We’re Coral and Dale (Coral does more of the writing, so far), and we’re moving to Anchorage, Alaska, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We have three birds, a chinchilla, an old car, and a less-old car. This blog is all about our planning process, the move itself, and the adjustment process after we get there.
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Moving to Alaska 
22 comments
September 24, 2009 at 12:02 am
cathy
Hi,
I just came across your blog tonight! Perfect timing as I am moving to Wasilla Oct. 8th..Flying up with some clothes and will begin work Oct. 12th..
Leaving Hubby and daughter home while i pave the way up there…They will stay down here (Bucks County,Pa) until the end of school year.
So I’m excited to see your future posts, to see how you fair! Maybe, who knows, we can meet for coffee sometime. I’ll be lonely for sure!
Nice to read your blog, keep at it and great job on your journey!
Cathy
September 24, 2009 at 2:24 am
Coral
I am so pleased this blog will help somebody! Please let me know if you have any questions [coral . hess at gmail . com]. And I’d be happy to meet up with you–it’s an excuse for me to head up to Wasilla. They have some good coffee shops, I hear, as well as a yarn store. And I’d like to see their library, though I doubt I’ll have the guts to ask their librarian what *really* happened with Palin. :D Or it can be an excuse for you to head down to Anchorage, if you prefer. Either’s good. :)
Oooh, the end of the school year, huh? That’s a long time. I suggest setting them up with Skype (freeware, easy to use) or Google Video Chat (works through Gmail chat, also easy to use) before you go, so you can video chat. It’s a lot nicer than the phone.
Anyway, thanks for your comment, and I hope there’s useful information in this blog for you. (Also, thanks for the reminder to update!)
October 28, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Stephanie
Hello! Your story is such a blessing to be reading and to have been found. I am a 20 year old college student, who desperately wants to move to Alaska and actually experience something new and work hard for it. I currently live in Cleveland, OH. I have been debating about this idea a little over a year now, and think I am going to go ahead with it. My friend, Josh, and I are pretty set on moving there and experiencing the beauty of it. The three things that have been holding us back have been employment, housing, and courage. But reading your move and the way you have described the place(not to mention the photos) are such an inspiration. We are set on moving to Anchorage, and hopefully it will happen soon. I have started to plan out the idea of it, and hopefully will be there early next year. Any insight, advice, etc that u guys might have for us would be helpful.
Hope all is well :)
October 28, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Coral
Hey, Stephanie!
One thing I would counsel: definitely start applying to jobs in your field, up here, before you come up (or start your paperwork to transfer to UAA, if you’re switching schools, rather than looking for jobs). It’s not a cheap place to live, unfortunately. On the bright side, it doesn’t seem like the recession has hit as hard, here, as most of the Lower 48–not to say it isn’t slowing down the jobs, a lot, but it’s not as severe, here. Not sure what you do, but look at state jobs (http://www.jobs.state.ak.us/) and possibly hospitals (Providence is the biggest one, but there are a bunch), in addition to the normal Monster-type places. And, of course, it wouldn’t hurt to look at UAA (from memory, I think it’s jobs.uaa.alaska.edu, but it’s easy enough to find from the front page).
Anchorage really is lovely. Our first in-town snow happened today (the Hillside has had more than one snow, so far). It was too warm out for the snow to stick, which is OK by me, since I don’t have winter tires on yet. ;)
I say do the drive if you can (and if you’re waiting until June); it’s gorgeous. Parts of it would be scary in the winter, I think–even in the summer, a few parts were a little scary, since there are lots of trucks, but probably the trucks are safer than the RVs, if you really think about it. I’ve been thinking about making a “lessons learned” post about the drive; maybe I will.
Housing is expensive, if you have pets (or allergies to pets) and/or are picky about particular things, like location. But there are a lot of rooms in shared houses–some not even that far from UAA–that go for really reasonable prices, if you’re OK doing that kind of thing. Craigslist is your friend. If you make sure to have a pickup or other large-enough-for-lugging-stuff vehicle, you can outfit an apartment pretty inexpensively, too. If you’re willing to wade through tons of email, Freecycle is also good, though, like Freecycle everywhere I’ve lived, the list is run by control freaks. (Not necessarily a bad thing, just a little annoying for new users.) I’ve missed out on some good deals, because, big as an SUV is, there are things that still won’t fit in it.
Feel free to email me with questions, as they come up. What I don’t know, I can always ask around to try to find out. (coral . hess at gmail . com).
June 26, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Tammy
Thank you so much for your blog. I am interviewing for a job in AK on Tuesday so I have been doing a lot of research. I’m most interested in reading the blogs of people who have done it and yours was very nice. I’m still looking for your posts on what you decided to take with you. It sounds like you may have only taken what you could fit in your vehicle. I got a quote from a U-pack mover and it is $9,000 door to door. EEK! Do you recommend selling everything, driving, and starting over? I would love to hear from you.
Tammy
June 27, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Dale
We sold (or gave or threw away) all of our furniture, most of our electronics (they were old anyway), most of our clothes (ditto), and most of our books (that was hard!) So we didn’t sell quite everything, but we came pretty close.
Take this as an opportunity to justify getting rid of all the stuff you don’t need; and of the things you do need, consider how much they would cost to buy new, minus how much you could sell it for; versus how much they would cost to ship.
Speaking of books: books (and other media, like CDs and DVDs) can be shipped for super-cheap. Ask the post office about media rate. Even though we sold most of our books, we still ended up shipping about 200 pounds worth.
Good luck on your interview! Now is a beautiful time to visit Alaska, so even if it doesn’t work out, take this opportunity to look around the place.
June 27, 2010 at 8:26 pm
TAmmy
Thanks for your kind reply. :) Very helpful. Enjoy the rest of your beautiful summer! Tammy
June 27, 2010 at 8:28 pm
TAmmy
Dale, Did you drive? Not sure whether it makes sense to sell the car and fly or make the VERY long drive with a 7 year old.
June 28, 2010 at 1:05 am
Dale
Coral drove, but I flew.
It would be a very, very long drive with a 7 year old, I imagine.
June 28, 2010 at 1:07 am
TAmmy
It would probably be awful! You’re right! Well, if I get the job, I sure will have to make a lot of FAST decisions! I appreciate your input. If I move up there, I promise to pay it forward. :)
June 28, 2010 at 4:25 pm
hdlibrarian
Great Blog, Coral and Dale! I haven’t read every blog post yet, but do I read the clues correctly to deduce that you are a librarian, Coral? If so, what kind? I am a school librarian and will be working at Knik Elementary School this coming school year. I’m very excited!
Tammy, I am in the process right now of planning my move from Baltimore to Wasilla with a 9 year old and a 4 year old! I just got my job offer less than two weeks ago and we are leaving Baltimore on July 29th! I have lived in AK before, so I know what to expect of the trip. It is long, but can be fun and exciting too. We are making it a family adventure. We will stop to visit family along the way, go to Mt. Rushmore and Liard River Hot Springs to break up the time in the car. We plan to stop and camp every night to give the kids a break too. Lots of DVD’s, puzzle books, novels, etc. too. I am lucky to have my husband going along for the trip up there, but he will be flying back to his job and our house here in B-more after helping to get us all to Wasilla. Anyway, I’ve done lots of research into the trip up there so maybe I could save you a little trouble if you have any questions. We are renting a small U-Haul tow trailer and taking only what fits in it. It’s a great opportunity to scale down, simplify all the stuff we’ve managed to collect and feel like we’re starting fresh. We’re having a HUGE yard sale and the deal with the kids is they get a certain amount of that money to buy all new toys once we got to Alaska… so far, they are loving that idea. and with the insurance for the trailer, it is only $532.00 from Baltimore to Wasilla. so very reasonable price wise. Anyway, I could go on forever, but like I said, if you have any questions, you can contact me through my blog at http://www.bawlmertoak.wordpress.com
Melissa
June 28, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Coral
Hey there! Yes, I am a librarian. I’m the Web Services Librarian for the UAA/APU Consortium Library, so kind of academic, kind of systems-y. :) I’m planning to get pretty involved in AkLA (assuming my schedule *ever* lines up to let me get to a meeting), so I’ll probably see you through those events!
Anyway, feel free to comment or email (coral at sheldon-hess dot org) if you run into any questions–it sounds like you’ve researched pretty thoroughly, though, besides having lived here before, so you’re probably good to go. :)
September 1, 2011 at 11:17 am
Tracey B.
Hi Coral and Dale!
I just wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you so very much for sharing your experiences. My husband and I have gotten a crazy idea to save up for the next two years and then move ourselves and our young daughter to Alaska. This blog has been very insightful for us. I am especially appreciative of your honesty when it has come to the cons of being up there (isolation form your family/friends, the tiredness from the dark, etc). And congratulations to you both on the new house! We are hoping to get a nice safety cushion together and visit Alaska in the meantime to make sure it is right for us. Good luck with all of yuor new house reno and thank you again!
September 1, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Coral
Hi, Tracey!
Thank you for your kind comment. We definitely try to be honest–without scaring our friends or coworkers that we’re leaving or anything. ;) (They seem to believe we plan on staying, now that we have bought the house.)
It’s a fun place to visit and can be a great place to live. I really hope you enjoy your visit, when you come!
Thanks! :)
—
Coral
November 1, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Elizabeth
Thninking of moving to Seward area in May 2013. Married with 3 kids and 2 dogs LOL. Need a change of scenery and life. We are both nurses and trying to decide how to get things from here in Kansas to Alaska. Suggestions welcome :-) Elizabeth
November 1, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Coral
Hello Elizabeth!
If it’s late May, you might be able to drive the Alaska Highway. That’s a great experience, though I recommend buying a copy of The Milepost, to get a good idea of what it’s like. Then, if you want, you can drive a rental truck up–I know people do it, because I saw a bunch of U-Hauls leaving Alaska when I drove up.
Most people fly up and ship their stuff separately, though as you can see from Dale’s comment a little higher on this page, we both recommend selling/donating as much of your stuff as you can bear to part with, first. Things are expensive up here–and there aren’t big box stores in Seward–but things are also expensive to ship.
We didn’t keep much of our stuff (no furniture, for instance), and what didn’t fit in the Forester got sent through the US Postal Service (no joke!), so I can’t give you specific moving company recommendations, personally. I know someone who just moved into the state, and his advice was “call Sourdough Express and let them coordinate w/ the pickup team down there.”
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have other questions.
December 20, 2012 at 11:11 am
Louis Wing
Dale & Coral,
I have to say I loved reading your blog this morning. I was actually doing some related research at work and I saw your listing in Google, glad I did.
As a parallel, I just moved from Miami to Philly and I blogged about my experiences too… though you both have certainly made a much bigger leap that I have with your move to Alaska. I’m sure that has to be quite an experience overall, not just climate but on a few other levels too (career, family, and the local customs). To me this looks like a great adventure you’re having.
If you’re interested to read one of my posts about my own journey, you can take a look here. But I would say my blog is definitely less about my overall move and more of a social/discussion blog, but if you’re interested, please read the post I wrote about the move http://watercooler-blog.info/2012/08/02/on-fresh-starts-and-moving-forward/
Anyways, I will definitely keep up on how your story progresses! Looking forward to seeing how the yard cleanup and the new shed will help to get your home into shape. Good luck with that!
Quick note – How is gas $4.50 a gallon?!! Holy moly that’s expensive! I was happy when we found $3.37 recently, but as perspective goes… I just can’t imagine paying that much, but I have heard that both AK and HI pay a lot more because resources like that must be imported. Again, WOW!
How is living in Alaska compared to the rest of the US? I would imagine the cultural differences are there, but based on my limited knowledge of the area, I can think it’s a different world (aside from and including the colder weather).
Have a great day over there!
Regards,
Louis
December 20, 2012 at 7:13 pm
Dale
Thanks, Louis.
Let me say that, when I filled the tank yesterday, gas was a little under $3.50, so it comes and goes. On the other hand, on our day-trip to the arctic circle, the last gas station we passed was charging over $5, and I hear it just gets more expensive–ironically–the closer you get to the oil fields.
(There’s actually a perennial argument over whether or not there’s price-gouging going on in the state when it comes to fuel prices. But when the governor is an ex-Exxon lawyer…)
Alaska (or at least Anchorage) is a lot like the rest of the US. The local music scene is surprisingly good (but people have said that everywhere we’ve lived), the local beers are great (but people have said that everywhere we’ve lived), the weather is unpredictable (but people have said that everywhere we’ve lived). We have the same chain stores and restaurants as the rest of the country (mostly; damn you Chipotle!), movies open on the same day as the rest of the country. The differences come in smaller ways. A pair of moose eating your rosebushes. Half the people you know having an extra freezer in the basement full of the salmon they caught. Everyone you know getting their studded tires put on in November. Being left off 9 out of 10 infographics. Realizing that half the “old” buildings and roads in town are named for people who are still alive. And yet, realizing there are some people in town who can trace their family back 500 generations to this very spot. The aurora. Denali.
It’s certainly more-different from everywhere else we’ve lived than the differences between everywhere else we’ve lived. But I wouldn’t call it other-wordly :)
May 24, 2013 at 12:09 am
Kim J
I’m making the move from Cleveland, OH to Anchorage for a job at UAA. I’ll be making the drive in early August with my dog and two cats (unless I can find a way to ship them). I appreciate your candor and the blog is a great source of info- keep up the good work :D
May 24, 2013 at 12:14 am
Coral
Thanks for your comment, Kim, and welcome to UAA! Maybe I’ll see you around the library sometime :)
December 15, 2013 at 7:22 pm
culinarianlord
Coral,
I have not read your whole blog. I am wanting to know if you have ever had anyone who lives in Alaska want to share moving expenses with someone who (in my case has 6×9 area of my things still in Pittsburgh)? I work at UAF and want to have all of my things in one spot for a change. it has been over 8 years since that has happened.
Thanks,
Renée
December 15, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Coral
Hi, Renee. We just had someone move to our library from Pittsburgh, but I think he brought all his belongings with him. I don’t know what the best way to get in touch with someone in the Pittsburgh area, moving to Alaska, would be.
I’ve looked into shipping services for furniture, in the past. They aren’t cheap, but they’re an option.
Sorry I couldn’t be more help. :/