Wednesday, July 31, 2013

ALASKA!!!!!

I have been wanting to write all about my adventures in Alaska, but I wanted to be able to put up pictures with it as well…and my crazy life has allowed me no time, until today, to be able to go through all 934 pictures that I took while there! Don’t worry…I narrowed it down to 74 to put on here…(but then I added a few more as I was writing about everything…)

I had so much fun in Alaska. It was amazing.

I actually just heard someone last night talking to someone else and asking why in the world anyone would want to go to Alaska for vacation…

And I laughed =]

When I went on my trip…really the main reason was because I wanted to see my best friend because I had been away from her for over a year and a half…and also I was hoping to see some wild bears…(which I saw plenty of in zoos…but none in the wild =[ )

But now that I am back home…I can give you hundreds of reasons why EVERYONE should go visit Alaska at one time or another in their life.

It is just breath-taking.

So where shall I begin…

First of all...this is Molly...my incredible friend who I went to visit in Alaska...



Now...lets start with the very first thing I saw of Alaska…

Looking out of the window on the plane the first thing I saw was what looked like a beach! There was this really massive area with what looked like sand with water on top of it, like the tide had just rolled out. Of course being a Cali girl I was shocked to see so much of a beach in Alaska. Until I asked the lady sitting next to me (who was from Alaska) if that was beach and she gave me the weirdest look; “Uh…if that’s what you want to call it…” haha “But you don’t want to walk out on that stuff” and that’s all she said. Haha…later my friend told me that those areas are called mudflats (maybe I’m just oblivious…lol but I am not sure I had ever seen mudflats like these) It is a stretch of land that is a mixture of mud, silt and clay that has been brought in by the tide and then left uncovered…so it looks like this really big beach area…but it is actually extremely dangerous. If you try to walk out on it, it can pull you down within minutes and I heard so many stories while I was there about people trying to walk out on them and they just get pulled under like quicksand and die…

So of course I had to see it for myself and when my friend and I rode our bikes down to the coast I stepped onto the mudflats with one foot and my foot immediately started sinking down into the ground! It was pretty crazy…

So this is what the mudflats look like on the ground…


Then I saw marshes…everywhere…that looked like this, except I was seeing it from the plane…


It’s kind of similar with the marshes…there will be areas where it looks like it’s just forest and you can go walking in it…but really it’s a huge body of water underneath all of the plants! It’s so pretty…

I think my plane got in around 1 in the morning…and of course it was still perfectly visible outside…though it was rainy and foggy…but it was just perfect to me.

So the first day we went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center…which is kind of a zoo…

















Then we went to the Forest Fair in Girdwood…lots of mountain people and hippies...haha...sooo fun!








(All the tip jars at the forest fair we're considered "Good Karma")


The next day we went to breakfast at a place in Anchorage called Snow City Café…the food was sooooooooooo delish!


mmmmm….crab eggs benedict…heaven.



Then we HAD to get coffee and go to the mall…haha…what can I say…it’s just what we do!


…attractive…I know.

Honestly…the next few days were somewhat of a blur…haha but only because I cannot remember what all we did on what days…

But here is what I DO remember:

We went to the farmers market and I met a bear!!!


 …the lady behind me is not amused…

We went to another zoo in Anchorage!


And saw Jacob Black and the pack...






We ate…and had coffee…more than several times…


We went bike riding on the coastal trail…


Which, apparently my family owns...





We went horseback riding with a cowboy named Ben!



We took a road trip up north to Denali, where we stayed in a cabin over night and went ATVing, white water rafting, and went to a restaurant/bar called the Salmon Bake…where we met the funniest people ever…unfortunately I did not get a picture of our new best friend Ross…he was the bar manager at the Salmon Bake and he gave me some pretty hilarious…yet extremely applicable advice…haha…(he may have been a little influenced by alcohol…)









The ATV tour guys made fun of me because I wore my rain boots but dodged all of the puddles…so I stood in the river...



Before we went rafting...


Silly Alaska signs...


It is true...the mosquitoes there are HUGE. They are as big as our flies here!!

And on the drive home we saw a moose in the wild!!! Well…several of them!



The next day we took a train down south to Seward…




And saw a glacier...






And an Eagles nest with the mom and little baby eagles in it (in the very center of the below picture)!


We went bike riding in Seward…





And went to an aquarium where they had puffins!!!


We also went to a coffee/laundromat place!! It was really cute…










The next day we went to a reindeer farm near Chugiak and I fed reindeer and kissed a moose!!! Haha…well…I fed him a carrot with my mouth…it’s not weird. It’s cute.





Then we went to the Bear Paw festival in Chugiak, where we listened to live music and ate REINDEER sausage!!! It was a tiny bit sad that we had just got done feeding reindeer and then we ate one…a tiny bit sad…


and got more coffee…





So that was kind of it in a nutshell…we ate a lot…laughed a lot…cried a little…but mostly – we explored (and drank a whole lotta coffee)!

It was so incredible and I cannot wait to be able to visit again…but it really made me want to visit so many other places in the world too!

I feel so blessed to have been able to go to Alaska and go on all of those adventures and meet all of the fun people I met! It really is so beautiful and I know that my time there was definitely a gift from God, and it came at the perfect time!

Alright…now back to reality…