Alaska views

We have started off year two of the travel nurse life in our # 1 travel destination. **ALASKA**

We've been asked, "Why do you want to go to Alaska in the winter when it's cold and dark?!?" Our original plan was going to Alaska in the summer. This past fall Caleb started reading more about traveling to Alaska, and he came to the conclusion applying for a winter RN position would be easier than in the summer. Summer is the most competitive time for RN jobs in Alaska because that's when a majority of people want to travel here. After living in warm/hot climates for all of 2016 (Yuma, AZ, Hawaii, and South Carolina) we were missing cold winter weather and snow capped mountain views. We plan to stay in Alaska through the summer months after enjoying winter.

On our first outing today, we went to the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge. It was only a few minutes from where we live. One part of the refuge is called Potter Marsh and has a wooden boardwalk. We came here because I read it was a great scenic view of the mountains and the waterway along the coast. It was a bit overcast and foggy so we couldn't see far off the coast, but we could see the mountains. Our walk did not disappoint.

This is how our wintry walk transpired...

We spotted two guys in the sky with their paramotors and took a video of them.

As we watched them and walked farther down the boardwalk we spotted something else. 

We saw this dark larger object. Caleb spotted it first because when I pointed it out he had already seen it. I asked if it was an animal or a rock or fallen tree. We couldn't tell so we kept on walking down the boardwalk for a better look.

As we got closer, we saw movement and quickly realized it was an ear we saw twitching.

We knew without a doubt it was a moose. A MOOSE! I SEE A MOOSE! LOOK THERE'S A MOOSE! 

Oh boy, were we excited. Caleb was excited too and said "We saw a moose on our first time out!" 

We kept watching it hoping it would stand up but it looked rather comfortable and content laying in the snow out of our view. BUT THEN...

The paramotor guys started heading towards us and the moose. The moose didn't budge at first and only twitched her ears more and looked up. 

Then FINALLY, she stood up slowly and we could get a better view. We admired her beauty and large size as she started walking and eating.

 We waved to the paramotor guys as they flew above us for a bit. I wondered if they saw the moose too.

They took off and we stood in the cold 17 degrees admiring the view of the mountains and the moose.

(Disclaimer: we did not get close to the moose. we had a zoom lens on our camera).

 This is what we were hoping for in coming to Alaska in the winter. A moose, mountains, and snow. We'll be back to this boardwalk area often since we live about 5 minutes up the road. We are living on the hillside which you can see in this picture below (or possibly farther left out of the picture).