Something I'll Never Do Again

It snowed yesterday. It didn't quite get down as far as where we live and work, but the mountains around where we are (for example Mount Healy that I climbed about a week ago) have snow on top of them now. The weather changes every five minutes. It seems that the weather forecast every day is partly cloudy, chance of showers- always. And usually it's right. The sun comes out every once in a while, and when it does everyone wants to go outside. But it's constantly changing. And just because it's sunny where we are near the entrance of the park, it could be completely different further in the park.

Well, I knew coming to Alaska would be all about experiencing something new. A new place. New people. And new experiences. So I've been doing my best to take advantage of everything that's offered here to do. It's been great so far, and being an employee has helped a lot. I'm still learning about the perks of being an employee, and learned recently that one of them is that you can do a flight seeing tour for free. Free!! How could I turn down the chance to fly through Denali National Park in a little plane, and take in all the beautiful Alaska terrain?! I couldn't! So I didn't.

I was really excited about it. My roommate and I decided to go together. We were shuttled to Healy, a nearby town where there is a small airstrip, and loaded into a 9 passenger plane with seven other passengers. We took off, heading towards the park, and flew over where we live and work....that part was beautiful, however I have a hard time remembering the rest of the ride...

The tour was an hour and a half, and if you're wondering why I can't remember the remaining hour and twenty five minutes it's because....well...most of the time my head was hunched over a plastic bag..... All those trips as a kid driving to Yosemite, making my parents pull over because of the winding roads were flashing back to me all at once, except there was no possibility of pulling over.

Talk about being miserable. Who would have thought that flying over glaciers and amazing mountain ranges could be a bad experience. I sure wouldn't have thought so. And if I'd known beforehand that I would be sick, I'm sure I would have done it anyways- telling myself that I could still enjoy it nonetheless. Never again.

So a word to the wise for people looking to do a flight tour ever in their lives. Take motion sickness medicine. Even if you think you have a strong stomach, it couldn't hurt. I still recommend the tour though. I tried to snap pictures and video out the window during the flight, knowing that even though I could care less about the views at the moment hopefully looking back on it I would appreciate what I was looking at. And the pictures are beautiful!! Although we weren't able to see Mt McKinley because there were clouds covering it, the glaciers were amazing and the mountains are breathtaking.

So in conclusion, I realized that flying tours in small planes are not my thing. I've always thought I'm up for doing anything, but am no longer willing to put myself through being that miserable ever again. I guess that's what this summer's all about! I'm learning! I'll stick to traveling by means in which I can stop and get out at any time. (this does include skydiving...I can just jump out...so that's still on the list) :)

Late Night ATVing

So although I don't think I can ever get used to it, Alaskans have definitely learned to make the best of the fact that it never gets dark up here in the summer. On Sunday night I went on an ATV tour that started at 11pm and went until 2am. It was a blast and I would recomend it to anyone visiting this area.

We left around 11, and got on a shuttle that took us to the town of Healy where the ATV tours leave from. (We drove right by a golf course that prides themselves on their "midnight golfing.) The ATV tour was veeery entertaining to say the least. It seems that one thing after another went wrong, but everyone's attitudes on the tour were so great that it bonded the group more than anything.

We started riding as the sun was setting (it was closer to midnight at this point) so the sky was pink and beautiful. After a few technical difficulties and one person running her ATV off the trail and into some bushes we finally made it to our first break spot. It was a gorgeous view. Our guides gave us hot chocolate and snacks at this part so we hung out there for a while and soaked it all in. Once we'd been there about 10 minutes though, te mosquitoes started becoming very attracted to us so we stayed a few more minutes before hopping back on the ATVs and riding some more.

We had one more break spot at a pretty lookout area then we headed back. On our way back we passed some people riding their horses (why not take your horses out for a ride at 2am??) Then, before we got all the way back we also saw a moose! This was really cool, so we stopped and stared at it for a while.

Overall, ATVing was a blast. I know I'm a big supporter of biking and not driving cars if I don't have to....but man ATVing was fun. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Just an interesting fact about ATVing in Denali, ATVing is actually not allowed in any National Parks- makes sense since it messes up whatever is in its path and the parks are all about preserving as much as possible. So we didn't actually ride in the park. If you look at the map here of the park in the top right hand part of the park there's a panhandle and then an area underneath it that isn't the national park. This are is where we did the ATVing. This is also the same area where the guy died from the book/movie "Into the Wild." There is actually another ATV tour that takes you to the bus where he died- if I can I'd love to do that one too.

Anyways, that's all the fun stuff I have to report. I've been working a lot and today is actually "my friday"- as so many people say here. I've got the next two days off so hopefully I'll do some exciting things in those two days and have more to share with you (and if no one is reading this then that is directed to the hypothetical you...or the me in the future when I'm old and can't remember what I did this summer).


Here are some pictures to share:

This one is the view from the chalet area, right near the employee housing. (This was taken at about 11pm)




This one's a cool view looking back/down while hiking the Sugar Loaf mountain. That cluster of red roofs is the chalet area- where there are a bunch of hotels and shops (that's also where we started). Employee housing is in there too. The river just behind that is where the rafting is done.

This is a picture of me hiking down the sugar loaf trail. We had to get all the way back down to where the river is in the picture.

First Few Days

So today is my third day in Denali so far. Our shuttle arrived the first day around 1:30, so I guess technically it's been 2 and a half....whatever. It's been busy. I'm having a really hard time already keeping track of the days- both knowing what day it is, and what time of day it is. The weirdest part so far is the amount of time that the sun is in the sky. It never gets completely dark, and so far during the hours that I'm awake the sun has been up the entire time. So when I go to bed and it's still light outside and wake up with it still being light outside, I don't always register that it's the next day. It's like I've been stuck on it being Tuesday all week. (My own personal Groundhog Day...except not really).

I've been doing a lot though. Went to the dinner theater called Cabin Night the first night. Went rafting yesterday morning (which was amazing). I met a couple on the same raft who was from Newport Beach and used to live in Tustin. So that was really cool. We were able to do the rafting for free so I'm thinking I should just make it a daily thing...haha, I don't see why more of the employees aren't jumping on this. Rafting every morning seems amazing to me.

I also had my first day of work yesterday. I like my coworkers and the job seems like it will be simple enough. The store is just like any food mart you would go in at any gas station. So just picture that and you've got it. (Any B&Bers reading this are extremely familiar with gas station food marts...you guys know what's up) And ours is actually a really nice one too. We get a lot of people coming in because it's amidst a bunch of shops and gift shops and restaurants.

I went hiking this morning up a mountain near where we live called Sugar Loaf. (I need to look up how it got it's name...on the way down I was getting really hungry and even saying the name made me hungrier) I'll try to upload my pictures to my computer soon so I can post some of the views we saw today. They're amazing, and we actually were high enough so we could see Mount McKinley in the distance, so that was awesome.

So far so good! I'm still alive and after today I'll be working a lot more so won't have as much free time. Thanks for reading and hope you're all doing well!

New Summer. New adventure.

Hellooooo everyone. I don't even know if people will be reading this since let's face it- I'm not biking across the country anymore (as much as I wish I were again). But alas, I have embarked on a different adventure this summer and people have asked if I'll be blogging about it so they can hear what I'm up to. So here we go again...

I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Anchorage, AK. I'm off to Denali National Park tomorrow to start a summer job working in the Lynx Creek Store (which as far as I know sells gasoline and groceries). I'm actually not supposed to be sitting here in Anchorage today but should be in Denali already, however due to my forgetfulness and distractions of the past week (which there have been a lot of...graduation, moving, wedding in IN) I managed to forget to pack my social security card so was unable to go to the park today. Instead I had to entertain myself in Anchorage after going to the Social Security office early in the morning to apply for a replacement card. And as overwhelmed I was earlier today after being told that I had to stay in Anchorage an extra day, I've actually managed to entertain myself pretty well.

I flew into Anchorage after spending the weekend in Indiana attending a Bike & Builder's wedding (which was great because it was a reunion of B&Bers and was so great to see them). I arrived at the airport in Anchorage early early this morning (1:30am AK time, which is an hour earlier than Pacific time...4 hours earlier than where I came from in Indiana). I just slept in the baggage claim area for a good five hours until around 6:00am -at which time the sun had already been up a while. So my body doesn't quite know what's going on. The company I'm working for in the park is called Aramark, so after being driven to the Aramark Anchorage office I was told I needed to stay to get a new card instead of getting on the shuttle into the park. So a very nice girl from the office drove me to the social security office, made sure I had a map, a place to stay, and some recommendations for some things to see while I was there. After going to the social security office I went to a museum in Anchorage, grabbed lunch, took a much needed shower (it'd been either 2 or 3 days...I'm honestly not sure which with the 4 hour time change). Then I relaxed a bit in my room before exploring Anchorage some more by walking through downtown and along a coastal trail. So far it's beautiful.

I've realized that since graduating college I'm no longer going to have to take classes in order to learn things. This will be nice to not have the papers and deadlines and overall stress. However, I've been thinking that I also don't want my mind to turn to mush. SO, I'm still going to try to learn new things as often as I can.

So I made a list of things that I learned today during my day in Anchorage, Alaska:

1) Alaska was the 49th state to become a part of the United States and they became a state in 1959- so this year they're celebrating their 50th anniversary! Happy 50th Alaska! You're almost as old as Disneyland!
2) In 1964 there was an earthquake in Anchorage that registered a 9.2 and lasted 5 minutes!!!! The museum showed pictures of the damage and it was incredible. I can't imagine a 5 minute long earthquake..
3) When you are the only person staying in a single hotel room, you still receive 2 keys.
4) Subways in Alaska have $6 footlongs. I'm curious if they have commercials for them as well. ("six dollar foot longs" doesn't have the same ring)
5) Halibut burgers are deeeeeelicious.
6) Alaska has no sales tax. (so when you buy a $6 footlong...you pay exactly $6)
7) I walked into a bookstore in downtown Anchorage and learned that there is an entire book about the story behind the youtube video about Christian the Lion. (If you haven't seen the video search it. And watch the one with Aerosmith singing in the background, it makes me cry. So type "Christian the lion Aerosmith")

I think those are the main things I learned today. Way better than sitting in a college class, yeah?

I'll be sure to write about things after I get to the park tomorrow. Until then I'm going to try to trick my body into thinking it's night time even though it's as bright as if it were afternoon time right now. We'll see how that goes.

Hope whoever may be reading this is doing well! Thanks for being interested enough to read about my summer. I'll try to not disappoint, and I'll do my best to keep this up as often as I can. :)

Here are pictures from the 1964 earthquake.