Living in Alaska is amazing. No where in the world can you enjoy the wonders and adventures that exist here... ice fog at -55 in Fairbanks, sheefish fishing on the sea ice in Kotzebue, sheep hunting in the Brooks Range, floating the Yukon, flying out to hotsprings, watching the aurora dance outside your bedroom window night after winter night, seeing a dog team run by your house, blueberry picking in Hatcher's Pass... It comes at a serious price that you don't realize until you have a child. It is so very far from home -parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters. You can't just hop in the car and drive a few hours or even a day to get there. You start to miss the comforts and pleasures you had as a kid: picking macintosh apples and pumpkins in the fall, dark summer evenings with meteor showers and fireflies, playing in the tidal pools catching crabs with smashed up periwinkle meat dangling from a string. The hardest part is not having family around to share the little moments, not getting a break for an afternoon to run errands without the sidekick. I could never understand why someone would want to live in their hometown as an adult. I wanted to travel make my own way in the world. Now...now I just want to be settled with my family a close distance away... The problem - I just don't know how to make that happen.
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