The Last Frontier

Oh my goodness gracious this summer has caused me to completely neglect my little blog. It's been 3 weeks since I've gone to Alaska, THREE weeks and I still haven't blogged. But, in my defense.. my life has been insane. Once I got home from Alaska, I only had 4 days to unpack, repack, and organize slash unpack everything from moving, because then it was off to the beach! Tough life, I know. But it was actually a pretty stressful week leading up to the beach, so that week of relaxation was much appreciated. And now, I'm back from the beach and I've dived right back into another week of work. And the saddest thing of all? Classes start in SIX DAYS. Yeah, only six more days left of my summer vacation! Where did it go!? I can't believe all of my vacations are over and that it's time to get back into the grind of things. But, this is my last semester ever of college. So I guess that's kind of exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Now...my 8 favorite things from Alaska:

#1 The weather was absolutely incredible! I'm someone that loves summer; I love the heat, the feel of the sun beating down on me, I just love it all...but the summer weather in Alaska was quite refreshing, especially after the heat wave that we had been dealing with. It stayed in the 60's for most of the trip, sometimes it got a bit into the 70s, and one time it actually got in the 40s, but overall it was perfect!

#2 Sea Kayaking! The second day I was there we went from Anchorage to Seward for the day to go kayaking and it was so perfect! I've been kayaking multiple times at the beach with my family, and I looove it. It's so relaxing and I love to be on the water. I'd never been sea kayking though, so that was kind of tricky. The current was pretty strong...but the view was gorgeous!

We stopped at this little beach far out to one side of Resurrection Bay (where we kayaked) and took some time to relax a bit and have a snack. Once again, the view was just amazing. I love the teal colored water, and how the clouds just rest on the mountains.

#3 There was soo much wildlife that I'd never seen before! There were moose, bear, salmon, and so many eagles. I think this was by far my favorite thing about Alaska. No matter where you go, you're always on the look out for some animal! I'd also never seen any of these animals before so it was super exciting for me anytime we did see one. We saw plenty of eagles and their nests..

A few moose (which, by the way, are SUPER hard to get pictures of when you're on a fast moving train, as you can tell below...)

And even some baby bears!

Although, these bears technically weren't in the wild. We went to a rehabilitation center type thing for the animals, and these babies are orphaned, so that's why they're there. I just want to scoop them up and cuddle them! We also saw some more moose, and I managed to grab a much better picture...

I do have a not so nice little story about the one bear that we did see in the wild though. So, we're traveling on this train heading to Seward, hanging out in the open area on the back of the train just looking out for animals, when the conductor comes over the speaker to tell us that there's a bear up on the side of the train. My heart started pounding like crazy I was sooo excited! Y'all don't understand how much I've wanted to see a bear. So, we're all waiting for this bear when all of a sudden the train comes to a sudden stop because the emergency break was thrown on. Uhhhh? After a few seconds we begin going again and the conductor says nothing. Sooo being in the back of the train, you can see everything that's behind us. Well, we saw the bear...just not exactly the way you'd want to see a bear. Apparently the bear got spooked, jumped out in front of the train, and the train threw on the emergency break, but there still wasn't enough time and the train hit the poor baby. So, yeah...that's not exactly how we all had hoped to see a bear. May he rest in peace!

#4: 4-Wheeling in Denali National Park!

Omgosh I am in loooveeee with 4-wheeling. I want one so bad now, it's not okay. We went twisting and turning all around the mountains in Denali and it was so much fun! Our tour was from 9pm-11:30pm and it was gorgeous. The sun was setting during the whole thing so the sky was a perfect shade of orange/red and it was so beautiful!

After our adventure, my dad and I decided to stop by one of the local bars to get a beer. It was pretty good and it was a nice way to wind down after a long day. By the time we left, it was probably around 12:30am and this is what it looked like outside...

Does that not blow your mind?! The daylight hours are so crazy! Which brings me to another highlight of Alaska...

#5: So much daylight! I actually really enjoyed this. We had blackout shades in the hotels, so sleeping wasn't a problem at all. It was just so neat to me that we could be out wandering around at 11 or 12 at night and it would only look like it was 8:00 or something! Once we got back from Denali, my dad and I decided to wander around Anchorage for a bit and explore some more. There was some random band downtown in the middle of the street and all these people were starting their nights out, but it was still daylight!



Sorry for that AWFUL picture quality. That's what I get for trying to zoom on an iPhone...

One morning, we were up at 4:30am (way too early, I know!) and the sun was already rising. Uhh what?! It was absolutely gooorgeous though..

But, let me go ahead and reassure y'all that it does get dark in Alaska sometimes.

Like at 3am when you're leaving for the airport. It will definitely be dark.

#6: The Alaskan Railroad! We spent sooo many hours on this baby, we got to be good friends with all of the workers. There was the 4 hour trip to Seward (to and from), then the 8 hour trip to Denali, and then the 8 hour trip back. That's a lot of Railroad time. But, the views were gorgeous, and the cars were super nice! We even sat front row to and from Denali, VIP y'all ;)

#7: People LOVE to fish in Alaska. Even when it's a rainy, cold (~45*), and gloomy day...

Fishing is definitely not my thing and those people are crazy. I was just hoping that where there would be Salmon, there would be Bear, but nope...just some crazies.

#8: All of the scenery in Alaska is beautiful!

Spencer Glacier! 

Denali!

Alaska was so much fun and such a nice little getaway from the heat and the real world. I got to spend some time with my dad and explore a new place and I loved it! If you ever have the opportunity to go, you definitely should...and feel free to take me :)

In other news, yesterday something very exciting happened and I got my birthday present from my mom and Roger, although technically I helped pay for some of it too. Which is totally okay, because I'm fairly certain that it was worth every penny. But, more on that will come later...

Happy Friday,
B.Hines

By the way, just gonna throw this out there...please don't steal any of my pictures. I will hunt you down, and you don't want that. :)