Why Alaskans Love Living in Alaska…

alaska just saying the name elicits awe and wonder a land so vast one could never experience it all and a place where you can truly live a life less ordinary we are ben and rebecca of outliers overland and today we're coming to you from our home base in seward alaska welcome to the 12 things you are going to love about living in alaska so kovid has us trapped between adventures and we thought this would be the perfect time to create a series of videos about life in alaska we have lived in alaska since 2008 and it truly has been a life-changing experience what you're about to watch is one of the three-part series covering things you need to know about moving to alaska things you're going to hate about living in alaska and this one covering the things you are going to love about living here so the objective of our videos is to give you a well-balanced perspective about life in alaska with that let's jump right into the list starting with number one alaska has a lot of history and if you would like a most exhaustive comprehensive review of that alaska history from the beginning we recommend james michener's book alaska as for what you will be able to experience now the indigenous people of alaska have a rich cultural heritage and it is still very present in modern day alaska you even have the opportunity to hop on a plane and visit one of their villages don't forget alaska was also a russian colony at one time and you can still see their influence there's a tremendous mining history in the state as well the gold rush kicked things off at the turn of the 20th century and now you can even visit a historic copper mine then over the past 50 years the north slope oil boom has left its mark on history as well the second thing that you're going to love about living in alaska is that golden hour lasts forever this is a photographer videographer reference to when the sun is low enough on the horizon it gives you that perfect warm lighting so if video and photo's your thing you're gonna love it up here the cause of this phenomenon has been referenced more than once in our series and it's the fact that alaska sits at a very high latitude and that puts our sun low on the horizon making sunrise and sunset potentially last for hours this is one of the things you will definitely learn to cherish the third thing on our list today is that alaska has some of the best hunting in the world now being someone who was a hunter before moving up here i was blown away by all of the hunting opportunities in alaska especially if you're a resident of the state this is in stark contrast to the mostly privatized land in the lure 48 so the lowdown here is that there's a lot of land a lot of it's public land and the wildlife can be bountiful i love how we're talking about all of the things that i truly enjoy in alaska and number four alaska has some of the best fishing in the world it's true we have it all the ocean rivers lakes and in terms of species we have halibut we have all five of the salmon rockfish lingcod trout char grayling we literally have it all and most of it tastes great there are also amazing programs reserved specifically for alaska residents so depending on the time of year you can literally hold a net in the water and a salmon will swim into it so what are you gonna do with all of this fish and wild game well that's number five you're gonna become an expert at food preservation summer is a particularly busy time for alaskans after all that harvesting all the hard work of processing begins this includes everything from vacuum packing and freezing your meats to firing up the smoker using a pressure cooker for canning meats to make it shelf stable making jams from berries and flowers and there's even dehydrating i kind of think you get the point now number six is not just isolated to alaska because it's worldwide but you meet interesting people in interesting places alaska is a destination that draws people looking to live a life less ordinary and a lot of those people are rather extraordinary so the lesson is don't judge a book by its cover because that crusty old guy in the coffee shop may turn out to be a tenured ivy league professor and he just wanted to get away from it all true story we also are in a period of time when we are losing a generation of people who experienced alaska and its wild west days well i should probably let rebecca introduce number seven but it's my turn to talk so number seven the women are tougher in alaska now this may be a broad generalization but there is definitely some accuracy to the statement i like to say that we're an equal opportunity state here in alaska because women are active participants in all of the outdoor activities like hunting fishing maybe the not so fun things of snow removal and hauling firewood too for us in our house it's always been about a team effort everybody that's on the boat means more fish that can be caught which means more meat in the freezer or the smoker for winter all right i don't care whose turn it is to talk i'm gonna introduce number eight and that is that alaskans are very proud of the men and women who serve our country a significant portion of our population is here because of the us military and quite a few of them love alaska so much they decide to stay every year the armed services ymca hosts a fishing tournament for the enlisted personnel from the local bases they're treated to a day of deep sea fishing and a banquet to show our appreciation now before the traveling chapter of our lives i was honored to participate in this event for several years and i just have to say there is nothing quite so special as standing in a room while the star-spangled banner plays with people who have actually served our country on our list of things that we hate we talked about how expensive it is to live here but on this list number nine it can be cheaper to live in alaska for example we only pay 170 to register our vehicles for life like forever fishing hunting and foraging also help to reduce the food bill and no sales and state income taxes help as well now for number 10 it does not have to be expensive to travel within the state of alaska if you book a regular round-trip ticket on alaska air to places like barrow gnome or dutch harbor don't be surprised if it costs a grand or more the trick to flying around the state without spending exorbitant amounts of money is to use alaska airline miles if you're flexible with your times you can fly round trip for 15 000 miles per person sticking with the flying theme for number 11 but everybody flies in alaska this is in reference to general aviation due to the remote locations and lack of roads there are six times as many pilots per capita when compared to the lower 48. this in turn means that if you're in alaska long enough you will most likely have experienced flying in small planes and it's honestly a blast lastly number 12 and it's very fitting to our outliers social media handle but we love living on the fringe as you can tell we don't live in an igloo we have indoor plumbing and high-speed internet but we also love living on the edge of society so at the end of the road system or we can fly out to remote villages but in the end we can still stream to our hearts content all right that's a wrap for 12 things you're gonna love about living in alaska make sure you hit that subscribe button so you can watch all three of this series and that's a wrap we look forward to seeing you here one of these days thanks for watching well ain't that a shame bill bailey won't you please come dale bailey won't you please come hey bailey won't you please come home [Applause]

Channel: Outliers Overland

Views: 67,590

Rating: 4.9550562 out of 5

Keywords: moving to alaska, alaska life, living in alaska, alaska residency, alaska facts, alaska, life in alaska, anchorage alaska, relocating to alaska, what is life like in alaska, alaska cost of living, the last frontier, is alaska dangerous, is alaska right for you, what is alaska like, alaska living, alaska the last frontier, alaska jobs, move to alaska, living in alaska anchorage, alaska lifestyle, alaska benefits, moving to anchorage, people in alaska, why alaska

Id: yucyRhtg1Jw

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2020