Lawyer&Mom Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 I've been advising a coworker based in Alaska. I know this is silly, but I'm having a hard time imagining someone sitting in an office building in Alaska. I've realized my mental image of Alaska comes from nature documentaries and Northern Exposure. Lots of bears catching salmon and one small town (in WA!). Intellectually I know there must be movie theaters and minivans and soccer practice and normal suburban stuff but I just can't picture it. So tell me about life in Alaska. How removed does it feel from the lower 48? What's considered the big city? Vancouver? Seattle? Which sports teams to people follow? What's the nearest comparison? West coast? Upper Midwest? I want to know! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 We listen to "KOOL" in Anchorage. KEAG-FM 97.3 http://www.kool973.com/ Anchorage is the largest city in AK. My guess is their primary connection to the states (Motor Freight, majority of airline connections, etc.) is Seattle. There are Alaskans on WTM who can tell you about their Shopping Centers, etc. The COL is high. Most Alaskans seem to love living there. The state has a fund for residents, where it shares revenue from Petroleum, with the Residents, but now that the price of Petroleum is extremely low, AK, like other states (TX, ND, etc.) is getting hit hard, by lower revenue from Petroleum, as we are here in Colombia. One of my friends lived in Anchorage, years ago, for one year. During that year, he wrote me the COL went up 32% Too cold for me, but sometimes it is warmer in AK (even in Fairbanks, where it gets VERY cold), than in the North Central US, where I would be even colder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Anchorage is the only thing that comes close to being a city (300K pop with the surrounding area). The next two biggest places are small towns. Anchorage has office buildings, pizza delivery, coffee shops, paved streets and looks similar to most other small cities it's size. I work from home, but when I go into the office, it's in a 17-story office building with cubicles and coffee machines everywhere. We don't really get the brutal cold that they get in the interior, but it can get pretty chilly in the winter. We have more parks and trees than most places as the city backs up to state and federal lands. It's a pretty "out-doorsy" place to live - quite a bit like living in Colorado with people skiing/skating/snow machining in winter and hiking/biking/camping in the summer. DH is taking his scout troop winter-camping this weekend - they go year-round here. It feels quite remote when you go to buy an airline ticket and it costs $600 to fly to Seattle and back. It is a really good place to raise kids. Home schooling is easy and quite popular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammi K Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 I live outside of Anchorage. Right now, I am wishing we had a little more snow. This year as been pretty sparse as far as snowfall goes. Anchorage is like any other little city. There is a little tourist section 'downtown' lots of souvenir shops, a museum, that sort of thing. The rest of the city is pretty much like what you would expect to find in any city in the lower 48 - malls, restaurants, fast food joints, office buildings. The big difference here is that you wouldn't be surprised to see moose and the occasional bear strolling around in parts of the city. I just spent a week in Minnesota and the temps here are 20-30 degrees warmer. Teens and 20s are typical winter temps. This winter has been warmer with temps in the high 20s-30s. Summers are in the high 60-70s with the occasional days in the 80 or even, on occasion the 90s. But, that doesn't happen often. The biggest shock for newcomers is the light. Winter days in Anchorage see sunrise about 10 am and sunset about 3:30. The longest day of the year sees less than 4 hours of darkness. I don't mind the dark, but for dh who worked in a windowless office, he would leave in the morning - in the dark , and emerge from his office in the evening - in the dark. He could go for the entire workweek without seeing sunlight. He found that stressful. On the other hand, last summer, our daughter was learning to drive and needed to practice 'night driving' but the only 'night' was between the hours of 2-5am and her permit prohibited driving during those hours. Even in the Anchorage area, there are parks and trails everywhere. It's an outdoors person's paradise. The only time I feel a disconnect from the lower 48 is when I am trying to purchase something that can't be shipped. Fortunately, in my area we have access to pretty much anything we want or need via box stores or places like Costco and Sams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted January 22, 2016 Author Share Posted January 22, 2016 You mention shipping can be a problem. Can most things be shipped? Can you go on Amazon and shop like anyone else? I imagine the Internet has made it easier to find stuff not stocked locally, as it has for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 It depends on where they are trying to move. Sitka or McGrath are a different ball of wax than Anchorage or Wasilla, in terms of basic living and the feel of the communities as well as ease of obtaining certain goods and services. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 (edited) You mention shipping can be a problem. Can most things be shipped? Can you go on Amazon and shop like anyone else? I imagine the Internet has made it easier to find stuff not stocked locally, as it has for everyone. Not everything can be shipped air. For things that can go on a plane, I can get next day shipping on most stuff from Amazon Prime if I want to pay for it or free 4-5 day shipping with Prime. Some chemicals and such can only be shipped ground, so with those, we wait a few weeks for delivery. And then..... every once in a while, you run into the company that wants to charge you International Shipping to Alaska. This is why I mostly do business with Amazon online Edited January 22, 2016 by AK_Mom4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Geek Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Our time in Anchorage was a lot of fun. We loved biking and cross country skiing on the local trails, we got out and explored a ton. We saw moose, glaciers, bald eagles, Hot Springs (in Fairbanks) Denali, ice caves, went salmon fishing, did a flight seeing tour, did a couple of sightseeing boat tours where we saw humpback whales, sea lions, tons of birds, we went snow machining, and watched the start of the Iditarod.. We had a really great time there. If we get to go back dh would love to go halibut fishing and possibly hunting while there. Long days in the summer were harder than long nights in the winter. It was hard to get enough sleep in the summer. People were pretty friendly and there were lots of people that were outdoor fanatics. I worked on the 6th floor of a building and saw some of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen even though sometimes sunset wasn't long after lunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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