Thankful...

Oh my, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it's almost December already.. Just wanted to add this picture really quick.. Unfortunately didn't take any pictures of dinner itself, but the day was filled with yummy food, lots of laughs, and new friends, and adorable kiddos running all over.. It was new and different to spend a big holiday away from my family, but wonderful just the same..

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And how could it not have been?? 

It started out with an arrival to Luke's cabin that morning, and I was greeted by his neighbors..

(haha, no pun intended.. :) Aren't they beautiful??

The morning sun was gorgeous, very bright! 

You can just barely make out the mountains in the back, on the right..

Horses, Mountains, Thanksgiving dinner, and Luke..

Wonderful day, indeed!

Oh my goodness, Alaska ain't that far out there!

Hahaha, reading a funny book full of funny stories based on myths and ideas that the lower 48 has on this great state.. :) here is one real quick:

There is a town on Talkeetna, AK that has a 'Moose Droppings Festival' every year. 

And there was a group of animal rights activists

on the edge of lawsuit demanding to know how just 'how far the moose are dropped!!'..

Hahahahaha, that is hilarious!

(can any of you deduce what the festival is really about??)

'Only in America...'

Can a 135 mile long dirt road be called a "HIGHway"

according to myself , it seems much more like a driveway.

A very long driveway.

A long driveway with the back window rattling like the big van used to.

At first it was all exciting and fun and the camera was going like cazy,

but then before I knew it we were still rattling along the said driveway looking at mORe mts ('HOorayyyy..')

..and weighing the life and death desicion to pee on the side of the driveway *or*

waiting to see if there might be a rest stop.

Anywhere.

I, being true to my cityfied-roots, chose the latter.

Thankfully about 5.5 hrs into the expedition there was one.

Would hate to become a country girl already.

.....

It all started innocently enough up the verticle bridge.

Gotta stop and paste double-sided duct-tape all around the tires first.

On the other side of the bridge things level off enough to take a picture.

It was gorgeous! Far enough down that I could count to about 7 before a rock hit the stream below,

and the horizon was filled with the mt range of Denali Nat'l park. 

The official "start of the Denali Highway starts at a little gas-stop where you better gas-up.

 or things will get awfully tricky in the middle boonies of that dirt driveway.

(kay so no actual picture of the gas stop but it was there)

...

BUT in the start of the dirt expedition, we met this chippy little chap.

assuming he had some of the double-sided duct tape as well.

Can see some of the aforementioned 'highway'

It really truly was a breathtaking view most of the way..

Example:

and Example again:

and hey! example again!

(could most-likely photo-shoot blindfolded and would get beautiful pictures)

In the below picture, it's hard to tell but all that green is a pine-forest..

full of very, VERY tall pines. Hard to describe the vast-ness of it..

I have no clue but would guess it was over 100 miles to the far mountains..

the distance that one can see is incredible here.. 

and looking over the edge by those red bushes kinda made me feel dizzy.. quite a ways down!

the 'highway'

(wish it was easier to see, but the highway continued alll the way around the mt range to the right of the pict)

could see it while driving but didn't show up real well in the picture : (

more of the 'highway' :)

all told it took us about 8 hours to drive the entire length..

Luke thought it was probably the last good weekend to go,

b/c when it snows it is impossible to get all the way across.. was very glad I got to experience it!

heh, even tho it made for quite a long day trip :)

oh, also we saw a couple big herds of caribou! would have been difficult to photograph,

but was incredible to see such a large herd of wild animals in their native territory.

And one of the bulls had a huge set of antlers.. prob about 4 or 5 ft tall.. was amazing to see..

the old homestead...*sigh*..

Ahhh... Our dinner out at the Edina Grill (thank you again, K family for the certificate! :)

Our last dinner out as "roomies". aka "the wow factor". clearly.

(and quite possibly first dinner out..hooray for opposite schedules!)

miss you both profusely! xo

Got a chance to talk to my lovely cousin M today..and that got me to thinking:

'I wonder if I ever did share with her how my green bathroom wall turned out?'

so this is especially for you, M!

I am often known to be very timely.

Then after looking through pictures, I got sentimental for my sweet little homestead..

Loved coming home to a colorful space..

................

(yep, that water bottle and pillows were a part of the decor for a good couple weeks. and bag.

and possibly the rolled up socks. couldn't be moved for the picture. it's just what goes down y'know.

Hard to keep up with the old 6452 crew)

and the living room.. *sigh* i love blue and green together.

(and oh, I have told a few ppl up here in AK that it's possible to paint rugs.. there's proof! :)

xoxo paint and painters' tape

the living room is where I did all kinds of hard-core workouts.

like running and jumping jacks and pushing ups and such.

again, just keepin up with the wow factor.

nbd.

This is the real deal.

This is the real Denali.

(The other mountain was Mt Wrangell.. opps. sorry mr. wrangell, you can have your mt back.)

but Isn't it gorgeous?? No wonder I sub-consiously wanted the other mountain to be this one.

.....

Denali is only a part of a very beautiful mountain chain, and by far the biggest peak.

We were about 75 miles from base in the above pict!

.....

(alright, now if you are like me I would be going back and forth between both mountains..

trying to decide which one I like better, or whether

the other one really *should* be a national park instead of this one.. what's your pick?)

aaand just for fair voting, here is a bit closer:

and around the bend, more the the said chain:

so, CLEARly i am a non-biased tallytaker. not trying to sway any ideas er nuttin'. 

(although the correct answer shouldn't be difficult. :)

Amy vs. Alaska..

Alaska: almost everyone (actually I think everyone) is either: an avid runner, an avid biker, an avid skier, or an avid hiker. Most likely they are quite talented in three or more of the above. And training for the Olympics.

Amy: I try really hard to go out shuffling most everyday.

.........................................................................................................................................................................

Alaska: It seems no-one is at all afraid of the grizzlies or moose or other such beastly things living across the street in the park when they go out and about. 'Bah' they say. 'Bring grizzly spray' they say. 'Just leave them be and it will be FINE' they say.

Amy: Don't think I could carry enough bells and whistles.

I think I need a outfit of bear-bells and surrounded in

a bubble of bear spray and wearing night vision goggles.

.......................................................................................................................................................................

Alaska: They call their roads 'highways'.

Amy: Someone has a slack definition of highway. They call a 130+ mile 

long dirt road a highway. Drove on the entire thing one time, not 

once along the entire drive did it appear to be a highway. 

Was more like a very beautifully scenic driveway.

.....................................................................................................................................................................

Alaska: Most people have/own/wear daily cool-looking outdoor apparel. 

Amy: I own really old tees and sweats. But mostly I wish I had

somewhere to wear my cute clothes from Lindsay. :) (Hi Lindsay!)

Or a dress.. or *sigh* my cute shoes. 

Maybe I will when I am out hunting next time. 

May as well be fashionable whilst scouting bear.

......................................................................................................................................................................

Alaska: Have met a lot of people who are originally from here, but it seems just as many who are originally from the lower 48.. and they seem very happy to be in this beautiful place!

Amy: a transplant, and new here, and attempting to fit-in

as fast as I can.. & also very happy to be living in beautiful AK!

(So I guess we are even on this one.. :)

...........................................................

I think it may be a tie.

Disclaimer. Shoot.

So, that mountain is not Denali. It is most definitely on the other side of a town and another town and probably two or three other towns not to mention a huge range of mountains away from Denali. In fact Denali is actually north west of here. Like in the west-er parts of northish. And that other mountain is even more north EAST (ish) of luke's. And Luke's is north eastER of me. (not Easter like bunnies, although the words look ridiculously similar) Wondering what the heck I am talking about? 

And why I am not in the direction-giving business?

This mountain is what's being talked about:

So there you have it. Already needing disclaimers. Shoot.

Discovered a new talent, not-shoot.

Random thought..

So anyone who knows me at all knows that I can easily crack myself up, usually at something that really isn't all that funny. BUT. This is actually funny! So there's this road, "Raspberry". And this other road, "Strawberry". And connecting the two is a road "Cranberry". Can you already see where this is going?? Just imagine if it were ever bumper to bumper on Cranberry. Radio on and it might just sound like this:

    "This just in from traffic-copter 8, there's a huge JAM right smack down Cranberry in-between Raspberry and Strawberry.. And it appears there are people just diving in from all sidestreets with what looks to be TOAST. Yes indeed, it truly is toast.." and the other DJ might say "well, hank, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, never thought anything like this could happen, in all my born days.. whoo-eee.."

hahaha, I know I would tune in to hear it if it ever happened, that's for sure :)

What I have seen so far.. sort of :)

The First two pictures were of my first day here, not many compared to all the places

Luke brought me to on day 1, but hey a slow computer. And it was a bit rainy that day.

And I may or may not be a fair weather photographer.

The picture above is of Hatcher's Pass.. If I can remember correctly. Still learning the names of everything :) Those darling little red cottages are just one of the cutest bed & breakfastes that I've seen. And off to the left of this picture (if only we could look into it! someday that should be invented)

there is really good blueberry picking. People there alll the time I guess.

 Dad, I bet if you come up we would eat bueberry pie. See how they compare to MI :)

The pict above is Mirror Lake.. On Day 1 of arrival here everyone got together for a picnic on this lake.

It is well named, very beautiful reflections!!

.....

Okay, so the next batch of pictures is on our trip to Valdez. Went there the weekend before labor day weekend. Luke and I went there and met up with Tim, Andrea and their adorable little Otto. And Otto's adorable auntie Amanda. And we camped.

The above is Thompson's pass.. Valdez is somewhere down in that valley back there,

probably 8000 miles down.

:) (someone needs a haircut. heh) he is still cute anyway.

the next picture is Bridalveil falls not far from Valdez. (why are so many falls named bridalveil? It seems like I have heard that for a number of them. This looks like a veil?)

And since height is not easy to see in pictures, here is a solid view of the above cliff.

Here is a back bear, not the last time we saw this little bugger. Didn't zoom in on it, just standing on the side of the road there, watchin him eat his fish. Luke was NOT pleased that I got out for the picture, cuz we didn't know where the mom was. Ah well, minor detail in order to get a picture of a bear's hind end, huh?  

Fishery. Hatchery. Fatchery. Hishery? Something of that sort:

So few gulls in the area, hard to hear them.

The next pict is of valdez in the distance.

We went to town to get licenses, then drove around the sound to fish on the other side.

Valdez is off to the left in the above picture, here is a easier to see pict of it, zoomed in.

Think it makes the mountains' height easier to see with the town in the pict.

The next pict is a picture I thought I would never see. Me fishing. In rubber boots. Not matching whatsoever. Standing amongst stinky fish. But Luke was there so that helped.

True testament to this fact: If I can do that, ANYONE can. 

this is the adorable auntie mentioned before. Hi Amanda! sorry you are sideways. Was so fun to see you!

Silver salmon were tricky little beasts. They fought the whole way coming in, and so when they got to the rocks, someone brave had the leap into action to help out. There's Tim helping Luke. Thanks Tim! I would have if I wasn't taking the picture. You know how that goes. What? I really would have.

Success!

And not to be outdone. I caught one too.

As I said, if I can do it, anyone can. The fishing part: fun. Holding a dead, ucky fish: not so fun.

But hey! I caught one!

And just look at us, all fishing and stuff.

Escalators would have been nice. Silver salmon come on up the silver escalator.

Pink salmon down the pink escalator, just stay in the ocean, where you can stink up the underwater.

Would have caught many more this way I am sure.

Abandonded train tunnel. Was chipped out by hand. Wowza.

And the sideways part could not be helped. Just tip yer head! Quit grouching about it! Um, anyway.

I think this is Denali. Beautiful mountain.

And HUGE. We were driving about 40 mins at this point, I looked back and it was still gigantic!

So pretty, just glowed in sunset.

Haha, was fascinated by the sky being tie-dyed looking in the clouds.

And a pretty glacier! I think this is the Matanuska Glacier. I know, I know, LOTS of "thinking" going on here, but will get better. And hey many of you who haven't seen it prob don't know anyway! :)

That's all for now, will have pictures from Homer up soon. :)

Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear

Just where have I gotten myself into?! There are moose and bears and whales and sea otters and sea lions and really large eagles. And mountains. And ocean. And dirt. Lots of dirt. I will post more on the next post, just wanted to get this up and running.. :) Day ONE with internet!!