even better when the bags were waiting for us all bundled up by person.  I didn't have to search through bags or anything.

Our "Brunch" Stop

I came back to the house to meet everyone else here already.  I figured that I would have been one of the first people here because I had come in so early in the day.  Not so.  Some people had come in during the middle of the night.  I got about half an hour to compose myself and get ready to head out for some brunch and the start of shopping.  It was good though because it got me right into the idea of getting ready!

First stop was the DMV.  We needed drivers licenses.  Walk up to the window, show your passport and they say, "ok, do you have your Social Security card?"  What?!  No, is the passport showing that I'm a US citizen not good enough?  I didn't bring my social security card.  What the heck for!?  Darn it.  I need that driver's license!  They gave us (there were two with this same issue) an address to go to and we were able to obtain a letter that showed our name and number that was stamped by the office.  All we had to show them was our passport.  Go figure!  Back to the VERY CROWDED DMV to wait in a line, fill out a piece of paper, wait in a line, take the computer test and answer 16 questions right, wait in a line, let the lady write our score down so we can take a number to wait in the big line of which 80 numbers were in front of us at ticket taking time.  80!  So, what did we do?  We people watched.  We watched the motorcycle guy get upset when another motorcycle guy parked his bike touching his.   We watched the mentally unstable guy use the back of that same unhappy motorcyclist's bike as his podium and fill out his form on it.  That same unstable guy was lots of entertainment for the duration of our wait.  He told the motorcyclist he used his bike and almost got the snot beat out of him.  He begged people for cigarettes, talked to everyone he could and we think he was trying to sell his number.  Oh and if you are wondering, the DMV, it's near a really spectacularly designed McDonald's.  We've seen it from every angle.

We started off shopping with a bang.  Wal-Mart has this great thing going for them where you pick all the things that don't contain alcohol, won't explode and won't spoil; you take it to their back registers, they ring it up and add some for handling and they pack and ship it for you!  The shipping is added to your card once they get the weight all put together but dang!  It beats having to pack it and drag it down to the post office yourself.   (more about that later!)

The breadsticks were to die for!

Tons of shopping it felt like later and a graduation from summer excel camp for some students of LPSD we were headed to dinner.  I'd heard stories about this famed place, stories that it's the best pizza ever and that I had to have it when I went.  Well, we made it there.  It was late at night, we were starving and I knew I had to make a phone call.  Poor Jen.  She said her mouth watered via phone.  Just an FYI, 2 people at the table had cream soda for you!

The end of day 1 came to a close with a heavy sigh and knowing that a new day full of shopping was to commence.  I fell into bed without even thinking about the blog because I had been up for almost 23 hours by the time I finally was able to get some rest.  Now I'm a day behind and I hope to catch up tomorrow morning with tales of Richard and the wonders of packing.  For now though, please know that I'm doing well.  I've met new friends, enjoyed a day of sun and now a day of rain.  It's green and lush here like Oregon with the Mountains of Bend in the backyard (maybe a bit bigger then Bend!)  The city sprawls out like Salem and Keizer all rolled into one with a little bit bigger city feel.

Day one is in the books.  Day two.....it's there too, but you'll know about it later!  :)