Alaska trivia

On Wednesday I took Doug's parents to Anchorage so they could fly home. We were sad to see them go. Here are two interesting Alaska driving facts:
-In Alaska, you must drive with your lights on at all times.
-It is illegal to have a line of 5 or more cars behind you on the highway. You must pull off and let the traffic pass. The highway only has one lane going in each direction.
I noticed that most people either a) don't know these laws or b) choose not to follow them.

My Wednesday went a little like this: (FYI: it is a 4 hour drive from our house to Anchorage)

-Cosmo had to be at the vet at 10:45 - he had a big open wound in his side. We did not leave the house until 11:00 and the vet is about 25 minutes away in Kenai. I had to talk the vet into keeping him since I was on my way to Anchorage. Doug then had to get off work for a few minutes to pick up Cosmo at 5:30 and then left him in the car until he was done with work (which happened to be 9:00 since they were so busy...they close at 7:00).

-We had to pick up the salmon and halibut Doug's dad and his brother Greg had processed and frozen from their trip to Homer last Saturday. Lets just say they weren't the first in line.

-Doug's mom was stuck in the VERY back of the suburban, so she had to have Greg take pictures out the window at fast speeds; we did not have time to stop for anything except:

-We stopped at the Alaska Wildlife conservation center and saw a moose on the other side of the fence, but only inches away. We also saw several brown and black bears within feet of the electric fence separating us. We drove through at high speeds and took only a few pictures in order to be done in time. Good thing we had free tickets and did not spend the $25, but we will definitely have to go back and actually SEE the animals instead of flying past them. We left at 3:15 and it is a 50 minute drive to Anchorage. I did not take my camera, so sorry, no pictures today.

-Brenden had an appointment to map his cochlear implant at 4:00. We arrived at 4:02. Whew!

-Doug's family picked us back up at 6:00 and we ate dinner and looked in some souvenir shops. We checked into our hotel (where the room key did not work and they forgot to give me a parking pass) and then went in search of more souvenirs. I hugged Brenden a little too tight and he peed his pants. Looking through our luggage, I realized that somehow the change of underwear had magically disappeared from the bag. We found a Wal-mart (a novelty here in Alaska). In the Wal-mart, the souvenirs we had just bought were about 1/2 the price. Oh well. I also found Brenden some school clothes (which was more like that old tv show "supermarket sweep" than actual back to school shopping). We really only have one option here in Kenai for school clothes - Fred Meyer - and it is not even actually in Kenai, but in Soldotna 45 minutes away from our house.

-At 11:30 we headed to the airport. Doug's family needed to be there at mid-night, so that was the first place we had been on-time to all day. Brenden and Nolan were still awake.

-At 12:25, we finally made it to the hotel and Nolan and Ethan were asleep. I got Nolan into the stroller and had Brenden push him while I carried Ethan. Everyone got into their pajamas and to bed. I think I crawled into bed around 1:15.

Then came marathon Thursday.

-The kids got up and ready and we were out the door by 10:30. We needed to return some of the school clothes to Wal-mart, but I could not remember how we got to Wal-mart the evening before. Finally, we found Wal-mart and the clothes.

-Somehow, it suddenly turned into noon when I needed to be leaving for Ethan's audiologist appointment at 3:15. I needed to go to Pier One and Sportsman's warehouse, so we headed there. Neither one had what I was looking for. It is impossible to find a hiking backpack to stick a baby in here in Alaska - of all "outdoorsy" places...

-We left Anchorage at 2:00. Luckily, we only needed to go to Soldotna (the city that was 45 minutes closer than my house, but if you do the math, that is still not enough time.)

-This is the part where it bothers me that people don't follow the "you must pull over if there are 5 or more cars behind you" law. Admittedly, I was driving a little, or a lot, over the speed limit. Along the way I called Doug and told him that at least one of us should be on-time, so he needed to go and fill out the paperwork.

-We arrived at the appointment at 3:56. Oops. En-route, a cop passed me going the other direction and he turned on his flashing lights as a little warning to me. So kind. There are only 3 highway patrolmen on the entire peninsula, but of course, I had to see one of them.

-At the appointment, I was hoping to get Ethan's hearing aids re-programmed, but this is how the appointment went: "Hi, I am Karen the audiologist. I just wanted to have this first appointment to meet you and Ethan. That will be $65. Make an appointment for 2 weeks from now and we will take a look at Ethan's hearing aids." Ugh! I would have at least understood if the reason had been, "You're a little late and we don't have time to do much today," but nope, she just wanted to meet us. That was an expensive get-to-know-you. Not happy...

-I finally got home at 6:00. I made dinner, paid some bills, and made some phone calls about insurance. Then, being the compulsive internet shopper that I am, I was online until 1:00 and bought NOTHING.

I am a dork. And now, I am tired. Oh the joys of motherhood.