Moving from San Antonio to Anchorage - GO NORTH, TO ALASKA! (restaurants, price)

[Gonorth9]

Originally Posted by Moose Whisperer

I did get to eat at El Chaparral on Bandera though. Man, that was some tasty food!

El Chaparal is my wife's and my favorite Mexican restaurant because its right down the road from us! We'll definitely miss good authentic Mexican food!

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Gonorth9

I think it's finally sunk in for us as far as Wasilla or Palmer. The commute time and cost will offset the savings on housing. Eagle River seems like a reasonable commute with cheaper housing than Anchorage. I just can't stomach 3k a month rent for a 4 bedroom in the city.

What I'd like to figure out is how the city runs during the winter. What I mean by that is how often is there a weather event that shuts the city down and for how long on average is everything shut down? When it snows big, I'm assuming it takes a day or two to dig out.

Does that mean that several times a winter, for several days at a time, one can expect that car dealers don't sell cars because they are covered in snow - Lowes doesn't sell anything larger than a snow shovel because no can move around - gas stations don't sell gas because everyone is at home - plumbers won't come over to fix a leaky faucet - or roofers will tell you to lay out buckets because fixing a leak will have to wait for a week.

The city rarely shuts down for snow. Unless it is a really big dumping, the snow plow fleet will keep the major arteries open and everyone else can manage because we all (well most) have studded snow tires and winter capable vehicles. Ironically, the times the city does shut down during winter is when a warm storm moves up from the gulf bringing wind and rain, which turns the frozen streets into sheets of wet ice making travel hazardous to say the least. Usually everyone takes the cue from the school district. When the schools announce they are closed on the morning news, many other employers tell their people to stay home as well. But that usually happens only 2-3 times in a normal winter.

Private businesses hire one of the hundreds of private snow plowers (guys with a pickup and a plow on the front) to keep their parking lots and driveways clear, and most car dealerships use those gas powered leaf blowers to clear the snow off all their cars in the lot, and go about business as usual. You'll be amazed at how life has adapted to the conditions up here.

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Gonorth9

We'll definitely miss good authentic Mexican food!

Yep, good ethnic food is definitely the one thing we miss up here too. You'll soon discover that much of the activity during you frequent vacations down south will center around eating at all of your old favorite restaurants!

[roadfamily6now]

I've been in Alaska 17 years but Anchorage only 5. I've never seen the city actually shut down but this is the first place I've ever lived that closed school when it was too warm! LOL. When it goes from -20 to 50 over night, things tend to get ratehr slick!

Drive the road from the Valley to Anchorage while you are here. Just to see. For my family, we chose to live in Anchorage, because we value the time and found that the cost savings on the rent was over-rode by the high cost of gas to commute.

I'm sure you guys will be fine. We moved up here with only having been to Anchorage for a 3 day vacation. We landed in Delta Junction and made that our home for 8 years. Then Fairbanks for 4. Alaska kinda grows on ya.

[Dakster]

Originally Posted by JasonAndJulie

Yes tell me about it. They are coming to Texas in droves. They are even bringing In n Out burger to parts of Texas.

I have nothing against any person but the deal is that I don't go to a foreign country and expect them to speak my language or accept my customs. I don't go to a different state and find a million ways to change it, instead I appreciate the customs, landscape, and other things that make each state unique.

And I sure as heck don't take a thriving economy and strong housing market lightly. People are supposed to learn from their mistakes. Not go and tear down the next place.

Certainly I can see why someone would be upset if that happens in Alaska. Hopefully it doesn't.

Agree 1000%. Especially the bolded part, but that has been happening all over for a long time. I want to move away from an area I hate, just to make the new area like my old area...

What is your commute now? My morning commute of 16.5 miles takes an average of 45 minutes if I leave at 6:15am. If I leave later (7a-9a) it takes an hour to an hour and a half. Those ARE the good days. Around once a month or so I get a nice 2 hour+ drive in to work or home and a couple of times a year I've had a 4 hour drive... So a 45 minute commute for me into Anchorage wouldn't be all that out of the ordinary, but for someone who is used to a 5-10 minute commute to work it could be horrific... I don't like it - but that is where I work compared to where I live. I did have a few short years of a closer and quicker commute... And if/when I move I will try to make a quick/short commute happen again.

[Gonorth9]

My commute today isn't that bad. Because I am self employed, I can schedule my day so that I leave the house after or at the close of rush hour and do the same on return. My longest commute depends on my customers for that day. Some days is 5 mins from my house, other days it's 45.

4 hour... I'd stay home if that were only a couple times a year. 2 hour - that would be rough. I usually schedule my customers allowing me time for traffic but if I wanted to schedule for first a.m. and showed up at noon, I may have a problem with that.

I agree with JasonAndJulie! Immigrants used to come to our country wanting to assimilate into our culture because of the values, opportunities, and independence our county provided. Now, our values are commercialized and 'every-man-for-himself', our opportunities are abysmal, and independence - well, we have more than most but we are becoming a European socialist nation day to day. One day, hard times will really hit and we'll all see just how well relying on Big Brother works.

[GnomadAK]

The quality of life in Wasilla very much depends on where you find yourself. The "core" area between Palmer and Wasilla, where we lived, was a great area. Good schools, Cottonwood Creek has produced more than one "AK teacher of the year", Colony got rid of the clique running it and turned around nicely, low crime, we rarely locked the doors, nice neighborhoods, generally a good area. Go west of the Knik-Goose bay road and it starts to get sketchier. Go out farther towards Big Lake, Pittman, Houston areas and that's there you find the crime, drug use and other behaviour that makes that area of the state a favorite filming ground for the Alaska State Trooper show. It can go from nice to uncomfortable to rough really fast as you head that way. I'd say the "green zone" is bordered on the west by Knik-Goose Bay road, on the north by Bogard road, on the east by the Old Glenn (Palmer alternate) and the Knik River on the south.

Choosing between Wasilla and Palmer depends on how tolerant you are concerning rules. Palmer has a bunch of them, they even decided you don't need more than 3 dogs. Wasilla is a lot more open.

[Gonorth9]

Originally Posted by GnomadAK

Choosing between Wasilla and Palmer depends on how tolerant you are concerning rules. Palmer has a bunch of them, they even decided you don't need more than 3 dogs. Wasilla is a lot more open.

Wow! That isn't the image of Alaska I had! We don't like very much being told how to live our lives by anyone other than our God. Yet another reason to move to Eagle River.

[GnomadAK]

You'll find Eagle River to be full of rules also, it lies within the Municipality of Anchorage. You might find the property taxes a bit steep but no sales tax or income tax should balance that out. I grew up in Eagle River during the late 60's through the 70's and back then you would have loved it, it was as close to a Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer boyhood as one could want. It's still better than Anchorage but not as free as Wasilla.

If you like military folks Eagle River is a great place. Being close to the bases you'll have plenty of them as neighbors. It's always been that way. I would avoid the area between the Old Glenn and the Glenn highways but other than that I don't know of any sketchy Eagle River areas.

[takuriver]

Originally Posted by GnomadAK

The quality of life in Wasilla very much depends on where you find yourself. The "core" area between Palmer and Wasilla, where we lived, was a great area. Good schools, Cottonwood Creek has produced more than one "AK teacher of the year", Colony got rid of the clique running it and turned around nicely, low crime, we rarely locked the doors, nice neighborhoods, generally a good area. Go west of the Knik-Goose bay road and it starts to get sketchier. Go out farther towards Big Lake, Pittman, Houston areas and that's there you find the crime, drug use and other behaviour that makes that area of the state a favorite filming ground for the Alaska State Trooper show. It can go from nice to uncomfortable to rough really fast as you head that way. I'd say the "green zone" is bordered on the west by Knik-Goose Bay road, on the north by Bogard road, on the east by the Old Glenn (Palmer alternate) and the Knik River on the south.

Choosing between Wasilla and Palmer depends on how tolerant you are concerning rules. Palmer has a bunch of them, they even decided you don't need more than 3 dogs. Wasilla is a lot more open.

I've lived in both and Wasilla is like the wild West compared to Palmer. When I lived in Palmer it was pretty cliquish. The Butte area is a bit different though. From Pittman Rd. Westward in Wasilla used to be no mans land and a haven for criminals. Interesting place to hang out, but may not have been the best place for a family. Understand it's grown a bit out there though.