Today mom and I went to the State Fair (after saying bye to Ingrid, since she's leaving tomorrow :( *sniff*)..it rained earlier in the day, but the evening turned out pretty nice..not too hot, not too cold. I got my yearly Dippin Dots lol, and finally I was able to spend a good amount of time at the petting zoo (usually when I try it's either closed, on a break, or I get two minutes before they go on a break). I held a chicken that cuddled right up to me, and stayed on my lap for a long time..even when I took my hands off, it was perfectly happy just to sit there (the other chickens tried to get away lol). It made little chirping noises as I pet it, which sounded like happy content sounds lol..awww. I also held a bunny..the handler told me the way the bunny loved to be pet, and when I pet it that way, it immediately cuddled closer to me and pretty much fell asleep on my lap..d'awwww. Mom was like "that bunny was melting into you!" It would have been cool to hold him longer, but you only had a couple minutes before it was other people's turn. We also pet some pigs and sheep and fed some goats..it was awesome lol. :D We also saw piglets that were an hour old, born while we were at the fair!! Aww, that was cool to see. One thing I HATE about the fair is the people that are shouting at you trying to get you to buy their stuff, like the people at the Midnight Sun Festival being like "GIVE ME YOUR GLASSES!!" They were at the fair too. The first time they asked I was like "ugh nooo," the second time I was completely horrified, and the THIRD time I was just like "REALLY??" I actually thought about taking my glasses off so they would stop asking me, but I'm sure they would have recognized me by then. The vendor next to them was like "feel my soft pillow!" OMG stop, just leave me alone!!! I tried very hard to avoid that area lol..still a good time though :P

( some pics! )

Ryan stopped by our parents' house..he had been staying with a friend that had surgery, and he also has a boyfriend! I thought he might hehe. ;) He hasn't totally moved out yet, but he might eventually. I wonder if Ryan will let me meet him lol

A few days ago a glacier/wildlife cruise out of Valdez posted a couple awesome videos of Meares Glacier calving..I asked them if the glacier was still advancing, and they said yes! Awesome! :D

August 8 - What is the newest item you own? The popcorn and beaded hummingbird I got at the fair

Yesterday mom and I drove to Valdez..it was cloudy and rainy till we crossed the Alaska Range, then it got nice and sunny! We found 6 geocaches and saw a moose, which was cool. We're staying at the same bed and breakfast we stayed at when we came with Bonnie a couple years ago (they're nice, make a great breakfast, and their bathroom has very soft cushy towels and their shower is great, so we had to come back lol). I could not believe how WARM is was, in the 70s!! Valdez is never that warm it seems! We had dinner at our favorite Italian place here (we even sat outside!). There was a Pokestop there so I set a Lure and caught two new Pokemon, yay! (Tentacool and the crab with the giant claw lol.) Valdez is overrun with Drowzees too it seems. :P Another couple from Fairbanks checked in after we got back..we didn't know them, but still, small world! I also did a double-take as I thought the guy looked like an older Cherry LOL (on the boat I kept glancing at him and a picture of Cherry comparing them heh. Oops, talking about him again. :P) Sleep was nice :P

Today at breakfast we got to know the couple more..they live in Fairbanks, but they also live in Texas (they knew where Flower Mound is!), AND they were going on the same glacier cruise as us! How crazy is that?? I don't know where Weather Underground gets their forecasts from, but they were COMPLETELY wrong. 30 and 40s? No way, 70s yet again!! The sun was shining, the sky was super blue, the mountains were bathed in sunlight, and when the wind was right you felt a WARM breeze go by (Chinook or some kind of katabatic wind..I love that word lol). The cruise out to Meares Glacier was AMAZING, perfect, incredible..I was even too warm! We saw orcas, humpback whales, bald eagles, sea otters, puffins, Dall porpoises, seals, sea lions, and lots of other birds! The other people on the boat were a great group..when we were waiting for the orcas a lady was like "hereee orca orca orca!" haha. There seemed to be a lot of people from Fairbanks on the boat, and two people came up to me and said I looked familiar. When I said I worked at Forget-Me-Not Books they were like "a-ha! I knew you looked familiar!" Alaska is small apparently. :P Unakwik Inlet (where Meares Glacier is) was especially gorgeous and it smelled sooooo good, like evergreen trees. *drools* If perfection exists, Unakwik Inlet is it. It was funny..the captain was like "I bet you're wondering where the glacier is..." and then he turned the corner and was like "welcome to Meares Glacier!" and all of a sudden it was just THERE. I was like "aw YEAAAHH" haha. I was bouncing on the soles of my feet..for one since I'm short, and that's apparently what I do now when excited LOL (like when I got the Cherry book haha). I couldn't believe how blue the sky was..there were NO clouds above us at all! It's so awesome just standing under the face of a glacier (and Meares technically isn't THAT big). The glacier is still advancing slowly (you can see the trees it's pushing over!). It calved little chunks here and there, but nothing too exciting (maybe because it's a stable glacier?). Meares will always be more special since I went there with Dana a few years ago. I couldn't believe how beautiful and warm it was. I'm glad Meares Glacier didn't kill my camera this time lol (weirdly, the other two times I went to that glacier my camera died lol). Eventually we had to leave (NOOOONOOOOOONOOO *grabby hands*..I always feel that we should spend longer at the glacier since we have to get all the way out there, but time goes by super fast for me at glaciers, so it was probably longer than I think it was :P) and made our way back to Valdez. There's not enough words to describe the beauty and awesomeness of today..I feel SUPER lucky. It would be cool to live here if the weather was like this all the time! Wow. I was super excited to catch my first Pikachu on the way back to the B&B!! Woohoo!

Tomorrow we go back to Fairbanks..it's supposed to be sunny and warm again! This weather is amazing. It'll be a nice day to hike up to Worthington Glacier (we stopped there on the way, but the glacier was in the shadows and decided to hike up Monday instead when the light would be better for pics. It looked like it had receded quite a bit! Sad :(). I'll post my pics when I get back home lol. Epic trip was epic!

Aww, I felt like I was at the glacier all over again! Standing in front of that glacier is one of the best feelings ever. :D Epic calving too..Meares never disappoints <3

( 22. A picture of you far away )

Today Dana and I went on the wildlife/glacier cruise! The weather was of course rainy and cloudy. :P I guess it was a little better than last time I was on the cruise since you couldn't see into the bay to Columbia Glacier and you could some today (they said even if it was clear you couldn't really see it anyway since it's retreated so much. They said it's split into two glaciers now!). There were some pretty cool icebergs from the glacier though. We saw a bunch of wildlife too..sea otters, humpback whales, porpoises, etc. Porpoises are so fun to watch hehe..they like the pressure from the bow and jump and play in front of the boat. We eventually got up to Meares Glacier..we got SO close to it haha..soo awesome. :D Again I heard it creaking and splitting omg. *swoons* It kept calving little chunks of ice (but it was still so loud!) and the captain was like "usually when it does that the whole part calves!" and like 5 seconds later it did!! MOST EPIC CALVING EVER!!! OMG this huge section of the face just broke off..I think the biggest calving I've ever seen! Omgomg. *SWOONS* Meares Glacier does not disappoint. :D It didn't really calve after that..but still, the one we saw was AWESOME. BEST SOUNDS EVERR. And for once I actually thought we spent a good amount of time at the glacier..still sad leaving it (heart..*breaks*) but I left it feeling very satisfied. Definitely makes up for Aialik and Portage. Being at a glacier face is so addictive haha..and also one of the happiest feelings for me. <3 AND I got a PICTURE of it calving!! That's sooo hard to do haha..it's unpredictable and your hands are FREEZING and it was hard to see what was on the screen. I win haha. Thenn we made our way back to Valdez with a couple more stops. Then we got dinner and now we're relaxing. We go back to Fairbanks tomorrow and Dana leaves that night. *sniff* I bet her trip was epic though ;)

WHOA. That's Aialik Glacier! Why didn't it calve like that for me?? Haha. I'm dying to go back to another tidewater glacier this year haha (like Meares, which is active and calves a lot :P)

( Day 41: A picture of your favorite book )

I'm back from Valdez! Guess who got a cold there? Me. Joyy. We drove there on Wednesday..I felt sniffy and kept getting worse as the day went on. The weather was rainy at one point but got better around the Black Rapids area. Then it was pretty nice and sunny the rest of the way. The weather was reaaallly nice in Valdez..it actually felt HOT cause it was so sunny there haha. It may even have been more sunny than when we went last year. We drove to the bed and breakfast we were staying at..a bunch of mom's coworkers were there so we said hi and then brought our stuff into the house. The owners had a cute dog that was the same breed as the family in Wisconsin..AND her name was Maggie! SO WEIRDD haha. I picked her up and she licked me like crazy hehe. We got dinner after that..my throat started feeling weird then. I went to bed feeling bleh

We had to get up at 5 something the next morning..my throat was hurting then. Breakfast was at 6..I took some Motrin and then went to eat. Del (the lady who owns the business) made an AMAZING breakfast all by herself..there was eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, a fruit platter, etc. I felt sorry for her doing all that work haha. Then we went to the boats to start fishing for silver salmon! The weather was still pretty nice but got cloudier as the day went on. We didn't have to go very far to fish..we spent a lot of the day out there trying to find them and catch them. I caught two! Yay! Hehe. Mom was the only one to catch the limit (six). The charter lady had to beat the fish with a club so it wouldn't flop everywhere..I couldn't watch that..ugh. We eventually went back to the harbor and the charter lady filleted them for us and we also went to get them frozen so they'd keep till we got home. After that we had dinner with our little group from the boat (we were split into two groups). I got some Theraflu at the store and sipped that while waiting for dinner to come. I guess it helped a little. After dinner we went back to the B&B and I took a couple hour nap. I also tried to get online but my computer couldn't find their connection. Mom went back to the store and got some Nyquil for me so I took that and went to bed

( the rest )

Pics (and maybe my videos) tomorrow!