Bears, bison and beers

After that fantastic week in Whittier, Seth graciously invited me to spend the weekend at his family's home in Anchorage. This gave me a great oppertunity to explore the city while Seth worked on his bike in the garage. We did some must-do Anchorage things, including Moose's Tooth pizza, The Great Alaskan Bush Company, and a rockstar night of dancing and cocktails downtown.

Doug flew into Anchorage on Sunday night, so his big Alaskan adventure began first thing Monday morning. We packed up the car and headed down to Whittier. At one point right before heading through the tunnel, Doug and I noticed we could see mountains, blue water, glaciers, a rainbow, waterfalls, snow and icebergs! When we finally made it through the tunnel Doug and I weren't sure when Seth would be off work, so we headed up to the creepy abandoned army compound at the edge of town. The place is totally wrecked, and scary as it was, Doug and I had a good time exploring the small dark rooms and muddy hallways.

On the way to Whittier, AK

It felt like ages, but after about 20 mins in that creepy building we stepped out into the sun light and headed down to meet Seth.  I introduced the guys and we quickly walked down to the marina to get started. We pulled mounds of shrimp from the ocean; more than I had seen all last week combined! We checked out the seagull nesting area while the guys fished for Halibut off the side of the boat. While amusing, the fishing was not too successful that evening, so we headed back to the garage to grill up dinner. Doug and I traded giddy smiles all evening, I was so excited to share this amazing experience with him!

Prison cell in the old military compound in Whittier

We spent one last night in Whittier before heading back out on the road. I really wanted Doug to see Mt. Mckinley, so we drove up to Talkeetna for the day. The view of the mountain was pretty great - I've heard that due to thick clouds, it is only visible about 30% of the time, so we were pretty lucky to see it. After that we found a campsite by a river on the way out of town, made a fire and shot the shit till it finally became dark enough to sleep.

Canada was a blast, there isn't much to do but look out the window, but the views were incredible! The last time I was in Canada everything was covered in snow so I had no idea how much I missed! It felt like we constantly had water and mountins around us on all sides. The wildlife was AMAIZING too! In one day we saw moose, porkupines, elk, caribu, bears, fox, mountin goats and huge heards of bison. Oh, and yes, you read that correctly, we saw bears!! There were black bears and grizzly bears up there, we saw 15 in total from the car and Doug had the fortune (misfortune?) of seeing #16 on his own, face-to-face on his way to a restroom!!

A well earned flight in Whitehorse, Yukon

One silly one....

....and one pretty one.

Super HOT hot spring in B.C.

My attempt at a family portrait, B.C. Canada

Held the camera facing backwards out the window and clicked

Doug looking a little too comfortable in our current condition

Seriously??

For you, mom :)

After driving all day, we had to jump in!

Does this make me a bad person?

Vancouver, post-riot

We finally pulled into Seattle last night, stayed at a hotel for the first time in a week and are now feeling showered and recharged! We've got lots planned for the next few days, I hope to be able to hop on to update fairly often now that we're back in the US.

There's nothing half so pleasant as coming home again :)

The thing about setting out with vague intentions, is that sometimes you achieve them without realizing it. I can now see that I already was the strong and independent woman that I thought Alaska would make me. Hind site is a precious thing. Brandy and I joked that I would find my Moose-ball jacket up here, I can now say, I'm pretty sure I already had one. This has been hands down, the best summer of my life, but this girl is coming home!!

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let me tell you about the AMAZING week I've just had. Finally admitting to myself that I was ready to come back to TX gave me the freedom to truly enjoy this last bit of time I have up here. My brother will be flying to Anchorage in a couple days, I'll show him a taste of Alaska (just enough to make him NEED to come back!) and then we will head south! I'm so excited to get back on the road and I love that I'll get to have Doug with me.

So, a week ago I left my little cabin in the woods for unknown adventures in Whittier. I had no idea how much fun was in store for me :) The drive was lovely, as always, but unique in that to get to this town you must drive 2 1/2 miles through a mountain!! Sounds cool, and is very cool, but there's a point about 2/3 of the way through the tunnel where you start to get a little uneasy feeling, not a bad, or scared feeling, just an 'ok, I'm ready to see the sun again!' feeling.

On the other side of the tunnel.

I called and meet up with a guy named Seth who is a friend of some friends of mine in Austin. He was still on the clock, so he invited me up into his huge tanker truck where I was greeted by his super cool lil dog Cody. We drive down to the water and watched the cars unload from a huge ferry boat. Once they were all unloaded Seth drove us into the belly of the boat so that him and some other guys could gas it up. Never once had I even wondered how these massive outfits receive gas, and now I was finding out first hand. If that wasn't enough to make me feel like I was a part of Alaska, afterwords we drove down to his skiff, (where I drove a boat for the first time - hell yea!) and headed out to the spot where his shrimp baskets were. We baited the baskets and drove around to find the right depth to toss them back in.

Captain Cody

Meanwhile, I haven't stopped grinning since coming out of that tunnel. For the second time since coming to Alaska, I felt an amazing sense that everything was as it should be (I'll tell you about the other time shortly, this is going to be a long one!) From the turquoisey-blue water there is no direction that you can look and not see mountains, and most of them come right down into the water. It really doesn't seem real, like Seth put it, it's like stepping into Lord of the Rings or Avatar. So amazingly beautiful, I tried to capture it in pictures, but I'm afraid you'll just have to come check it out for yourself :)

That thing I do...

I spent about a week tagging along after Seth on fishing and shrimping trips everyday. I had fresh halibut and smoked salmon for the first time in my life. One day we caught 90 shrimp and ate like kings while drinking beer in the sunshine. I know when I look back at my time in Alaska, this last week will be my fondest memory - in fact, my brother doesn't realize it, but that's where I'm taking him for his 'taste.'

Trifecta!!

Sorry, I know I'm going out of order, I was just really excited to share that :) So, since I last wrote, I finally did get a job! I was working at a local liquor store called Brown Jug. It was really fun work and the time always flew by. The pay was ok, but they hardly took out anything for taxes, so it seemed to go even further. I hope they forgive my short-notice, I plan to send them some pralines from TX this Christmas.

Spent lots of time in Seward over the last month or so, maybe three trips down there? I just can't get enough of that drive. Spectacular views of mountains running into the water. They say there are whales in the water, but I haven't seen them yet. Been staying at a really cool hostel down there called The Nauti Otter, I highly recommend it if you're ever in Seward! Staying in a hostel always gets those wheels spinning again for me. I'm hoping to start volunteering at the hostel in Austin when I get back, learn as much as I can for when I start my own. That's something else moving up here has taught me; stop talking and start doing! So, my plan to open a hostel is going to be moving up from the back burner when I get back :)

Exit Glacier near Seward

I've also fallen for a town called Girdwood, which everyone told me I would love. I may not have done anything but drive by it, but they have a really cool festival each year called the Forest Fair. And it was there, that for the first time I really did feel at home. It wasn't quite an Eeyore's Birthday type crowd, but it was close! So many things from that weekend stand out to me, but essentially it was a bunch of hippies in the woods listening to music, drinking beer and playing in the river. 

My people!

As always, I know I'm forgetting something, but I can always drop things in later. I can't wait to touch base on my way back to Texas, I don't know our route yet, but I'm planning some hot springs and perhaps the Grand Canyon and Vegas, also a ghost town called Jerome in Arizona. God, I'm so excited to get back on the road :)