foal

For 17 years, the plan never wavered. I was a New Yorker who left the city for vacations or reporting trips but ... I would always go back. For the first 12 years, it was a fourth floor walkup on Manhattan's upper east side and then, a building in Queens--but with an elevator and laundry in the basement. The whole way through: Late nights out. A granny cart for food shopping. Subway as daily transportation. Always celebrating the new new new while mourning the restaurantbookstoretinylittlethisorthat the new had replaced.

And then, there was a life pileup and I needed to stop. So, in 2009, I did the one thing I never thought I would do: I moved out of NYC. Later, I bought a car. I started wandering: a cross-country drive here, three months in Nashville or Anchorage there, and stints holing up with family in NJ (but just right outside NYC) in between. Now? Anchorage for a few years--after 10 years of back and forths to the 49th state, it was time to stay put for a while and learn more, much more, about one of the greatest surprise loves of my life: Alaska.

Come along for the ride as I wander, sharing the stories of some of the people I meet along the way and the places you, hopefully, might want to visit yourself. Want to say hello? Send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you. --Jenna Schnuer