Reviews & Comments
Raleigh, NC
Can't wait to get to Raleigh! -
7/18/2006I plan on driving from Fairbanks to Raleigh in late September-early October and I'm marking every day on the calendar. I lived in Raleigh in the 1970s and left home and have just been back for visits every once in a while. Now that I am divorced and starting a new life for myself, I can't wait to return and enjoy the varity of shopping and cultural events and the climate. I know I can find a reasonable apartment for $500 (1-bedroom). I am worried about finding a job with benefits as all I'm familiar with is food service but I know there are lots of opportunities. My parents and baby brother have lived there since 1968 and I'm looking forward to being close to them again. I'm leaving my adult children behind but they know Mommy has to look out for herself. There's absolutely nothing in the Fairbanks area to interest me and I know my kids would get out of they had the money and means to do it. Maybe some day they can. All I know is, I'm happier every day just dreaming about a winter with no snow, no cold, no sunrise at 11 a.m. and sunset at 3:00 p.m., no earthquakes, no moose, no ice, no weeks of -35. I'll take 100 degrees any old day! There are no outdoor pools in Alaska (atleast none that I'm aware of). When I think of swimming in a pool I think of echoes because it's all indoors. Can't wait to vegetate around an outdoor pool, eat fresh tomatoes, cukes, corn, peaches, shop in the well-stocked grocery stores. The smile on my face is getting bigger every day! If you want to move to Alaska but want to avoid the severe cold and have access to shopping and cultural things, live in Anchorage or the Matanuska Valley. Alaska is a wonderful place but I'm just tired of it. It's not a place for a middle-aged single woman.
Delta Junction, AK
Moving from Alaska back to the "Lower 48" and can' -
7/18/2006I never even knew this website existed until just now while scouting about jobs and apartments in Raleigh, North Carolina. I've spent 12 years in Alaska--3 in Anchorage, 5 in Fairbanks and finishing up 4 in Delta Junction and am leaving for Raleigh in 2 months and I'm counting the days. I was looking at everyone's opinions on Raleigh and was shocked to hear criticism but then I haven't lived there in 29 years. However, I'm counting the days unitl I can get out of here. I'm newly-divorced and there's nothing up here for me. My grown children live in Fairbanks but I'm tired of the isolation, cold and high cost of living. I have to drive 90 miles just to get to Fairbanks and shopping there is limited. I want to hang around single people my own age and there's no one around. I love cultural things to do--even something as simple as a movie. There's nothing here. The long, cold dark winters drive me crazy. I don't care how it it gets in Raleigh--anything is better than 40- in the Alaskan Interior! It's a beautiful state but unless you like hunting, fishing, long winters and isolation--don't even bother to come up here to live.