We cannot see Russia from our house...

There are too many mountains in the way. We have finally made it! After 22 days of traveling and living out of the camper we are finally here. We got to the Nature Center around midafternoon Saturday and met our new boss. She was super nice and showed us around. We finally got to see the cabin that we will be living out of for the next 5 months and oh boy…this will be interesting. We were a little taken back when we first saw the cabin, both of our ideas of what to expect were a little bit off. There is a wood stove, gas heater, and gas lamps which is nice. There is a massive pile of wood already split and ready to go for us and we even have small patio. However, the entire cabin is on a slant and this is the weirdest mismatch of furniture that we have ever seen. The slant does not particularly bother Ashley but it is driving Adam crazy. There seems to be an ongoing collection of posters and art from previous tenants (whom have some questionable taste). After some light cleaning, redecorating, and unpacking things are starting to feel a bit more comfortable. After spending our first few nights here we are starting to get into the grove of living here. Less than 150 yards away is our kitchen and bathroom which was added a few years ago so it is relatively new and updated which is a nice added bonus. We went grocery shopping and bought real groceries for the first time in what feels like forever. After getting settled into the cabin we have explored our park a little bit. We went for a short hike yesterday and were stunned by the beauty around us. We are living in the bottom of a valley surrounded by steep mountains. Just to get to our Nature Center, the road has an 11% grade!! That is steep! Just to put that into perspective the entire trip out here no road had more than an 8% grade; and we crossed over several mountain ranges to get here! It is a bit hilly out here, to say the least. Since this nature center is surrounded by these mountains, in the winter time it does not receive any direct sunlight for roughly two months! HOLY CATS! That is crazy! These mountains are not the best for cell reception so do not be surprised if we do not get your call or text message. We are told we need to drive about 2 miles towards town before we will get a signal so we will check it every other day or so. But even so, we are loving it here! Eagle River runs right through the park and has a large salmon run every year so we are excited to see that. Everything is going great so far and we have some training coming up soon which will be helpful. We will be learning wilderness first aid, about Alaskan plants and animals, and emergency response training. We are excited to say the least! Yesterday we had training on how to live in bear country and actually got to use a can of bear spray to see how it works. Even though we have arrived at work our blog will not end. We plan to take trips on the weekends and will update this roughly once a week. Wish us luck and we will blog again soon! Thanks for reading so far!

-The A-Team