So, nothing too eventful to note about the trip... we did all of our usual stuff...work, eat, drink. We made the usual stops too: Humpy's (a bar in Anchorage that is known as the local watering hole, apparently), and of course Benihana (my co-worker's birthday always falls during the trip and for some reason he wants to go there every year. I tolerate it...I guess it IS his birthday).
I was proud of myself because I got up every morning (except for the last morning, Friday, as a result of a LATE night Thursday) and went to the gym to "run." I put that in quotes because I can't really run. Yep, 6 months later and my foot is STILL NOT WORKING. Stupid achilles. I went to the dumb ortho doctor, I do eccentric stretches, I ice, I don't use it (I barely even WALK!), and I put homeopathic crap on it every night to help with the inflammation. I would even venture to say that during the month of December it has been WORSE (I think it had a major flare up after the Camelback hike in AZ. Ugh). So anyway, I "ran." Meaning, I was on the elliptical for an hour.
Can I just sidenote for a second and say that I HATE the elliptical? I absolutely despise it. I don't know why. It just feels like I am a hamster and running as fast as I can and I can feel it, yeah, seriously, I feel like I'm going to fall off or pass out because I have to push and push and push myself to feel like I'm even MOVING and it's good cardio but come ON! The damn thing barely moves and I feel like I am going slower than the 80 year old grandma next to me walking 1.0 miles per hour on the treadmill. IT SUCKS. Even though treadmills aren't my favorite either, I would MUCH rather be on one of those and be able to run my normal pace, as if I were running outside. Sigh. End of sidenote. I guess the point is that I was active and I was proud for that...even with the stupid foot.
Thursday another co-worker flew in and we got to tour the state of Alaska, or at least part of it. We drove up through Wasilla (you know, where Sarah Palin is from) and toured some of the clients' projects up there. It was pretty cool. Crazy how much land there is in Alaska that isn't even touched. It is a gorgeous state. So raw, so untouched, so beautiful in its purity. Does that make sense?
That night was the Benihana night... after Benihana we went back to Humpy's where there was a live band playing. It was one of the strangest nights of my life and I'm not really exactly sure why. The people there were very interesting. It was a very diverse group, in a different way than I've experienced before. Not like LA or Seattle or San Fran (or even New York) diverse. Just diverse...like actually literally strange people. I can't even say what it was...it was like they were just off or something. And I'm not trying to sound judgemental at all, I'm sure they were perfectly nice people...It was just weird and I can't describe it so I just sound like a judgemental asshole. I promise, I'm not trying to be! I think it's one of those things you have to be there to witness yourself. Everyone has those moments.
Anyway, I was there with my two male co-workers and I got hit on at LEAST 5 times by various ladies (who actually didn't seem to be grouped in the "strange" category that night) and many times during the course of the night some of the strange people tried to pull me out to the dance floor with them. I was very flattered but the whole night was just an interesting experience. Words don't do it justice. I got back to my hotel room at around 1am after having enough of the whole night and wanting to crash...I guess my two co-workers went to a "male establishment" afterwards and they had even more crazy experiences there. Just a weird night, I guess.
Friday morning I dragged myself out of bed and got prompted by a flight email that asked if I wanted to fly standby on the 11am flight out of Anchorage. Sure! We got our work done and our original flight wasn't slotted to leave until 5pm, putting us back in Seattle LATE. Yuck. So my co-worker and I go to the airport and fast forward...what time do we end up leaving Anchorage? almost 6pm. It was ridiculous. They put us on the earlier flight and then we'd get bumped or a flight would get cancelled or delayed until eventually we left LATER than when we were supposed to in the first place and we spent the whole freaking day at the airport. IT SUCKED. And to top it off, I think we both felt LUCKY that we even got out when we did. But we had the passes to the Alaska airlines boardroom so at least that made the time a little bit more bearable. Below are a few pictures that I snapped on my phone while away...
Beautiful shot of the sunrise at 10am as we were landing in Anchorage. (Seriously, the sun doesn't rise until about 10am and sets around 3:30pm in December).
And another shot of the same out of the plane window with a few more mountains in view.
The hotel we stay at (Captain Cook) has a HUGE village entirely of gingerbread houses for the holiday season. It's seriously GIANT.
And a picture of the terrain as we were driving through Alaska. One funny thing to note about our time there- it wasn't THAT cold. It was in the 20s. But it was actually COLDER in Seattle (thus the title of my post). Apparently when my co-worker arrived on Thursday in Alaska, it was 9 degrees (with a windchill of less) when he left his house in Seattle that morning. Anchorage in comparison was 25 that day. All week that week in Seattle I don't think it broke 20 degrees... can't say I'm sorry I missed that! At least it was sunny though... would rather have cold and freezing than the snow we got last year around this time. 
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