Flashback.

As most of you know, I started this blog as a way to keep in touch with friends and family when an unexpected move took us from sunny South Carolina to the land of the midnight sun, Alaska, for the 2010-2011 hockey season. We were over 4500 miles from home base in Toronto and this blog (titled "Our Alaskan Staycation" at the time), was the perfect way to share our Alaskan adventures. Little did we know, we would end up staying for three years and this little blog of mine would expand beyond family and friends and be read by people across the world.

So, today I'm throwing it back to my first ever blog post. Please forgive the lack of photos, my creativity and overall "blog knowledge" were severely lacking at the time...

We're moving to Alaska???!!!!

"Well the rumors are true… Steve got traded from a team in the the sunny south to a team in the great white north, over 6700 km away.  In exactly 3 days we will be on a plane to Anchorage, Alaska! 

I got the call from Steve on Tuesday, October 12 while I was in Walmart buying stuff for my road trip down to Greenville, SC.  It’s a phone call I’ve gotten before but this time wasn’t one I wanted to believe.  I’m pretty sure my response was “Don’t lie to me!” as I stomped my foot like a two year old having a temper tantrum.  I had just put my bathing suit in my suitcase that morning!! I immediately drove home to start my research.

Some Alaska fun facts:

1//  The state has over 3 millions lakes and over half the world’s glaciers

2//  Half the population of Alaska lives in Anchorage (but Juneau is the capital)

3//  Alaska is only 55 miles from Russia

4//  Anchorage has only 6 hours of sunlight a day in January (I will need to find a hobby or one of us will not be coming back alive)

After a few days of thinking it over, and some cold feet/partial panic attacks, the decision to move became official.  Not many people can say they have had the opportunity to live in Alaska!  Not only do the pictures look amazing but everyone we’ve talked to has had nothing bad to say about the place.  It will be a huge change, including a HUGE temperature adjustment, but definitely one for the best.  Steve can now focus on having a great hockey season and I can keep my fingers crossed on banking a seriously sick job, hopefully in biology, when we get up there.

So until next time… when we are exactly 71 hours from Toronto (according to Google Maps) and much much colder in the land of the midnight sun…"

And three days after that post was written, we were on a plane, destination: Alaska. Our minds were open and we knew we had nothing to lose. If only we could have predicted what was in store and what the next three years would bring...

Do you have any memorable "firsts" to share?