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!