Settling In

After traveling over 3,000 miles by land and sea we finally arrived at our new home in North Pole, Alaska.  Where in the world is North Pole, Alaska, you ask?  Here's a little map to show you.

North Pole is a small suburb town about 13 miles southeast of Fairbanks in what is known as the Interior of Alaska.  Santa Claus lives here (you can visit his house and his reindeer year round) and the town has dedicated itself to expressing it's Christmas spirit all year long. The main streets include Santa Claus Lane, St. Nicholas Drive, Snowman Lane and Kris Kringle Drive.  And everywhere you go there are candy cane striped poles, light posts, and signs, lighted Christmas trees, and various other Christmas decorations.  Many of the businesses have Christmasy names too, like The Elf's Den and Polar Expresso (my favorite).  There is even the world's largest fiberglass Santa statue at the Santa Claus House.  How's that for notoriety?  I absolutely love the Christmas ooze.

I love that my exit off the highway coming from Fairbanks is Santa Claus Lane.

Even the McDonalds sign is perched on top of a candy cane striped pole.
And the street lights are candy cane striped too!

We live on the outskirts of town in a quiet neighborhood.  Most of the houses sit on 1 acre lots and are dotted with beautiful Birch trees and what I think are Spruce trees.  I just love the Birch trees.  I can't explain why, but I find a grove of Birch trees absolutely stunning.  I can't wait to see them with leaves in the spring and summer.  And the Spruce trees covered in snow are gorgeous too.  Both are so different from the Pines, Oaks, Cedar, and Sequoias I am used to in the Sierra Nevadas.  I can't say I prefer the trees here to those back in California or vice versa.  They are all beautiful in their own unique way.  I don't know.....those dang Birch trees really do it for me, so maybe they edge out all the others just a bit. :)

Here's a pic of our new home.

Yes, of course it was me who didn't back out of the garage straight. We all know it wasn't Joe.

So we arrived here around 6 pm on December 30th, one day before New Years Eve.  It seemed kind of fitting that we would ring in the New Year in our new home. We unloaded the car and about 3/4ths of the trailer within the first hour or so, ate some pizza for dinner leftover from our stop earlier in Tok, and then decided to hit the hay as we were all beat from traveling and our lack of sleep the night before thanks to Tucker.  "The hay" was actually air mattresses Joe had purchased and set up prior to flying back to California for the move.  Remember that 5x10 foot trailer I mentioned before?  Well, not much fit in that thing, least of all beds.  In fact, the only piece of furniture we brought with us was Joe's dresser.  Other than that we had four air mattresses, one camp chair Joe had brought with him in October and one camp chair the previous residents had left in the garage.  That's it people.

Are you wondering what the heck we did have in that trailer?  I mean, when one moves over 3000 miles away and is limited on space, what does one bring?  Just the basics, that's what.  Clothes, TVs, computer/printer, kitchen stuff, fishing gear (we were moving to Alaska after all), backpacking gear (again, Alaska) important documents, linens, tools, dirt bike riding gear (we are the Howards after all), guns (we are talking Joe here) and a few personal things.  It was important to both Joe and I that the boys bring as much of their stuff as possible but we all made sacrifices.  Jason brought most of his stuff other than his bike.  As long as his guitar, amp, dirt bike, helmet, TV and Xbox were coming, he was happy. Justin left behind his bike, Legos and book collection.  He was only really bummed about the Legos and his Diary of a Wimpy Kid book collection.  Joe left behind his compressor and toolbox, which bummed him out.  All I really brought was clothes, unless you count cooking stuff.  Somehow, because I like to cook, cooking stuff qualifies as "my stuff", even though I cook for the whole family. Quite frankly, I think I made the biggest sacrifice of all......I brought none of my scrapbooking stuff. It's a travesty!  Luckily I had planned for such a disaster and taken most of it to my mom's on Thanksgiving with the intent of her shipping it to me later.  I had packed up one essential box to bring with me that would get me by for a while, but alas it would not fit in the dang trailer.  So I left it with a good friend and she will be shipping it to me soon. Where there is a will........

So clearly when we awoke the next morning, a shopping trip was in order.  We needed stuff.  Lots of stuff.  We needed a table to eat at and something to sit on at the very least.  So we headed for Fairbanks.

And we shopped til we dropped.  But by the end of day one, no furniture.  We did have a toaster and popcorn maker though....which is almost as important.

On our way home from Fairbanks we noticed there were firework stands everywhere and tons of people buying fireworks.  It looked like Fourth of July in Fresno!  Perplexing.....

When we got home late that evening we were in for our first lesson of living in this new land.  The newer houses here are built air tight and equipped with air ventilation systems that control moisture, among other things. When using a wood stove in such a house, you kind of need to be in the know about a few critical things.  We were clearly not in the know.  Let's just say someone......I'm not naming names.....pushed a button that she shouldn't have pushed which turned on the ventilation system and created a backdraft in the the wood stove, resulting in lots of smoke in the house and the carbon monoxide alarm blaring.  To make things worse, said wood stove is not a normal wood stove like we're used to in California.  This one is a Blaze King catalyst stove, coveted here in Alaska for it's exceptional heating ability, but a little more complicated to use.  Let's just say after years and years of using wood stoves for heat, we had to read the manual on the thing.  Not knowing any of this as the carbon monoxide alarm blared, we had a to have a maintenance guy come out.  By the time he got here we had figured out what had happened on our own thanks to good ol' Google.  But he did fill us in on something we hadn't figured out......the firework stand thing.  Evidently New Years Eve is Alaska's 4th of July.  Why?  Well.....it doesn't get dark on the 4th of July here so therefore, fireworks do not have the same affect.  So New Years Eve is when Alaskans go crazy with fireworks.  And go crazy they did, at least in our neighborhood.  And these are definitely not the wimpy fireworks they allow in California.  These are serious shoot em up in the sky kind like you see at firework shows. Having lived in the mountains of California for so long and not being able to set off fireworks at all, we're looking forward to next New Years Eve!

The next day consisted of a lot more shopping for furniture and by the end of the day, we had a dining room table and chairs, and a TV stand.  This place was starting to look like a home!

On the afternoon of day three, Joe and Jason went to load Joe's trailer as he needed to get back to work the next day.  Justin, Tucker, and I headed to town for more shopping (Justin's favorite thing in the whole wide world to do).  Yes, you read that right.....I said Tucker.....or should I call him the hitchhiker? About half a mile from our house I decide to turn around and go back to the house to check on something and as I slowed down to make the turn I noticed a black and white animal bounding through a field of snow towards a grove of trees.  It was Tucker, who had hitched a ride in the engine compartment of the Jeep and decided he didn't want to go shopping after all.  The snow was at least a foot deep.  We pulled over and Justin tore across the field after him but didn't catch up to him before he entered the grove of trees.  At this point I'm thinking we're never going to see him again and he's going to die a slow, frozen death, but luckily he started to meow and Justin found him.  Holy crap.  That was close.  Anyone who does not believe in fate, well let this be your proof!  What made me decide to turn around and check on something at the house?  What made me look towards that field which was in the opposite direction of which I was turning? If I hadn't, Tucker could have fallen out on the highway or made it all the way to Fairbanks and taken off without us noticing.  What a sight we must have been with our California plates, pulled over on the side of the road, a cat bounding through a field covered in a foot of snow with a kid racing after him in sneakers, and a mom stuck in the middle of the field because her sneaker had come off her foot and stuck in the snow while pursuing said cat and kid.  Oh.....did I forget to mention that part?  Yes, well....lucky for me the snow here is very dry and my sock didn't even get wet.  Just very cold!  :)

Here is a picture of the hitchhiker, I mean Tucker.  He is starting to get a little irritating.

Once the hitchhiker was secured safely at home, Justin and I headed out once again for town and it was that very afternoon that a new love entered my life.