Swapping Sandals for Snow Shoes

Did you like my alliteration there? 
We are moving to Anchorage, Alaska. I've always wanted to visit, so now I get to have a very extended visit. 
This girl who has only lived in warm/tropical climates is trading in her Rainbows for parkas and snow boots. 

FAQ we've been getting:
Reason? Tim has a job! (Awesome, because a lot of recent graduates are job-less and living at home.)
Wait, Tim does research on elephants. Are there elephants in Alaska? No. There are no elephants in Alaska, other than maybe an exotic pet owner. Or maybe in a zoo. 
Will Tim be researching wooly mammoths, because those are like elephants, right? Those are extinct. So, no. Good guess though!

Tim will be researching caribou (or reindeer, for all the Christmas lovers out there, Anneliese). I don't know the details and probably wouldn't be able to share them even if I did. 

I feel very confident in my ability to live pretty much anywhere in the world (African bush - been there, done that. Remote tropical island - done it. Big city - bring it on!), but the one thing that seems so incredibly foreign (and slightly frightening) to me is winter. I currently live in Florida where we recently survived the Polar Vortex that plunged the thermometer here lower than in Alaska (20ish degrees here when it was 30ish degrees in Anchorage), but that was two days worth of cold versus month after month of cold that awaits me in Anchorage. 

I've gotten a preview of the culture shock awaiting us in just looking for housing in Anchorage, where fireplaces and stoves are commonplace, heating included is a huge win and descriptors usually include "well-insulated", "heated garage" and "close to JBER" (there is an Air Force base just outside of Anchorage). I'm used to buzz words like "pool included", "central air conditioning" and "close to campus". In googling Anchorage, I found that there is a resident population of Moose in the city, and apparently, you don't want to mess with them. 

picture from here

I have a ton of questions running through my mind these days. How do I drive in snow (PSA to the people of Alaska - two newbie winter drivers coming soon!)? How do I keep my fingers and toes which are in a constant perma-cold state in Florida, warm? What do the Northern Lights look like? How do I manage in the 20 hours of darkness days? How do I convince my baby to keep his socks on because his favorite game these days is take-socks-off-to-eat-them. Yum. Answers and suggestions are welcome. 

picture from here

At least it looks gorgeous. I am looking forward to seeing mountains again. Florida is definitely lacking in the topography department. Beautifully green and mossy, yes. Mountainous, nope.

There is a lot to do before the move, like pack and get packed stuff across the continent. Tim needs to finish his dissertation (finally), defend said dissertation, then get that weird awesome looking hood on graduation day. I need to transition my brain from working full time in a lab to keeping an active almost one year old in check. And yeah, how did that happen? How was it almost a year ago that I was going on maternity leave? Didn't that just happen yesterday? Or are the sleepless nights making me crazy? 

This year will definitely be a year of transition and change. Its exciting and scary and so many other emotions I can't put words to yet. I hope you join us for the adventure.