A typical weekend

Whenever I used to sit on the couch watching Alaska programs, I always thought, " Wouldn't that be great to do all those fun things up in the 49th State." The idea being if you could just get there, everything was yours for the taking. The reality seems to be a little more, well, 'real' than I expected. Alaska is BIG. Even the road system is big and everything is spread well apart. Fairbanks 2 hours. Anchorage 5 hours. Kenai, 9 hours. Juneau, like 12 hours if you catch the ferry right. Valdez 5 hours. Nothing is close. A 5 hour drive cost about $125 in gas, plus hotel, plus food. A weekend ends up running about $400 for 2 or about $325 for just old lowly me unless I sleep in my car and eat lunch meat. Now throw in an activity like flightseeing, riding the train, fishing charter, dogmushing etc. and that takes a few hundred extra dinero onto the total. Not cheap. Which is why a lot of locals up here have done a lot of these things but even for them its a vacation, not an everyday occurence. I've realized I am now forced to pick and choose my activities carefully and decide what I really want to do each weekend and balance the budget. I'm doing well so far but my adventures are starting to be more run of the mill for awhile. I'm going to pick a couple things I really want to do before the year ends and plug those into the schedule. now I just have to choose.
This last weekend was really no different than most weekends for me in SC in the months preceeding my departure. Saturday, I slept in, worked out a bit in the morning, went to a referee clinic for an upcoming soccer tournament I am involved in, took a nap, worked out again, made dinner, talked to friends on the phone then crashed out. Sunday, I slept in, went to the grocery store, headed to bible study, church service then the normal Sunday potluck (I took italian beef I made Saturday night) then home for another nap, headed into town to look around, get a chocolate malt and then headed home to watch HBO series before showering and turning in for the night. Pretty normal stuff, except for the mountains, moose and sunlight that are a nearly daily occurence. Next weekend is a rugby tournament in Fairbanks followed by a river float on Sunday. Then the following weekend is a Crossfit competition in Fairbanks I've volunteered to help judge. Nothing too crazy, but also nothing too "Alaskan"  for awhile.