anyway

this week will probably be boring... I have to pack and then leave for Nashville

Last day in Alaska

So my mom and dad took me to the north pole. We drove about 15 minutes from fairbanks and went to North Pole AK, where the letters go if you write a letter to Santa. We went to Santa's house and it was really neat and we had a good time. I went and sat on his lap and got my picture with santa, my parents followed suit, it was quite humorous... Anyway, we drove back and picked up Sallie and James and we had to pack up all our stuff and leave it at the hotel and check out of our room. Then we drove over to the museum at the university of alaska faribanks and it was pretty cool. They had some wierd art from alaska and they had a really cool natural history exhibit downstairs. Then we went to Barnes and Noble and I got a coffetable book for alaska, since I will now have a coffee table in the new apartment...I need something to put on it! Then we went to the airport and almost missed our flight and we flew to anchorage, then had a 4 hr layover, ate at chilis, I watched part of fun with dick and jane, it was kinda boring, then we boarded, I took a sleeping pill and fell asleep and woke up in Dallas. That was a nice flight, and now I'm back in Dallas and I got my new center channel speaker and finally finished my surround sound setup for my TV. It rocks, hard. The center speaker is bigger than I thought and is most of the length of the 27inch TV, i guess I need a bigger TV, hehe, anyway it's great, got it off of ebay. I can't wait to pack up and go back to school to see all my friends, and of course, Tara.

Last couple of days in Alaska

On Thursday, we went packed up our room at McKinley Village and went to the rafting company and we put on dry- suits. We had to then take a bus to the area where we put in, about 10 miles upriver. Then we got in the boat and Joe was our guide. We had some large rapids and we went over ones named, “razorback”, “the knife”, “trainwreck” and “iceworm”. It was a lot of fun, we got “glacial facials” where the water would just roar over the raft and soak us, luckily noone fell out! The water was about 38 degrees. Then we made it through and Dad re-proposed to Mom with a sign that we held after we finished that said “We survived the Nenana river!” on one side and the proposal on the other. We came to Alaska for their 25th wedding anniversary and they came 26 years ago and he didn’t propose, hence my mom wanting another proposal here. He gave her a gold nugget necklace. Then the driver took us back to the outfitter and we got back to our hotel. We left for the train depot at 3pm and got on the goldstar train. We had dinner downstairs and we were looking for moose out the window. Suddenly we saw a momma moose and a baby moose running away from the train in an open field. It was our first wild moose sighting! Then we saw a bull moose and two other moose while we were at dinner. Then we went upstairs and saw another 2 moose, we saw about 7 moose altogether, and it was really fun. We had birthday cake for sallie on the train and then the Japanese people all joined in singing happy birthday on the dining car. It was really funny. Then those same Japanese people were singing in Spanish trying to learn the language while we were upstairs in our seats, it was hilarious hearing Spanish with a Japanese accent! We arrived at our location and went to our rooms at the Rivers Edge resort, we are in a little cabin, as are all of the rooms, and ours is connected to our parents’ cabin. Then we went to sleep, the end.

Friday, I woke up at 6:30 after going to bed at midnight and we drove to “Joe’s” house and went fishing with our guide Brian. Only my dad and I went to fish on the Chena river, and the others stayed at the “resort” and slept. We caught a lot of fish and the first couple of casts I caught one! It was really easy. My dad’s first catch was 16 inches, my first few were about 14 inches long. Then I caught one that was 16 inches so we were tied for biggest fish, but he still only had one fish, I had about 9. Then he caught another one that was 14inches, and I caught 4 more that were decent sized and 2 of my first 9 were small, about 7 inches. Then I cast out at the end of the trip, right next to where we were putting in and I caught another one, a 16incher, so I had 2 16s and 14 all together, with 12 being netted and checking the length. One that got away we couldn’t get the net to quick enough and it got off, Brian thought it was a bigger one, probably 18 inches. The fish were called Arctic Greyling and are pretty easy to catch. While we were driving over to the put in place for the raft we went on we saw 3 more moose! They are all over the place. Then we came back and I fell right asleep, I’ve been really tired lately. Then we went to the Tenana state fair and walked around there, went to get Italian food after the fair, came back to the “resort” to sleep and now I’m typing this and downloading pictures. The cars are all really funny up here, they have electrical outlets hanging out of the front bumper. In the winter when the sun comes up at 11AM and sets at 1:30pm it gets kinda cold, 60 degrees that is, BELOW zero! When it is about 20 below, I think they have to plug their cars in when they park them or the engine blocks will crack and the coolant will freeze. All the parking spots up here have electrical outlets next to them, it’s kinda funny actually. Then I heard that it’s so cold you can throw a cup of coffee out of the cup and it will freeze before it hits the ground! That’s cold! Anyway, I’m going to bed, goodnight all, and I love you Tara!

Denali

Today we woke up at 5:30 and got on the bus for our 6AM tour of Denali National Park. We noticed it was very clear out and we hoped that we could see Denali, or Mt. McKinley, or simply “the mountain”. We were lucky, around the first bend it was visible and we were all very excited. Due to the height of the mountain, 20,600 ft. it creates its own weather and most of the time it is cloudy. One man on the trip was there for his third time and he had never seen it before! We then saw a caribou and then he crossed the road. We saw many snowshoe hares, and scenic views, then we saw a momma bear (sow) and three cubs at the first rest stop. Then we continued on and saw many other caribou and a few more bears, we were very lucky indeed. We got closer and closer to Denali until we got to the turnaround point. They told us since it was a very clear day we could continue on to the last pass they normally travel, but they have only continued the busses to that pass 6 times this year! We finally got there and the views were magnificent, (check facebook for pics later, the internet is Terrible here!) and the tour guide warned of a bear nearby. The bear suddenly appeared and we had to get back in the bus, in a hurry, a BIG hurry! The tour guide apologized and said “sorry for using inappropriate language, but hey, what would you say if you saw a bear 50 yds or less from where your tour group is!” The recommended distance from a bear by the national parks service is 300 yds, or 3 football fields, we were half a football field away, and it could have easily attacked. We got lucky and it turned around! Then we ourselves turned around and went back through the park through the main gate and ended up back at our hotel, at 3:15 pm. That was a long bus ride! Then we went to dinner at the “chalet resort” and I had the special. I’ve never ordered the chef’s special so I was excited, it was salmon and reasonably priced so I went for it. It was really really good, and Sallie had some filet that was incredibly tender. Today is sallie’s birthday so happy birthday SALLIE! Anyway, I need some sleep I’m exhausted and we’re going rafting tomorrow. Peace. Love you TARA

Alaska Day 4 and 5

Today we woke up and went on a hike behind the tram and sallie and james slept in. Mom, Dad and I went on the “Winner Creek” trail, and it was really nice and we had a good hike for about 45 minutes. Then we got in the car and drove down to the kenai river from Girdwood/Alyeska, and we went to the sunrise café. It was a nice place and I had a buffalo burger. On our drive down I watched the matador and my head kind of hurt from watching it in the car. Then we went rafting with our raft guide brent. He said to not fall in, and he had a perfect record, he told us many great stories. In one story, he was training the other guides and they always have someone fall in the river when it is 40 degrees outside and the water is a balmy 37 degrees F. The new guides could tell who it would be because they had a big drysuit on, but Brent decided to switch it up, and one time he wanted to feel what it was like to fall in, so as they went over the mild class II rapids, he winked at his friend and went overboard! He then told us he was in the water for no more than 30 seconds then they pulled him out and he lay in the bottom of the raft and thought he should pretend to be shivering, then he actually was shivering and he couldn’t move. They took him to the side of the river changed his clothes, made a fire and he said he had to go sleep after that his body was too exhausted from trying to warm itself up, it burned everything he had! Then as we were going down the river we saw many salmon jumping and we learned all about the different kinds of salmon: chum, sockeye, king, silver and pink. We saw two or three bald eagles then we came to where the Russian river and the Kenai river meet. There were many fishermen hooking salmon, they actually place the hook where they think the fish will be and if it happens to go in their mouth, they catch it! They don’t use any bait because the salmon don’t eat at that point in their life. Then we saw two brown bears fishing right next to the fishermen! It was pretty crazy, then we went further and saw two bear cubs playing in the river, so we got to see 4 bears, and the weather was really nice, we got super lucky. We finished the rafting trip without falling in, it was more of a float trip actually, and then we left and drove back to Anchorage, I watched a Spanish movie “la mujer de mi hermano” and brushed up on my Spanish skills. We got to anchorage and felt like we had been traveling all day, because we were moving for most of the day. We walked around downtown, went to the bar/grill called rumrunners and played the electronic bar game. We won a round of trivia and I had a chicken panini. Then we walked back to our hotel since we took our car back already and then went to sleep. I had a hard time falling asleep because it is still light out at 10:45 and the room was pretty hot.



Train day

We woke up early again, (what a surprise) and we got on the train, in first class or “goldstar service” and it was a great trip. We had good seats and I liked the train a lot because unlike an airplane you can walk around, go to the patio area, talk to the bartender or tour guide, have breakfast and lunch downstairs in the dining car, etc. It was cool. Then we heard the bad news. The conductor came up and told us a semi had taken out the track in front of us and we had to deboard at Taneka (sp?) and get on busses to go the rest of the way to Denali. We were on the train another 45 minutes and the scenery was great. We didn’t see any wildlife but it was a good experience anyway. We got to the switching place and it took another 2 hours to get busses there because it was halfway between anchorage and Denali and they didn’t plan on having the track broken! The conductor has been with the train 32 years, and its happened 9 times, once every 3 years this happens! We were lucky I guess. So we get on the bus finally and I sit next to a random guy, Richard, and he has a mac so I show him some tricks on it and help him with iPhoto. Our driver was pretty crazy and he told some funny stories as well. We sat in the front of the bus and talked to him the whole time. We got here 2 hours later than expected, and we ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. Wow, I’ve been spelling restaurant wrong this whole time, sorry. Anyway, we had dinner here and the chef walked by as my mom was asking what was in the vegetarian salad, he told her and she wanted protein, so he got excited and said he would make a special one with tofu, and he came out several times to check on us and it was really neat. Then we went to the husky homestead where they train dogs and raise them to run the Iditarod 1100 mile race from anchorage to nome Alaska, and he was really cool. The guy, Jeff King has won the race 4 times and he just won this year in march he told us all about how they train the dogs and how he doesn’t do the work, its really the dogs, and they deserve a lot of the credit. He has to care for them while they’re on the race, and he can only have 16 dogs but the best number is 9 or 10, so at the end of the race he has that many. He said he can predict which ones he will use and which ones he will send home and which checkpoints he will send them home at, before he even leaves for anchorage! There were puppies for us to hold so we “helped train Jeff King’s sled dogs” because we helped to socialize them. He told lots of jokes and told us about Alaskan life, he’s really interesting and has many cool stories and ideas. I came back and downloaded 4 cards worth of pictures and now I will edit them and then go to sleep. We wake up at 5:30 to go to the park for our 8 hour bus nature drive through Denali tomorrow. I’m really tired but it’s hard to sleep with the sun still up! Good night Tara!

Alaska day 3

We woke up at 6:30 am to go to the ferry and we boarded and left at 8am. We saw a humpback whale, sea lions, puffins, porpous, and sea otters. It was fun but took from 8 til 1:30 !! I watched kiss kiss bang bang at Erin's suggestion and it was pretty good. I enjoyed the boat ride and we had some amazing views. Then we got off and went through a tunnel in the mountain that connects Whittier with the rest of alaska, and it was 2.5 miles long, one way. They have to regulate the traffic so on the hour until half past the hour it goes one way, and the rest of the time it goes another way. Then we saw the portage glacier which was really nice, and there were 3 other glaciers next to it. We then proceeded to the wildlife refuge and saw some really cool animals up close, and the pictures look amazing! Next we went to our hotel, which is our first hotel to go to before 10pm, and we got here around 4pm. I went and worked out, swam, and got in the hot tub then came back and we toured around the small town near Alyeska. During the winter, this is a big ski resort for most alaskans and some other people. Then my dad, mom and I went to this old gold mine in the town but it was closed. My dad and I went on a hike for a few minutes, then we saw a german shepard and it looked like it wanted to attack me! Luckily the owners were nearby and told it to back off. At first i thought it was a bear, because i was looking out mostly for bears at that point. Then we went to the top of the mountain in a tram and it was really cool. We ate dinner up there at a really nice resturaunt and it was some superb salmon. James had an Elk steak, sallie had a beef filet, dad had halibut and mom had tofu. We all got something different! That never happens! So the resturaunt had an amazing view of the "turnagain" finger of the bay that captain cook had to turn again and again to get out of because the tide difference is 39ft between low and high tide! Sometimes the river looks completely empty and its all mud, other times it is full to the brim, it just depends on the time of day! So we came back down the mountain to our really nice hotel, the Alyeska Prince hotel, and we have a nice view of the mountain from our room. I'm in the business area uploading pics to facebook. I love you Tara, goodnight!

AK day two

We woke up early and went to breakfast at peggy's - they're famous for their pies, and I had some blueberry pancackes. Then we started driving to Valdez, a 6 hr drive, so we stopped at an indian museum thing, then went to a supermarket and got lunch food and snack food for our excursion. We stopped at a gold mine that was used before WWII and then we had lunch. James and I decided to hike up this trail to the lake at the top, there was no one else there, and it was really cool. Then some other people showed up, and they were originally from TX but they lived in Alaska now. Then we drove on to the glacier, we watched "the island" on the drive. We walked around on the glacier then had dinner at the long rifle lodge that had a nice panoramic view of the glacier. There were some strange accented people in the room with us so we asked where they were from. My parents thought france, or maybe canada becuase they had good english, but they were from mother russia. So we went back on the road and then started watching "she's the man" a pretty good movie that james and my mom and I watched. It made me miss tara, not just because it was a love story in disguise, literally, the actress amanda bynes looks like Tara, and that made it that much harder to watch without my boo. Then we finally got to valdez at 10:45 at night. We passed some cool waterfalls on the way here, and there were lots of mountains and lots of water, everywhere! I'm having fun, and tomorrow at 6:30am we're getting up and going to the ferry and heading back toward anchorage. I need some sleep!

Alaska day 1

So we got to alaska at 8pm, and now it is 10:45pm and it is still light, but Dallas time, it is 1:45... interesting. We walked around downtown for a little while trying to find a resturaunt, but ended up eating a few blocks from our hotel in downtown Anchorage. We're staying in the downtown area and there are homeless people, but they are indian or eskimos, different from the homeless people we have in Dallas or Nashville. The air is a little fresher up here, the salmon was good too! I had some caffeine, so of course I am wide awake now (i was falling into my food at dinner...) and it's almost bedtime for me! I get to sleep with James, in a double bed, oh joy (james' words) and it's wierd that this is so far away and still the USA. We watched over the hedge and RV on the plane, pretty good movies and reinforced the family first ideals. Anyway, I finished working on wednesday and I had a great time at Drs. Alexander's office (there's two of them) and I learned a lot. I decided to do health service delivery to diverse populations, a course for my major instead of working with Dr. McKenna, at least for now. I think I got some good experience this summer and I don't know if my schedule next semester will be good for an oral surgery observation. Allright, bedtime! Love you boo!