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to take with me (it's a very cool book, with lots of information, though mom's is from 2007, so it's a liiittle outdated haha.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

Today mom and I went to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn. I woke up feeling kinda better, but now mom has the cold! Boo. Luckily we just had to switch trains once on the way. It was another gorgeous day and all the mountains and glacial rivers looked so pretty! There was also a cool glacier you could see from the train. Mom had been to Zermatt before (many years ago) but when we arrived she said nothing looked familiar. We decided to take the gondola to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise (how could I not?? Haha). Mom wanted to do that when she was in Zermatt before, but it was too cloudy. She thought she'd never be back to do it! It was super epic..there were glaciers everywhere!! When you got high enough the gondola went right over these glaciers and awesome looking icefalls and crevasses and stuff. *swoons* I think I took too many pics haha..it's impossible not to when I see glaciers though. :P At the top was a building with restaurants and shops and stuff (there were lots of skiers too!). There were great views up there! It was over 12,000 feet though..I just felt weird. I had a headache and I felt shaky and not in my head all the way haha. We didn't stay there very long since we had to ride the train back, but I did manage to get a pic of me in front of the Matterhorn (epic mountain!). I felt awful on the ride down..my ears were all messed up (mom's were too) and I just felt..weird. Note to self..don't go up to high altitudes when sick. We tried to catch the next train, but there were no taxis and we weren't fast enough (there are no cars allowed in Zermatt, just taxis/buses and emergency vehicles, which are all electric). We had an hour, so we ate lunch and got on the next train. I was still feeling weird and there were all these screaming kids on the train..I felt like I was having an anxiety attack or something. We made it back in time for dinner, but I was not feeling well at all..I was nauseous and just couldn't take any more stimulation, so I went back to the hotel and took a nice shower and now I'm relaxing. I still feel weird though..I hope it goes away! I think I'm done with high altitude for awhile haha. I hope I feel better by tomorrow, since we're going hiking. We'll just have to take it slow..

( here, have some epic pics! )

We made it to Wisconsin! The first flight to Anchorage left at 9 something. It seemed pretty dark, but you could see the sunset once you got above the clouds. They both looked really cool! McKinley and Foraker were the only mountains tall enough to peek over the clouds..they also looked really cool! It was funny..the pilot said we had reached our cruising altitude and then was like "in 10 minutes we'll start the descent to Anchorage." Haha!! We spend most of that flight ascending and descending. :P Mom said she sat next to a pilot she briefed when she worked for the FAA! Haha awesome. We didn't have a lot of time in Anchorage..I really wanted Chili's since it's not in Fairbanks anymore but we only had time to get fries from McDonald's. Mom was actually flying standby (I had a paid ticket but if mom couldn't go I wouldn't either). Mom wasn't sure if she'd get a seat since the flight was full, but I think she got the last one! Nicee. We tried sleeping, but it's just impossible to get comfortable. Eventually I gave up and did a crossword haha. It took 5 hours to get from Anchorage to Seattle. After we got our bags we picked up our rental car and drove the hour and a half to Ron and Teresa's house in Wisconsin. Grandpa drove up from Florida..he was the only one at the house when we arrived. Ron got off work early and arrived soon after. Right now Teresa's at work and Stephanie's at school. We're just hanging out now and looking at pics and stuff haha. Yayy. So tiredd :P

I am home! (At mom's house anyway haha) Yesterday we went to another museum, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. It was ok..there were a lot of Native artifacts and stuff there. That stuff just doesn't interest me. There was also a floor with hands on stuff for kids, a temporary aviation exhibit, and the 4th floor was a few pieces of modern art scattered about. So pointless..like there were three kinda crushed water jugs with this furry thing on top with a light shining on the wall. Ooook. After having lunch and browsing the gift shop we drove back to Windy's house. She made us dinner of chicken and rice! Aw nice. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was on TV and we had fun watching that and eventually we went to bed. She's so nice hehe

This morning we said bye to Windy (she had somewhere to be again), packed up and drove to a restaurant Windy recommended. The guy behind me started smoking! It was SO disgusting..my nose was burning. (I thought they outlawed smoking in restaurants??) We moved to the bar but people were smoking in there too and I could just see the smoke wafting in the sunlight. That was it, I had to leave. Grossss. My hair reeked of smoke and it took awhile before it got out of my nose. Blech. It was an hour till there was another open restaurant, a Subway (at the Talkeetna turn off). It was lunch time by then haha. We ate and continued the drive home. The mountains were so pretty in the sun! For some reason the audiobooks wouldn't work in the car's CD player so I used my laptop. It did make time go by faster. Now to relax and upload pics! I still hate the new Photobucket..it makes my pics giant sized and when I resize them I have to save them and upload them again for it to work. Sorry if they break your computer haha but I really don't want to do that. :P It keeps putting my pics out of order too. Grrr. Looks like I'll have to get used to another LJ profile change too :P

Steam coming off the Nenana River. It was so cool cause driving down the highway you could see the steam in the distance and know where the river was (that happens cause the water is warmer than the air temperature)

( warning: LOTS of pics under here )

I hope I didn't break your computers :P

Would you rather drink water from a vase containing two week old dead flowers or eat a giant three foot by three foot spiderweb? The water

Today's trivia: France's Oak Chapel church is built inside a living 800 year old oak tree

Today in class we were looking at pics of earthquake damage in Alaska..the professor showed this one pic and was like "I'm not sure if this is Seward or Valdez..does anyone know?" and I immediately said "Valdez!" I recognized Anderson Glacier in the mountains. ;) Haha. I HAVE SKILLZ. The mountains looked quite lovely too..I even saw McKinley peeking over the hills

( 20. Fortitude )

Would you rather have five bottles stuck on the fingers of one hand for a year or a bucket stuck on your foot for a year? The bucket?

Today's trivia: The largest earthquake ever recorded had a magnitude of 9.5 and occured in southern Chile on May 22, 1960

The book signing yesterday was pretty cool. The author talked about the history of Sherpas and the mountains in the Himalayas and stuff..it was so weird hearing about the stuff I read about a lot haha. After she talked it was the Sherpa's turn, Chhiring Dorje (pronounced cheering). He had a very heavy accent so it was hard to understand him..but he talked about how the seracs collapsed and severed the fixed ropes. He had to free climb down the ice and encountered another climber, Pasang Lama. He was stranded cause he gave another climber his ice axe..that part of the mountain would have been practically impossible to climb down without an axe. Chhiring told him to clip onto his belt and Pasang was like "no it's too dangerous!" Chhiring then said "either we get lucky and climb down together or we don't and die together." That was so touching! So Pasang clipped to his belt and they climbed down together. Chhiring had his axe with him and showed us how he climbed with it. Way cool haha. He is a legend in the Himalayas..he has summited Everest at least 12 times. I talked to him after the presentation..he is so nice! Sherpas are some of the gentlest, nicest and loyal people and he showed it. He signed my copy of the book and his picture in the other book of the K2 disaster I brought. I asked what mountain he last climbed and he said Everest in May. Wow haha. I also got the author's signature and she told me to add her on Facebook so I did haha. So crazy..I never thought I'd meet a famous mountaineer, much less in Fairbanks! That just made me so happy :D

Today I checked Facebook and saw the author had added me back and had suggested other mountaineers to friend..then I saw another famous mountaineer who was also on K2 that day, Wilco van Rooijen, had requested to be my friend!! Oh my..that's just awesome haha. I hope I get more famous mountaineering friends ;)

( i have pictures! )

Dana and I are back from Valdez. The weather was somewhat better than yesterday..of course, since we're not on a glacier cruise. :P I actually found a Valdez shirt this time! Finally haha. :P The mountains were gorgeous, but THERE WAS FRESH SNOW ON THEM! DUDE haha. I bet last winter's snow isn't gonna melt by winter. Usually you can see all the glaciers clearly but if you didn't know they were there you wouldn't have seen most of them cause of all the snow. Once we got 50 some miles inland the weather became nice and sunny. There was fresh snow in the Alaska Range too!! Last winter's snow hasn't melted all the way there either. Hopefully some glaciers will be growing now. ;) Mt. Deborah and stuff looked amazingg and so pretty..they're always snowy but the extra snow in the sun was just..*drools* I love mountains. We made it home pretty quickly I think, even after stopping for lunch at Paxson and getting ice cream at Delta Junction. We saw two moose! Her vacation is complete. ;) Haha. Dana leaves soon. *sniff* It was awesome though, sharing Alaska with her. I bet she loved it :D (Pics in the next few days..too tired to upload them now :P)

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”--John Muir
<3

Heyy I am in Seattle. Well..actually in a city named Tukwila but whatever haha. The Greyboy Alarm (haha) woke me up and I got ready and mom drove me to the airport. I had to go through a body scanner for the first time..ugh. The plane was supposed to leave at 8:45 but we left early. I love Alaska Airlines..they always leave early haha and are really nice. The people I sat next to lived in Goldstream in mom's neighborhood!! That's it, Alaska is small haha. I got the right side for McKinley but when we took off and started flying down the Richardson Highway I realized I had forgotten we don't go that way direct to Seattle. But..I saw an awesome view of Hayes, Hess and Deborah!! I tried to find Black Rapids Glacier since we were still following the road but I think it got too cloudy then. I thought I saw some glaciers but they could have been frozen rivers too..hard to tell in winter. I did see some other glaciers in between clouds though..it's more exciting seeing them when their moraines aren't covered with snow though. :P We got into the Seattle area and could see it was a gorgeous day. We landed, I picked up my bag and called the hotel shuttle to pick me up. They did and it was a short ride to the hotel. I checked in, put my stuff in the room and then decided to go shopping! OMG I walked outside and about melted..it felt SO nice and everything was green and flowery and smelled of life. After Fairbanks winter..BEST FEELING EVER. SUPER happy haha. I bet I looked like a fool gawking over the plants and birds haha. First I decided to eat..at OLIVE GARDEN!! Oh yeahhh..I totally picked the right hotel. ;) Looking at the empty seat in front of me I wished Dana was there. I had the four cheese ziti..yum. The waitress said I was her third Alaskan customer of the day! Woww haha. After that I crossed the parking lot to the mall. That felt SO weird..since Fairbanks doesn't really have a mall haha. A lot of the clothes shops were super teenage blah stores, but I did get some shirts at Banana Republic (I've had luck there before). Guess I had to buy something since when you walk in they're like "CHOOSE COUPON NAO AND SAVE." Jeez, leave me alone, I just wanna shop without everyone being like "are you ok?? What brings you in here today?" Whatever haha. That mall didn't even have a bookstore! Booooo. So I gave up and walked to Barnes and Noble! That's more like it. ;) I bought a bunch of books (crazy they had such a different selection from Fairbanks..) and then I was really tired and my feet hurt and so I went back to the hotel and took a nap. I'm still realllly tired though

I'm not sure when dad will get here tomorrow..but tomorrow the ferry leaves! Exciting haha. I don't know if I'll have Internet after tomorrow..the ferry gets in to Whittier on Thursday and mom said she's gonna drive and meet us there and we may spend a day in Anchorage. Coool haha

( pics from today. the new lj cut is cool haha )

Home! Yesterday for the first half of the day we were really lazy haha (we wanted the weather to get nicer too). After mom took a nap we drove out to the river to go fishing. We got our gear on and mom began to cut the tie wrap thing on the fishing pole she bought..I was looking at Sheridan Glacier in the distance and all of a sudden I hear "aghhh!" I looked at mom and saw there was a big gash in her finger. The knife slipped and she cut two of her fingers. The deep one was dripping blood like crazy. I got the first aid kit and bandaged it up as best as possible, then mom drove to the hospital. The nurse put her hand in a disinfectant thing and then the doctor came in and put 4 stitches in her finger! I watched with fascination (too many episodes of ER? Haha) while mom couldn't watch at all. We certainly weren't going fishing after that (fail!) so we went shopping around town and had dinner, then walked around the harbor and looked at the boats and their names. Funn haha. Then we just went back to the hotel

This morning we had to get up at 6 something (blerggg) cause we had to board the ferry at 7:30. I looked out the window and was like "omg blue sky??!" It was pretty sunny..it was SO gorgeous. I totally fell in love with Cordova..it was pretty, it had a huge personality, a gorgeous view of the ocean and everyone was SO nice. I really didn't want to leave..I haven't felt that strongly about a place in a long time. I was so sad to leave. The ferry back to Valdez was AMAZING..mostly sunny the whole way back. WOW. The clouds last time hid some sweet snow capped mountains. It was amazing feeling the sun for the first time in days..it's like automatic happiness. We saw a whale too! Valdez looked like..totally different haha. There were 6742319 boats out fishing haha. On the drive back I still found glaciers I hadn't seen before haha. We had lunch at a lake overlooking the Wrangell Mountains. In the Alaska Range I was looking behind me and suddenly spotted this huge moraine with possibly ice under it..I was like "where did that come from?! I've never seen that before!" Amazing I'm always seeing new things even though I've driven there many times. The fall colors were coming out a lot in the mountains..sooo pretty and colorful. I was actually really sad to be back in Fairbanks..I miss the mountains SO much. Even if it's isolated and rainy..I want to live in Cordova or somewhere down there. The city is just..eh. I need the mountains and glaciers. Alaska is just..amazing. <3 I shall post the rest of the pics hopefully tomorrow. I came home to a police officer asking me if I saw someone climbing on the building. Apparently someone on the 4th floor had climbed up the building or something. Ooook then :P

( Day 58- A professional picture of you )