Alaska #4

1. I finally was able to go flightseeing! Normally a flight will cost $350 but we went for $25. Awesome! The flight started at the company's little private airport south of the Park entrance. We flew to and all the way around Mt. McKinley and then back to the airport. It was kind of hazy, but there was a lot more sunshine than there usually is so the view was amazing! Definitely worth the $25 :).

2. I get to go to Skagway when I'm done with my season up here! I discovered it was cheaper to buy round trip tickets to Juneau so that I can still use my original ticket to get home, so I'm going to fly to Juneau and then Skagway on September 21, spend almost a week there with Chrissi, then we are going to take the ferry back to Juneau on September 27 and she is going to fly home via Seattle and I am going to fly back to Anchorage and then fly home via Phoenix. We will both get home on the 28 within a few hours of each other. It worked out perfect.

3. I found out that the state of Alaska recognizes "Denali" as the official name of the mountain (it means "high one" in Koyukon Athabaskan) but the United States government still goes with Mt. McKinley. I also found out that it is the tallest mountain on land. Everest and Aconcagua have higher elevations, but they also start at higher elevations.

4. I had my very own Princess Diaries moment. I was brushing my hair and the handle broke off my brush. At least it was a dollar store one and not a fancy one with a wooden handle like in the show. Gotta love curly hair haha.

5. I am extremely glad I brought up two filtered water bottles. I have been using them the whole time, and I have to scrub them out good every week or so because they get this filmy residue inside. I am just hoping that the filter does a good enough job and I am not drinking that the whole time.

6. I finally get to go to Fairbanks this week. Miles is disappointed since he can't have me buy his liquor (and I am hoping he just has James do all of his shopping so I only have to worry about mine and Lucy's). It should be fun, but it's going to be a long day. They usually leave at about 7 am and get back at about 5:30.

7. Finally it was better to have Verizon than the Alaskan favorite AT&T, since their tower went down and most of the state didn't have AT&T coverage the whole weekend. I was grateful for my random sporadic coverage then :).

8. We have discovered that it's easiest to blame Alaska when all of the guests call multiple times complaining about the wireless. Our now standard answer is "This is Alaska. Sometimes it just doesn't work." Too bad that doesn't usually help. It's crazy how people just can't live without their internet.

9. The walls between our bedrooms are super thin. You can hear basically everything the person in the next room does or says. That fact makes me grateful that I am on an end, and that I am on the opposite end from Miles' room and his one night stands. Ya. And Lucy said she can always tell when I take a shower because she can smell my hair products through the wall.

10. I still have yet to see darkness since getting here. I thought that it would get dark faster after summer solstice, but still when I can't sleep and decide to make myself useful and do laundry at 2 in the morning I don't even need a flashlight to go around outside. I never thought I would miss darkness, but it would make it a whole lot easier to sleep at night.

11. There is about an inch gap between the floor and the bottom of my bedroom door, so I get a lot more bugs in my room than I would like. The other morning I woke up and there was a spider on my pillow. Ya, that was a little freak out session. Mosquitoes also like to get in through that gap, and they are so big up here that their buzzing is super loud and annoying, especially when you are trying to sleep at night.

12. I went with Lucy down to The Canyon and to the Thai food trailer (it reminds me of Giavanni's) and we both got Pad Thai because that's her favorite. It was so good! It wasn't even too expensive. Only $10, which is kind of amazing for up here. Now I will have a hard decision between Thai food and Subway when I'm down there.