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Today mom and I drove to Denali today, because why not. :P We found some geocaches, went shopping, had yummy pizza, and drove to the Savage River hiking trail. We saw two caribou, one of which had a huge rack! Both of them crossed the road right in front of our car, which was super cool! We didn't do the whole trail because we thought we had to get back in time to take dad to the airport, but it was still nice listening to the river (we saw one of the caribou again on the way back!). We got ice cream and then drove back to Fairbanks..we weren't going to get any geocaches because we didn't think we'd have time, until dad called us and said the flight was canceled! We laughed at our now unnecessary rushing and then found two more caches haha..we found seven in all, yay! Fun, but tiring :P

( some pics! )

30. Do you mostly do specific chores on specific days each week (e.g. groceries on Saturday, laundry on Wednesday, etc.)? Yeah, I usually do laundry on Saturday, and grocery shopping on Sunday. Other chores wait till I have the spoons to do them lol

Today mom and I drove to Denali for the afternoon (we wanted to stay for the weekend, but all the hotels were full). We had lunch when we got there, and I had the most delicious chicken parmesan sandwich ever..definitely going back there in the future! I got a new Pokemon (Vileplume) there too lol. After that we went shopping and spent way too much money on cool souvenirs haha, and then drove to Savage River (the farthest you can go unless you take a bus or have a permit). I couldn't BELIEVE all the buses and cars that passed by us..I think that's why we only saw a bunny in the park. That makes me sad, Denali seems to be overrun! At Savage River we hiked up to some cool rocks..I'm definitely out of shape lol, but it was still fun. After we got back to "Glitter Gulch" (what locals call the tourist area of Denali :P) we decided to go up to a hotel on a cliff..we'd never been up there and wanted to check it out. The view was nice, but I totally wasn't expecting the SIGNS..the first one I saw was "beware of falling coconuts," and they kept getting better and better. That alone made going up there worth it! On the way home we found three geocaches. Yay, a fun day!

( some pics! )

August 11 - Do you have children? Tell us about them? Nope, I'm good with my cat :P

Yesterday we drove to Denali..it was sooo cold and windy..ugh. Our hotel suite is AWESOME though..it's more like an apartment! I think after we settled in we looked in a couple shops, had dinner (best sourdough bread EVER *drools*) and then relaxed at the hotel

Today the weather was even worse than yesterday..cold, windy, rainy and SNOWY..like, a full on snowstorm. Ugh wtf. We still went hiking at Savage River (mom and I hiked there before, it's really pretty). It was a two mile hike round-trip. It's amazing how much my special shoes help when I hike now..I don't feel like I'm flailing and tripping all the time (mom noticed too!). I'm amazed just a pair of shoes helps my ankle problems! On the drive back to the hotel we saw two moose! A lot of people got out of their car to take pictures, which isn't really a good idea, especially if it's a mom and her calf! I wasn't even comfortable being that close in the car..eesh. You could definitely tell the mama moose was alert and a little stressed. We had lunch at the hotel, went to a bunch of the shops (I got a really cool opal vein rock!!), had dinner (the snow was REALLY coming down now), looked in more shops and now we're relaxing

Tomorrow we're going to Girdwood and staying at a ski resort (mom and I stayed there once a few years ago). The forecast says it's supposed to be CLEAR down there and other places we want to go to down south. It BETTER be, I am soooo tired of the rain and cold. I don't know what is up with the weather in the Interior, but I can't wait to get out of it and see the sun!!

Yesterday we drove to Denali..the weather was so gorgeous! When we got on the ridge we could see McKinley in the distance..yayy! (Also Hayes, Hess and Deborah on the opposite side of the range..epic!) When we got there we got our bus tickets and boarded. I don't know what was up with our driver, but she didn't want to spend a lot of time at anything..annoying. Finally I have seen the mountain from the park!! The driver kept saying how lucky we were haha..only 30% of visitors see the mountain in the summer. The bad thing about such a nice sunny day is you don't see as much wildlife. We saw a whole bunch of caribou for some reason. We didn't see ANY moose though..wow, that's unheard of haha! There were also a couple bears in the distance eating a carcass, and mom saw another through binoculars eating a caribou. McKinley looked so epic though..I know I've flown around it and stuff, but seeing it from the park that close is just different. It just looks so HUGE..wow. It was nice seeing where the mountain should be when usually it's cloudy. I love how pretty everything looked in the sun. By the time we got to Eielson Visitor Center clouds had gathered around the mountain and you couldn't see it very well..boo! We stayed awhile there and went hiking around this little trail. There was another that went to the top of this 1,000 foot mountain..it looked very tiring. :P We took another bus back to the entrance..our driver didn't talk at all except to say how long we'd be at a rest stop and stuff..weird. After we got back we went to a couple shops (I got 30% Club pins and shirt..yayy!), had dinner (there was a drink on the menu called Sex on the Nenana..love it haha!!) and drove home. I'm glad I finally got to see Denali on a nice day!

( pics! )

My parents and I are going to Denali tomorrow! We're gonna take a shuttle bus into the park since dad has never been before (I'm so glad he wants to do things now instead of just working at the house haha). The weather is supposed to be sunny. It better be..I've ridden the bus four times into the park and still haven't seen McKinley from the road! I know I've seen it plenty of other times, but it would feel special seeing it from the park. We have to get up early though..mehh :P

( new meme: songs )

Would you rather have no skin sensations or have super-sensitive skin that feels everything ten times more intensely? The second one, since I basically do anyway :P

Today's trivia: Taki Taki, or Sranan, a language spoken in Suriname, has 340 words, the fewest words of any language

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Land of the Free"-Gamma Ray

The Alaska Range is greeeen

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Would you rather be freed by the fire department after your hand got caught in the toilet bowl or after your finger got caught in the shower head? The shower head one

Today's trivia: The cornea is the only body part with no blood supply. It gets oxygen directly from the air

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Seal of Woven Years"-Kamelot

I'm back from Denali! On Sunday mom and I drove down..it's such a short drive (1 1/2 hours or so) haha..especially when you're used to driving to Valdez. :P The mountains on that side of the Alaska Range are so different from the ones on the Richardson..they're much drier. After we got there we went shopping for like..two hours haha. We didn't even get to all the shops but we were just like "I'm done now" haha. After that we checked into the hotel, relaxed, walked by the Nenana River, got ice cream and went to bed

Yesterday we had breakfast and then went hiking at Savage River (mile 15, the furthest you can go with your car). It was 2 miles altogether. It was nice..the terrain was pretty and interesting and the sun even came out. I couldn't stop taking pictures haha. I always thought Savage River was glacial but when I got next to it I saw it was clear! The marmots kept chirping at us. :P After that we had lunch and then went on a bus tour, the Tundra Wildness Tour! That was the bus I went on the very first time I went to Denali. I like that it's narrated and they specifically stop for wildlife. We saw SO many bears and caribou! This one bear and her two cubs went down the hill, got RIGHT near our bus and went walking down the road! That was SUPER awesome!! The bears weren't even afraid. We also saw a fox, lynx, moose, birds, Dall sheep, squirrels, etc. The weather was better than other times I've been, but McKinley was cloudy again. BOO. I've done it four times and still haven't seen the mountain from the park. I've heard only 30% of people do, but the bus driver said it was more like 10%-15%. Wow. I WILL SEE IT FROM THE PARK SOME DAY. Haha. Since the weather was better and not obscuring all the mountains, I discovered new glaciers! YAY haha. I even saw fresh snow! Oh my. :P The mountains were so pretty..they're different every time I see them. After the tour we had dinner and I went right to bed :P

Today we had breakfast and just drove home (I got Abby from mom's house first haha..now she's drooling on me :P). Yayy Denali! I traveled a lot this summer haha. Pics tomorrow!

( Day 86: A picture of your favorite color )

Would you rather have to walk to the end of your driveway nude every day to get your mail or have your spouse walk to the mailbox in the nude? My spouse haha

Today's trivia: During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI tried to escape, but he was easily recognized, because his portrait was on French currency

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "The Wizard's Last Rhymes"-Rhapsody

So..I applied for food stamps. I really didn't want to cause it has such a negative connotation but Nina eventually convinced me (she called it a food gift card haha). Plus it's just till I get a steady income. I'm still embarrassed though. I think I'm gonna get $19 a month. I can save the money on the card too..it doesn't go away after the month's over. Hopefully it'll help me be a little less broke by the end of the month haha (or better yet, that I get a job :P). I hope you don't judge me too harshly :/

I'm going to Denali tomorrow! We were originally gonna go today but mom checked the forecast and Monday looked much better. It's supposed to be partly cloudy and 70..nicee. We're gonna drive down tomorrow and hopefully do a bus tour on Monday. I better see the mountain this time ;)

( Day 85: A picture of your favorite drink )

Lovely sunrise (9:30!)

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Today mom, dad and I drove to Denali! Last night I was like "I wanna go to the mountains" and this morning mom was like "let's go!" Haha wow. We saw McKinley from the ridge..so awesome. It was such a gorgeous day to be there..nice and sunny. We stopped and the winter visitor's center and went to see and pet the sled dogs! Aww. Then we drove back..we had dinner at the Monderosa near Nenana and drove back to mom's house. A lovely trip, even though it was short haha. We saw some moose too! I shall post my pics tomorrow

( Day 113- A picture of you and a candle )

Celebrating Stephanie's birthday before we left

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Would you rather be a boy and have a girl's name or be a boy and always have to wear lipstick? Be a boy and have a girl's name

Today's trivia: It is estimated that 74 billion humans have been born and died in the last 500,000 years

On Tuesday we picked up the RV, loaded it, went to Fred Meyer to get groceries, ate lunch, and finally got on our way to Denali (all that took quite awhile). It rained the whole way there. We stayed at an RV campsite. We had a late dinner and went to bed

Yesterday was Stephanie's 12th birthday! We celebrated it before we left. We took the shuttle bus into the park (ours went to Wonder Lake). It's basically for people who just want a ride to go hiking or something. They don't do formal narrations..though our driver chose to. He had a really dry sense of humor..it was funny haha. Like he'd make a joke but do it in a serious voice haha. He was REALLY knowledgeable about birds..he said he's identified over 230 species of birds..woww. The animals we saw this time were some Dall sheep, some birds (ducks, a hawk that was black and had white on its wings, a magpie, etc), an arctic hare (awwe), an arctic ground squirrel, TWO bull moose with sweet racks, NINE grizzly bears (two moms had two cubs, one had one cub and one was alone) and someone spotted a wolf!! It was really hard to find and it was by Muldrow Glacier..they were describing a gray spot running by the glacier..but the glacier was full of rocks and ice so..hard to spot. We were coming back and we were near the entrance and the driver saw some cars by the road and was like "maybe they see a squirrel" and he got closer and then he said "oh, it's a grizzly bear" and I totally thought he was joking since he joked with us the whole time..but then I saw he WASN'T! OMG the bear was SO close to us!! It looked young so it was probably recently separated from its mom. It was cute hehe. We had great wildlife spottings on this trip..wow. Of course it rained almost the whole time..bleh. After the ride we went back to the RV, had some food and went to bed

Today we had to get up at 6:30 AM so we could drive 300 miles to Matanuska Glacier for the glacier hike. I was honestly ready at like 12:30 AM to get going haha (I got up to go to the bathroom and looked at the time). It was FREEZING in the camper..omg (we didn't have any hookups and couldn't run the generator yet). It was of course raining. :P We left there and drove to Wasilla (4 hours away..though I slept so it didn't seem that long haha. I'm also addicted to crossword puzzles so that passes the time too. I blame grandpa and the book section at Fred Meyer haha). When we got to Wasilla we got lunch and groceries and got on the road again. We got on the Glenn Highway and drove to the campground near Matanuska Glacier (2 hours). The weather was still blehhh and it was raining at the campground (though when we passed Matanuska Glacier it was clear for a ways over it). We called the hike people to ask what the weather was gonna be like tomorrow..they said it was supposed to get better so we postponed the hike till tomorrow. I checked the weather for the area (the Matanuska-Susitna valley..or Mat-Su) and it said mostly sunny..so I reaaally hope it's right and the wait paid off. This campsite has free wi-fi! I dunno if it's the rain but the connection is crappy and slow and keeps disconnecting. I was gonna post pics but it's being waaay too slow so hopefully another place we stay at will have a faster connection

Yeahh I get to walk on Matanuska Glacier tomorrow :D *squeaks*

Current Location: Near Matanuska Glacier

Thursday after work we drove to Denali..we got our hotel room and found out it was right next to the Nenana River!! You could stand on the walkway thing outside the room and just watch the river or rafters go by! We all were like OMGGGG haha (we stayed at the same hotel as last year). You could hear the water in the room too. Then we went shopping..I went into this one store and I found a shirt that said "Glacier Girl"! I about DIED haha. I bought it of course. :P On Friday I had to get up at around 5:45 AM..though it wasn't THAT bad since I slept well (maybe it was the river?) and since it's light out. We did a bus tour that took us aaall the way to the end of the road (90 some miles). Mom and I were pointing out evidence of past glaciers to each other haha. We couldn't see McKinley cause it was cloudy. We saw moose, ravens, caribou, Dall sheep, foxes, grizzly bears, TWO bald eagles (it's rather rare to see them up here), some other eagle, squirrels, arctic hares, ptarmigans, a marmot, seagulls (heh), magpies, a beaver..umm. The tour guide let us off at Polychrome Pass to take pics and I asked her if there were any glaciers over there and she said yes! (I read in a book too they're covered with dirt) Then she said we'd go by Muldrow Glacier!! I was like OMG YAY!!! haha. I showed her my Glacier Girl shirt and she called me that for the rest of the trip hehe. As we were heading to Wonder Lake I saw allll these dirt mounds piled up over a large area and I was like "is THAT Muldrow Glacier?" Mom agreed with me that it looked liked a glacial moraine. The tour guide didn't say anything though. At Wonder Lake we stopped and a park ranger talked about this pioneer house and we got swarmed by mosquitoes haha. Then we got back on the bus and drove the rest of the way to Kantishna (a village..it's actually outside the park boundary). The park ranger talked about a woman called Fannie Quigley (and saw her house). She was a tough gold miner lady. It surprised me to learn she's buried in Fairbanks in the Birch Hill Cemetery! Then we got back on the bus and proceeded to drive aaall the way back. As we were coming up on the mounds of dirt the tour guide was like "maybe Glacier Girl can point out Muldrow Glacier?" Turns out it WAS Muldrow!! The end of it is covered with dirt and stuff growing on it. The people on the bus were like "all that's a glacier??" haha. Maybe if it was less cloudy we could see more of it going up the mountains or something. We got back at around 7:40 PM or so..that morning we left at around 7:45 AM..woww haha. Then we went to dinner at Cabin Nite..these people act out historical characters and tell about stuff we learned on the bus (Fannie was a character). It was sort of overrated. Today we went shopping, ate lunch and drove home. We stopped at this place and totally saw the actor guy at Cabin Nite that was our waiter haha. He looked tired. :P Now pics!

Brenda is leaving tonight..and Ryan is coming tonight to live here again!

( pics! )

Stink heads: An Eskimo delicacy with a descriptive name, these are fish heads buried until they begin to resemble Limburger cheese, then dug up and eaten. If that's not enough for you, there's stinky fish, which are whole fish prepared much the same way

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

Sunday mom and I got on the train to Denali (it means the Great One in Athabaskan). The trail had these upper observation decks..you could only spend 20 minutes up there if it was full and other people wanted seats. We spent almost the whole trip up there haha. I saw some moose too. It takes 4 hours to get to Denali by train (about 2 by car). We got there (it was cold!) and got checked into the hotel, then went on the Tundra Wilderness Tour, which takes 7-8 hours. It goes 60 miles into the park (all of it is bigger than Massachusetts). The guide said Denali is one of the best preserved ecosystems in the world. The wildlife we saw were Dall sheep (little white specks on the mountain :P), birds (gyr falcon, magpie, golden eagle, etc), caribou, Arctic ground squirrels, Arctic hares (mostly on the drive back..there was a ton haha. There are Arctic hares here at the house actually), grizzly bears (we saw a whole family of them. The guide had a camera that zoomed really far and was put on TV so we could see the wildlife up close), lynxes, pika, and moose. Someone spotted a moose near the hill and another on the left side of the bus (this was coming back). Then we drove more and there was a moose and her two children in the middle of the road! There were cars surrounding them and these IDIOTS were getting out of their cars. Moose mothers are VERY protective of their kids and may charge you if threatened. She didn't charge this time though..they went into the woods. Then the idiot guys went to the side of the road where the moose went and were dancing with flowers. Ew at people ruining people's chances at watching wildlife peacefully! A little bit down the road there was a lynx resting (it blended in well..somehow someone saw it and other people came). Then we drove more and saw ANOTHER moose with her child! Haha wow. Our tour took NINE hours cause of stopping for wildlife haha. Then we went back to the hotel

Yesterday mom and I spent the morning shopping. I didn't have much money and I wanted to buy myself and Dana something (later dad called and he said he gave me $100 in my account! This was in my Bank of America account and I had brough my Wells Fargo card. It was too late anyway but still :P). I did manage to though. Then we went to a dog sled demonstration. The dogs were freaking out when they were getting hitched up haha. They looooove doing it. The sled dogs patrol Denali in the winter. We could pet the dogs if they were close to you or if they came to you. Then we went to the train station and took the train home. I only saw one moose this time (I spotted it first :D)

( pics! )

Today's stupidest quote: When you're talking about me, keep your mouth shut (Toronto Mayor Allan Lamport). Sunday's: Our choir sang in a broadcast from Minneapolis. It was nice to hear them and realize they were nearly a thousand miles away (in a church bulletin). Yesterday's: Game show host Les Dennis: Name something sold by gypsies. Contestant: bananas (on the game show Family Fortunes)

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Living a Lie"-Epica