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Last year, I discovered a flightseeing company out of Delta Junction (about 1/2-2 hours south of Fairbanks) that did flights around the Alaska Range, including Black Rapids Glacier..I'd been wanting to fly over that glacier for years, and I said that on my birthday this year that's one thing I would do. My birthday week was cloudy, so I made a reservation for today, because the heat wave brought clearer weather. Unfortunately, the wind chose today to bring over smoke from fires burning in Canada..that's not nice!! Haha. Me and mom and her friend Sarah (they sew/craft a lot together) drove down anyway and met the pilot at the "airport" (literally a path of gravel through a field haha). He said the smoke might get better in the mountains, so we hopped on and took off. This was Sarah's first time in a small plane! The pilot was glad I had a specific location in mind, apparently other people are like "just take us anywhere" haha. It look a little time getting to the mountains (the smoke was somewhat better there), but once we did..wooow. There is SO much beauty and awesomeness you can't see from the road!! I loved how smooth the snow/ice looked on the mountains, like ice cream! It was VERY hard trying to take pictures though, so bright! Mom actually got a better view of Black Rapids from her side, but she thought she left her phone in the car, so she couldn't take any pictures! Ouch! (She saw it was in her purse when we landed!) That was kind of disappointing, but I still enjoyed the view of the tributary glaciers (I think the pilot said they're just considered the Black Rapids complex or something like that), the pretty meltponds, moraines, etc. We also saw the beginning of the Susitna Glacier. I wished we could have spent more time there, but that would have been insanely expensive, and those little planes only hold not a huge amount of fuel (it's never long enough for me when I'm around glaciers haha). When we were flying back, the pilot pointed to where he worked at his "real" job, and said he was on his lunch break..well that's pretty much the best lunch break ever haha. Unfortunately, not all of my pictures came out (especially with the wing strut thing in the way), but I still got some cool ones

After that we had buffalo burgers at a restaurant that I think is only open in the summer, went to a fabric store, and went to this grocery store that sells food from different countries, like Russia (their donuts looked good, but I was way too full from lunch to eat one lol). We have our road trip "musts": glaciers, food, fabric..works for me!! Haha. The smoke was a little better on the drive back, yay! Sarah thanked us for inviting her and said she had a good time..fun was had by all :D

( pics from the flight!! )

1. What inconveniences do you experience every single day? Being short haha, not wanting to get up because I'm comfy, etc
2. What do you wish you weren’t so often in close proximity to? The smell of weed..gross lol
3. This past week, what would you have appreciated some advance warning about? Abby had bloodwork done recently, and today I found out she's in stage one kidney failure. :( I guess with the food she's been eating nitrogen builds up, which can damage the kidneys. The vet gave me some food especially formulated for kidney health, which hopefully she likes. I'm glad it was caught before it got worse, but I'm still anxious about it (I hope it's not uncomfortable for her!). She's almost 19, wow! I'm definitely not taking my time with her for granted now, every moment is special <3
4. What caused you to smile happily today? Petting the vet's cat Glitter, and Glitter licking the bag with the food in it haha
5. When did you recently give in to a sudden impulse? Maybe when I had food from Sonic a couple days ago..

Brrr, it's -25 outside..Denali and the Alaska Range looked cool in the sunset though

( dec 28-29 )

Made it home! There was a geocache at this Denali viewpoint place we stopped to rest at, and mom and I were treated to these views when we got up there:

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No Denali, but the Chulitna River and Ruth Glacier (in the middle) were nice! I also discovered a glacier near there I don't remember ever seeing before! That made me so happy LOL

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Hi Ruth Glacier!!

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It stopped raining eventually, which was nice..it rained/sprinkled EVERY DAY we were in Anchorage, so I was tired of it. Abby was very happy to see everyone haha. I'm excited to sleep in my bed again LOL

( august 20-21 )

Yesterday at breakfast Jo said he and his friends were going to hike at Wickersham Dome (around 27 miles from Fairbanks) later in the day, and invited me to go with them. It was a gorgeous day, it sounded like fun, and somehow I'd never hiked there before, so I said yes! (Mom has hiked there, and did the 14-mile round trip in one day..wow. O_o) As it got closer to leaving, I again got nervous before seeing his friends. I've hung out with them multiple times by now, I shouldn't still get that nervous! They were almost ready to go and I was frantically looking for mom's copy of the Milepost to take with me (it's a very cool book, with lots of information, though mom's is from 2007, so it's a liiittle outdated haha. She kept it because that was the year she drove to Alaska), but kept not finding it, and was worried someone would ask what I was looking for! I did eventually find it in a box. "Mile-POST!!!" I said in victory LOLOL

Eventually we were all ready to go..I rode with Jo and Maeve and the others (and Sid) rode in a separate car. Mom and Ryan video called from Payson a little after we left (though the signal wasn't very good, maybe because of the hills). Jo said "me and Heather and Maeve are on our way to Wickersham Dome to hike!" and mom was like "no way! Cool! Wait..how did you get Heather to go with you?? Was she peer pressured??" (Maeve said I should have said "no, I was queer pressured!" That would have been perfect. :P) I took the phone and told her it was too nice of a day not to lol, and then showed her I brought the Milepost along. It was hard talking though because of the bad signal, and eventually had to give up..we figured we would talk later when the signal was better lol. After we hung up, I told Jo and Maeve I realized I missed the perfect opportunity to say "I took your Milepo-po-post!" and blame the stuttering on the bad signal instead! That would have been so funny. :P Then I started telling them why that word is so hard (Jo had heard the story, but Maeve hadn't. She was curious as to what situations cause me to stutter, and said from being nervous or really tired, and sometimes it comes out of nowhere :P), and just kept talking! I was honestly tired of hiding it, and hadn't talked a lot about it except on the Internet, so it was pretty cathartic! I'm sure they heard/saw my struggle as I tried to say "post" way too many times in that conversation LOL, but I just laughed it off. :P The drive was really pretty though, lots of fall colors and awesome Alaska scenery!

It didn't take too long to get to the trailhead, and I told Rachel "I'm out of shape and I have short legs, I'll be in the back, the first to g-get e-ea-eaten by a bear!" (Yup, still nervous. :P) Jo got his hiking pole out, which reminded me of winter hiking with mom and Bonnie and Ingrid, and took a deep breath and asked "do you know what ..postholing is?" and he said "what?" Nooo I have to say it again?? "Po-postholing," I said again, but still he was like "huh?" NOO YOU'RE KILLING MEEE haha! He got it the third time, but Rachel nearby must have been like "what is wrong with her?" Thankfully that's when we started hiking haha, which was REALLY hard at first because I'm so out of shape and was panting way too much (so embarrassing!). Rachel probably thought I was kidding when I said I was going to be in the back, but nope, that's where I was. :P I felt like a grandma LOL. It was still a really nice hike though, with nice colors and great views of the Alaska Range, and possibly the Brooks Range! I think this was everyone's first time up there, and we were all like "woooow" haha. I think we hiked a mile or so, but I'm not positive. It was tiring, but fun!

We drove behind the other car the way back, and when we got back to town, Sid stuck his head out the window, and we could see Sid was drooling, which he never does unless he's sick (one time he ate a poisonous mushroom and he was leaking from both ends and collapsed and had to go to the vet!). Jo was like "oh no, he is not ok!" When we got home a couple of us watched Sid (who definitely wasn't feeling well, and was wobbly when he walked) while the others made dinner. When Sid started having diarrhea, I got Jo, who called the emergency vet, and was placed on hold for a long time (really??). After we ate he finally got through, and they said to bring him in, so I went with Jo to the vet. She gave him some anti-nausea medicine to stop his drooling (which didn't work) and some charcoal to bind whatever toxins he ingested to it (he might have eaten another mushroom). His fluid was fine, so she sent us home with more medicine (Jo thanked me a couple times for going with him). Sid was SO tired, and he's still very tired this morning, but he did stop drooling, which is good. Poor guy! I hope he recovers quickly, and learns not to eat mushrooms :P

( pics from the hike! )

I can't believe yesterday was the 20th anniversary of 9/11..that makes me feel old. O_o Definitely a sad day :(

11. When was the last time you visited the park? Who did you go with? Hmm..I went geocaching at a park with mom this summer..

12. What language did you take in high school? Spanish and Latin

We're back home, and it was such a gorgeous sunny drive! You could see pretty much everything..the glaciers in the mountains around Valdez and in Thompson Pass, Hayes and Deborah, the Alaska Range glaciers, etc. I was really sad to leave the glaciers behind..I loved being surrounded by them every day lol. We ate lunch at Delta (about an hour/hour and a half from Fairbanks), and it was HOT compared to Valdez..it's supposed to be in the 80s this week, ugh. It was an amazing trip though, and much needed! Going back to "reality" might be hard LOL

Here are pics!

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Goodbye, Valdez <3

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31. Have you ever cried in school? Yeah..I was going into this classroom and the teacher just started yelling at me, telling me not to misbehave and stuff. I never misbehaved in class, so I was confused and upset as to why she singled me out. I started crying and she took me into the hallway and told me to stop playing games! I don't know what her problem was, but if you yell at me (especially for no reason!) I'm going to cry, I'm just sensitive! Maybe she was having a bad day, but still..ugh

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I never get tired of this view of Mt. Hess, Hayes and Deborah :D

( look at all the new pokemon i've caught lately! )

The sky is SO blue and clear today!! It's so pretty..

( another of hess and deborah? why not :P )

Would you rather after flirting with a cute store clerk, realize you had a slight string of snot stretching from your nose to ear or that after playing with your dog earlier, you had a tiny spot of poop on your cheek? The poop

Today's trivia: The Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain is owned by the Seminole tribe of Florida

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Haifisch"-Rammstein

Today in class we talked about glacial landforms, like moraines, erratics, etc. Yess..I've been waiting for her to teach that haha. I love learning about glacial landforms. We only have two lectures left before the final..noooo! Glaciers seems to have gone much faster than earthquakes. Boo :( (The title of the entry is from one of my favorite glacier books..for some reason I love the title of that chapter haha. I also really like the word "mundane" now :P)

I've lost 5 pounds since starting Weight Watchers! I didn't think I could do it haha. It's kind of gotten easier too. Even though it wasn't that long ago I think about my past eating habits and I'm just like "ew!" Like I'd eat half a bag of Chex Mix in one sitting and eat crappy frozen meals every night. I mean I'll still eat cookies and stuff but try to eat healthier during the week. I still have popcorn and SoBe on Fridays. I think the key is just to just moderate what you eat and have more fruit and stuff. I'm rather proud of myself :)

( 62. Magic )

Would you rather eat 30 cigarette butts that you find lying on a beach or eat five pounds of wet leaves that you find on the ground after a rainstorm? DEFINITELY the leaves

Today's trivia: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a bored doctor, writing his Sherlock Holmes mysteries during the long stretches between patients

Watch on YouTube

We talked about this plane crash in class today. Knowing what we know about glaciers we had to figure out how we would have got it out of the ice. They had to drill hundreds of feet into the ice, make a cavern and take the plane apart to get it out. Wow. I wish the video was more detailed, but here's an article: http://www.damninteresting.com/exhuming-the-glacier-girl/

Today was finally a day where the whole Alaska Range was clear..I'll never tire of that view <3

( 50. Breaking the Rules )

Would you rather have to put to sleep five puppies you just got or a dog you've had for a year? uwefhgyuegwfyv these kind of questions are too upsetting for me

Today's trivia: Rats are lactose intolerant

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Retribution Through the Ages"-Iced Earth

Mt. McKinley sticking up behind the hill

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Would you rather have your school picture taken just as you are making a really stupid face or be sick that day and not get in the class picture that year at all? Maybe the stupid face..don't they have redos or something?

Today's trivia: In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Through the Wormhole"-Ayreon

Flightseeing was awesomeee. I actually went with Ryan cause mom has done it with me before and we wanted to give Ryan a chance too. I think he enjoyed it. We got to the building and they wrote down our weights and we paid and stuff. They were fine with taking us to the glaciers haha. We waited for the pilot to get ready and then we left. We flew over the fire by the Tanana River that's STILL burning! I thought it would have burned itself out cause of how cold it's been. Wow. It was interesting listening to the pilot chatter on the headphones too. It got cloudy going into the mountains. In the distance I saw Mt. McKinley! It looked awesomee. When we got into the Hayes, Hess and Deborah area it cleared up! That area is REALLY heavily glaciated. There were a bunch of glaciers there..and the mountains looked seriously awesome in the sun. The glaciers looked unique too..I'd never seen the surface look like it did on those before. You'll see in the pics..it was just amazing. I wasn't on the right side to get any good ones of Deborah and Hess..too bad cause they looked awesome up close. We saw Wood River Glacier, Yanert Glacier, West Fork Glacier and maybe the edge of Susitna glacier before it clouded up again (it seems like there was more than that though haha). When we flew back we flew under the clouds to see if we could spot any wildlife (it started snowing! Haha wow). We saw a bunch of Dall sheep on a mountain and two moose! The pilot spotted a third but I didn't see that one. Awesomeness :D

( pics! )

Would you rather always have to sleep with one eye open or always breathe using only one lung? Sleep with one eye open..I sleep with my eyes open anyway

Today's trivia: Fish yawn

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "The Only One"-Evanescence

Yesterday after mom got off work we went to Murphy Dome to pick cranberries since it was such a nice day. Last time I picked cranberries up there I was FREEZING..especially my hands. But yesterday it was warm and lovely. I even saw hazy Mt. McKinley! Hess, Hays and Deborah were out too..they looked so exquisite and amazing. *drools* I love mountains. :D There were lots of big cranberries too

Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Umm..no one has really hurt me that recently

( the rest of the days )

Would you rather lick a large frog all over its body or eat one bite of a piece of rotten fruit that's full of worms? Lick a large frog

Today's trivia: It takes 96 hours to completely recover from jet lag

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Dragonfly"-Edguy

Yesterday we drove down the Richardson Highway through the Alaska Range to Paxon. The Richardson is the way to get to Valdez which we drove down last year..but it was cloudy and rainy. Yesterday it was sunny..OMG it hardly looked the same. It was like seeing it for the first time haha. We missed crazy beautiful scenery!! We went on a different side of the mountains than the Parks Highway (the way to Denali and Anchorage). That's where all the glaciers were hiding too haha (I think the Denali side is on the rain shadow of the mountains and gets less snow). We ate lunch at Rika's Roadhouse! We ate there last year on the way to (and from!) Valdez. Their buffalo burgers are so good!! And they have tomato basil soup! From Paxon (hicktown :P) we got on the Denali highway and drove 38 miles on it (it's 100 some miles and ends at Cantwell. It used to be the only way to get to Denali I think). Most of it is dirt road. On one side was the Alaska Range and in the distance on the other was the Wrangell Mountains! Though the weather wasn't great over there and clouds were obscuring some of those mountains. Now for pics..

( yay )

The Yukon Quest: A one thousand mile sled-dog race, run round trip between Whitehorse, Yukon, and Fairbanks, which many think is tougher than the Iditarod. The Quest passes through a whole lot of nothing in temperatures that would make a polar bear shiver (the Yukon Quest starts in Fairbanks next year!!)

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Nailed to the Wheel"-Edguy

Today we drove to Denali. We went to the winter visitor's center and asked the person there if we could drive into the park..she said only 3 miles cause it had snowed. I got a map and was asking about the glaciers arount Mt. McKinley and if there were any we could see by car. She said no but she said there was a guy who did flightseeing tours in Cantwell (not far from Denali). She gave me his number and I called him and he said he could do one that afternoon!! I let mom talk to him and then it was off to Cantwell! I was ecstatic! Driving through the Alaska Range to Denali was cloudy but in Cantwell it was sunny! There was a GREAT view of McKinley. We so got lucky haha. We found the guy's house (I guess it's his own business) and soon we were flying over the mountains...OMG it was AMAZING. It was GORGEOUS. Mom and the pilot saw sheep but I didn't see them (I actually found out about it after we landed :P). OMG we got really close to McKinley!! I saw the wind blowing snow off the top of it! There are like a billion glaciers coming off McKinley too haha. When we were coming back the pilot flew low so we could look for wildlife. We saw a group of moose! I think it may have been a bull moose with his harem of cows lmao. The pilot flipped the plane to the side so we could go back around and I looked outside and it made me dizzy haha. Then we landed and the pilot showed us a map and the route we followed. Then we drove home and I saw one of the most awesome sunsets I've ever seen (plus I could still see McKinley). Wowww! Haha. I'll post my pics too

Last night mom and I looked out the window and there was an inch of snow on the ground! We went out at like midnight and threw snow at each other ;)

( pics!! )

Today's stupidest quote: When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room (actual comment written by a doctor on a patient's chart)

Current Mood: bouncy

Yesterday mom and I went up to Esther Dome. It was a clear (though hazy) day and we could see the Alaska Range..most of it had clouds but not Mt. McKinley! There were no clouds AT ALL..that must be rather rare. The people at Denali yesterday were lucky..though in the afternoon it clouded up on the mountain again (we went up to the college to see). As we were driving back down we saw this guy and he wanted a ride so mom let him. I thought I was gonna get murdered! Sure he was nice but I didn't know him..

Last night I went out to eat and I shall put what it said on the placemat haha

( poem )

Today's stupidest quote:
Weakest Link host Anne Robinson: What is the maximum number of Mondays that can occur in a calendar month?
Contestant: One

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Dragon's Child"-Iced Earth