We got a full house at breakfast table. The other 10 or so guests here either come for a wedding, or just a short vacation. Our host Sandy and Jerry are both retired university professors. They spend the summer here, and winter in Mexico. Seem quite a lot of retired people come live here just for the summer then spend winter in south. I chatted with them about the living cost in Alaska. Last night at dinner, I noticed that the food here is not cheap at all, even locally produced food like crab and salmon is at as expensive as any other city. They told me that living cost outside anchorage is even higher. Food, gas, nothing comes cheap here. As usual, I eat more than two person’s serving at breakfast that kept our host busy. The reindeer sausage is delicious.

Streets here are very wide, even just a “lane” in residential community could be four lanes wide. Commercial properties do not have those protruding architectural signatures that you could recognize them from far away. When I was looking for the supermarket, I walked by the blue brick block building without noticing it until I turned around to read the printed name on the brick wall. Sometimes I confuse myself whether I’m in America. By the cleanness and quality of city construction, it’s an American city. But by life style, I feel like in a foreign country. There’re no bar scenes (though I do find a crowded bar/restaurant when I headed into heart of downtown for dinner) or party crowds walking on the street, there’re no convenient stores or coffee shops at street corners, there are very few cars on the wide street. I walked around my B&B that is just outside the downtown for 20 blocks, didn’t even find a place to buy water at 9pm. Except for a group of parents and kids at a public park, I occasionally see a few kids playing in a backyard here and a car pulled into a house there.