Weeks 8 and 9

Yikes, sorry for the slow update but I haven't had much computer access in the capacity where I could make a good entry including photos.

Mom came and visited. She arrived Saturday, July 24 in the afternoon and hung out in town until I finished work at 6:15. She rented a car while visiting--a red PT Cruiser. After work we went back to the house because she was exhausted. The next day, Sunday, we went downtown to the Weekend Market and bought some gifts for people back home and had a delicious sourdough fruit waffle--so good. Afterwards we motored down the highway to the Wildlife Conservation Center. It was a lot of fun, even if the animals weren't in the wild. Then we went out to dinner with my friend Tuck at the Spenard Roadhouse which was SO delicious.

Moose at the Conservation Center.

Monday I had to work so mom hung out around the town and did errands. She picked me up from work and we went grocery shopping for our adventure the next day. We got trail mix and other goodies for the car and for snacking on the bus ride into the park. That night we cooked dinner--pomodora and spinach.

Tuesday we woke up bright and early and hurried to Talkeetna, a VERY cute down 2 hours north of Anchorage and 2 hours south of Denali. It was such an adorable little town. Touristy, yes, but in the cutest way possible. We got to our sled dog kennel tour just in time at 10am. They took us to the kennel and hitched the dogs up to a cart then divided us into three groups so we could all have a ride. It was a lot of fun. It's hard to describe the event because it's so awesome but I have pictures so you'll get the idea.

Dog cart ride!

After the ride they gave a little talk about the Iditarod (the kennel was an actual Iditarod musher's) and drove us back into town. Mom and I then sought out lunch, eventually finding it at the Talkeetna Roadhouse (odd how anything with "Roadhouse" after the name makes the food better...) in the form of TO DIE FOR berry pancakes. Oh my god--I want some right now. After eating we finished our drive to Denali and checked into our cabin at the Salmon Bake (or, "the Bake" for short), a restaurant that also has a couple of cabins in the back. The lodgings were indescribable--not bad or anything, but certainly different. It was like camping in a room instead of a tent. We had delicious salmon at the Bake and went to bed.

Our luxury accommodations at the Bake.

Wednesday we woke up early again and went to breakfast at the Bake. Then we headed into the park for our shuttle bus tour. It was an 8-hour roundtrip tour and it was amazing. I didn't really feel the need to see wildlife but everyone else on the bus did. I wanted to see the beautiful landscape. Basically, I want to build my dream house in the middle of that park. It's the perfect landscape for me: trees, mountains, and open plains for galloping on a horse. We did end up seeing wildlife: 4 bears (3 of which were a mother grizzly and her 2 cubs) and 3 dall sheep. We got back to the car around 6ish and went back to the Bake for dinner (again).

Thursday we got up early (again) and went back into the park to catch the sled dog tour. Denali uses a dog team to patrol the park during the winter. They don't race so the dogs are completely different builds--big and stocky while racing dogs are small and sleek. The dogs were pretty friendly and we got to pet them. They also did a demonstration. After the tour we got in the car and speedily drove home, having an appointment to make. One of Mom's coworkers is from Alaska and her brother-in-law here is a pilot. Mom and I called him after her coworker said he'd love to give us a ride in his plane. I don't know how I did it, but we met up with him and he flew us on a harrowing ride around the mountains that border Anchorage. Again, it's another experience I can't accurately begin to explain. I definitely kept seeing our deaths but everything was fine.

Inside, before take-off. Drew on the left, Mom on the right, me in the back.

Pretty, but scary!

Friday, Mom's last day in Alaska, I had to work. She came and visited me and saw my museum--I'm glad she got to see me in action. I can be pretty impressive when I work at the front desk and say my spiel. After work we went out to dinner at Leroy's, a diner similar to Jackie's but without the breakfast food spread. Then mom dropped me off at the house and went to fly back to Maryland. We had such a great time and I'm so glad she was able to come and share some of my Alaskan adventures with me. I will never forget it.

I went camping Saturday night and Sunday with my friends (it was awesome but this entry is too long to go into detail) and worked all week. Wednesday I started house-sitting for a coworker at the Museum (didn't I mention I was going to house-sit? No? Well I am). It's a little condo on the east side of town and it's pretty nice to have a place to myself. She has the weirdest cat, though. Oh well! I'll be house-sitting for 12 days (until Aug. 10) so stay tuned to see if there are any more stories.

Week 7

Another weekend (and week) update!

This past Saturday I went camping again--this time with a different group. A friend of mine from the museum, Thomas (who went camping with me last week), and a group of his friends came with me this time. Actually, I guess they took me since they drove and had all the gear, but I talked them into it. Anyway, we went to the Eagle River campground this weekend because the Eklutna Lake campground was full. We had a BLAST. It was really nice to be with Thomas's friends because they fit me really well too. In fact, I've sort of stolen them from Thomas as I've been hanging out with them almost every day so far this week but that will come later. We went for a walk along the water and they tried to throw me in (jokingly) and I resisted, sitting down hard on the ground and promptly ripping my jeans in the seat... It was a little embarrassing but definitely funny. I had to wear jeans with a hole on my butt cheek for the rest of the trip. We stayed up really late (4 am) talking, joking, and sharing embarrassing stories and even went on a little night hike. When we woke up in the morning we packed up and ate breakfast at a little diner-ish place called Jackie's.

Later that day we all got together again and had a cook-out. I brought frozen burgers and tater tots and we cut avocado and onions for the burgers. They were so good! My friend Tuck made them and he is trying to become a chef. We played pool and Apples to Apples and I went home late and tired. Oh well, it was worth it. Monday night we played Risk and watched 28 Days Later, much to my chagrin. It was sort of a good-natured hazing type thing because I mentioned while camping that I am really afraid of zombies so when I was the first one to be whiped out in Risk, I had to watch the zombie movie. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it still made me jumpier than usual.

Today at the Red Cross I worked on the Penny Campaign, a fundraising effort we do in scho0ols that has students donate their spare lunch money. I worked on composing a list of donors who might donate prizes for the students who raise the most money. Then I wrote and mailed off letters to each of the donors. 99 donors makes for a lot of letters. I also have finished writing the text portion of my internship history book project. Tonight we are all going to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and I couldn't be more excited. We'll probably get there early with everyone else in Anchorage and sit around talking, waiting to be let in to the theater and pick out seats together. We might get something to eat beforehand, too.

Saturday afternoon my Mom comes to Anchorage! We have our trip all planned out and next week I'll have pictures and stories galore for you. We will be going to the Saturday Market in town here and on Tuesday we will leave for Denali, hitting Sun Dog Kennels in Talkeetna on the way up for a Iditarod kennel tour and cart ride. Wednesday we will go into the park on a shuttle, probably hiking around for most of the day. Thursday we will come back to Anchorage, probably doing something else in Denali earlier in the day. I work Friday and Mom leaves Friday night so, while it's a short visit, I am really excited to see her and go on our trip together.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and have an exciting post next week so stay tuned!

Week 6

Hey guys! I'm reporting on my weekend.

Fourth of July turned out to be more fun than I thought it'd be. I had a couple of friends from work over to my house. I made a blueberry muffin loaf (used a meatloaf pan instead of a muffin pan) which was delicious and then we grilled burgers, wrapped them up in tortillas with Mexican cheese and salsa and made a Mexican burger (I didn't have American cheese or hamburger buns...). So, even though the food was supposed to be all-American, it turned out to be more representative of America's diversity? I don't know, but it tasted good!

Then we went to the Anchorage Bucs vs. Glacier Pilates double-header game where the fireworks were going to be lit off at midnight. The baseball games were sort of slow but it was nice to be out doing something and there was ice cream so that made it better. The fireworks were great and we had terrific seats by third base (fireworks launched from behind second-ish).

Sunday I did some errands (grocery shopping) and laundry and hung around the house. Sunday night, some friends from work and I went camping! I didn't have work, but they did and they came over at 7, I packed up and we drove up to Eklutna Lake and set up camp. On our way there, we saw a black bear cross the road which, of course, made me a little nervous because it meant there were bears near where I'd be sleeping almost defenseless. We managed to survive unscathed, though. The tent we had wasn't large enough so we spread a tarp over the tent and the nearby picnic table and slept in the space inbetween the two. Before going to bed we took a walk down to the lake--it was beautiful, blue-grey glacier melt. Though it took a little while to actually get to sleep (hampered both by the never-ending sunlight and our propensity to talk), I was pretty well-rested the next morning. I had to work the next morning so I'm glad I got enough sleep. We've decided to keep doing this every Saturday night (most people either have off or work later Sunday) for the rest of the summer so I'm pretty excited. It'll be a nice addition to my summer.

That's it for now! Next week I'll have more information about my plans for when Mom visits.

Short Update: Week 5.5 (or so)

Saturday (June 29) I went to the movies with Michelle again. This time we went to Bear's Tooth, the dinner theatre and saw Xmen Origins: Wolverine. Mostly we saw that movie because it was the only one showing at the time we could go. Ok, that was the whole reason. But it was a pretty good movie and we had a lot of fun. Great burrito.

Also, I've been trying to bike ride more. I need more exercise and I do have a bike so when I have the time before work I bike down the Coastal Trail. About 5 miles or so--it's a pretty good ride. It's really beautiful and on the way back you can see Anchorage stretched along the coast.

Mostly I've been working again this week. My mom is coming to visit me later this month (YAY!) so I did a little planning for that today. I'm really excited for it. We're going to go to Denali National Park which is one of the last things to do on my list (the other thing is fishing).

I'm not doing too much tomorrow (4th of July) since I have to work, the buses aren't running, and everyone is out of town. I'm making blueberry muffins and hamburgers (All-American food, right?) and attempting to find somewhere to watch the fireworks. Except I don't know where they're going off. Or when. Oh well, I'll try.

That's it for today! I'll let you guys know what I ended up doing for the Fourth when I write next.