Everyone knows Jim has been to Alaska more times than James or I have been, and I've been there the fewest times. I'm a homebody and am usually more than happy to let Jim go places and bring me back photos.
The next time Jim went, it was in 2004, and he took James and Big Jim. They hiked, camped and fished - a typical scratch-and-burp guy trip. Sometimes I'm glad I don't go along on their guy trips. Okay, so I'm usually glad I don't go along on their guy trips....
Well, you remember I mentioned the four years I wanted to have in the new house in Texas before moving to Alaska, right? The four years passed the year we had our 20th wedding anniversary in 2005. We decided this was the year to "go for it" - we each had things we wanted to do before we got much older, so we should go ahead and do them. We may have wanted different things for our dreams, but each supported the other and without much further ado we had taken steps to put feet to the wishes. I did the relatively sane thing and bought myself my dream car - my 1958 Nash Metropolitan. Which is a story in itself, but that's for some other day. Jim headed back to the Kenai Peninsula (alone for the first time), where he bought five acres on a small lake outside of Nikiski, Alaska.
From the middle of the property, from about where the house would be whenever we get around to building it, this is the view across the lake. The area to the right of the picture is land set aside for wildlife, and the rest of the lake lots are already owned by as many people as will probably ever live on it. Our nearest neighbors on the left are lovely people, and their grown son has the house next to theirs. We have a southern exposure to take advantage of the most daylight. Southern exposures are very sought-after, and we're happy Jim found this place.
This is the view from our neighbors' land, looking at our own shoreline. 
This is a link to Google Maps that shows the location of our property.Some people are surprised I'd let Jim go all the way across the continent and buy a piece of property that I'd never seen and expect me to go live there. Um, yeah. No one knows me better than he does. And he's a pretty level-headed guy. I trust him.
When buying property in AK there are three things you want -- water, southern view (winter sun), view of mountains. We added to that: space, feel remote without actually being remote. I looked at a bunch of property that trip. All we had to give up was mountains. Getting mountains would mean you'd have to give up one or more of the others while also paying MUCH more money. Our neighbors really are great people and seeing them is as much of a highlight as seeing the mountains and rivers on a trip. Easy trade -- hard to buy neighbors. Initially only two lots were available (a bit over 3 acres), but the next contiguous lot became available giving us 5 acres and a lock on that end of the lake (and our target acreage). Our friends own the two lots next to heading south-east. Their son owns the lots next to them. About as "feeling remote without being remote" as you can ask for.
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