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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Seravin" data-source="post: 480174" data-attributes="member: 6783">I like AnchorageI've lived in Alaska my whole life and I have yet to find anyplace I want to live more.Alaska is a place you either hate or love.  I know more then a few people who came up here on a whim or on vacation and never left.  I know about the same number who can't wait to leaveAs for the questions:There's nothing 'wrong' with Anchorage.   At ~300,000 people it supports a variety of stores (including my FLGS), theaters, and restraunts.  Nightlife is really only okay by big city standards, but you don't move to Anchorage for the bar scene, anymore then you'd move to DC for moutain climbing.  That said, most Alaskan's think that Anchorage is a great suburb of Seattle and only 15 minutes away from the real Alaska.  I wouldn't call Anchorage boring.  Again, the nightlife is okay if you're into that.  In the summertime I can be hiking within 20 minutes from my house - and there's some truly spectacular places less then an hour away.   During the winter I spend most of my time hanging out with friends.  Can't forget the hunting and fishing either.Neo-nazi's?  News to me.  That said, it's a heavily conservative state and there's probably more guns per household then there are children.  There's a lot of hunting/fishing going on up here and a definite sense of self-reliance.  Is Anchorage dirty/littered/decrepit?Not really, but there are times.  After seven+ months of winter litter will accumulate.  When the snow is gone it can be pretty ugly for a week or two. But there's a couple programs where people get out and pick up trash during the spring.That said, spring isn't all that nice around here either.  Most of the season is spent waiting for the snow and ice to go away.  We also have our bad parts of town - as far as that goes.  Having inadvertantly walked through a bad part of Cleveland, I'm less impressed with our urban decay.  However I wouldn't necessarily want to live on the north end of Anchorage without doing a lot of research before buying/renting there.Finally, Anchorage is in bowl, shaped by the mountains and water.  When it's really cold, exhaust can hang down over the city.  It looks grungy, but usually goes away pretty quickly.However, I've watch the sun circle the horizon at 2am on a sunny evening during summer solstice.Just last week I saw the northern lights wavering across the sky while driving home.  I've watched a moose eat a friend's flower garden and have seen them back up traffic while they leisurely cross the highway.I've woken up with it so cold, everything was covered in frost - even the trees looked like they were made of ice crystals.While hiking on a trail about 20 minutes from town I've had to be aware of bears wandering the area.I like it here.Tips for moving.Make sure everyone you bring understands cold.  I routinely suggest that people spend a week up here in January before deciding to move up here.  Plenty of places in the lower 48 can get colder then Anchorage - few places get darker.  Around winter solstice the sun comes up just after 10am and will set around 3:00pm.  I remember a whole week one year where I never saw the sun.  Some people can't handle it.  It's all temporary though.  After solstice we keep gaining more light until summer solstice, where the sun never really quite dips all the way below the horizon.  Then we start to lose light again.Make sure you understand the seasons.  Summer is only three months, and it starts to get cold in the fall.  We ususally have a first snowfall by early October and permenent snowfall by Halloween - this year is an anomoly.  Snow doesn't start to go away until late April at the earliest, and I've seen snow fall in late May.  Late January/Eary February is where the coldest temperature falls.  -20 isn't unheard of, although 0 to -10 is more common.It's all cyclical in a druidic sort of way.I've left things out, but this post is already way too long.</blockquote>

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