The Alaska 3.0 Blog

After a series of unfortunate events, and about 3 years of going to hell and back several times, my parents decided to give me an Alaskan vacation to get me out of here for awhile. An opportunity to clear my head, regain my perspective, and be in a place that I love so much. They know how happy I am when I'm in Alaska, and also that I'm crazy in love with it up there. I've spent two summers in Alaska, for a few months each time. However the last two times I was up there, I was so "working", watching my younger cousins during the day. So this was going to be my first vacation in Alaska with no agenda, and a chance to relax and have some fun!

I arrived in Anchorage in the evening on Friday (19th) after a horrible connection in Minneapolis, and almost missed my connection flight because the brakes on the plane had frozen up, awesomeness! And I was also fighting with someone back home over the phone, so that just added to the stress of getting to Alaska. Also reinstated the whole reason I was going up there in the first place, to get away from everything! My Aunt Debbie picked me up from the airport and took me to her place in Eagle River. Debbie gave me the tour of her new house, which is incredible!!! I actually got the lost in her house the first night I was there! LOL! I stayed in her guest room on the lower level. Down there is also a pretty nice pool table where many games of pool ended up being played while I was there. There is also a bar, a workout room, sewing room, and storage rooms. Upstairs they have the main living room, office, dining room, an amazing kitchen that made me drool, and their master bedroom sweet. Yes, a very nice house!

So for dinner we had a grill out. My cousin Doug and his wife Celeste came over, and also my Uncle Dana's son, Ryan, and his friend Doug (more about this guy later!). After everyone left, we all just chilled, caught up, had a few drinks and played some pool.

Saturday morning started off with Debbie making brunch. She made 2 amazing quiche, one with moose meat, the other asparagus, yum-o! My cousin Danae (Dana's daughter) came over with her new husband, Jesse, and Ryan. Later that afternoon, Debbie, Dana and I drove out to Willow (about an hour and a half away, I think) to check out this cabin by Doug's family's (The Mathes') place, where I also met his dad. We walked over to the cabin from the Mathes' house and it was the cutest cabin ever!!! Sitting on about 17 acres of gorgeous forest, along some trails and snow machining trails. Then we went back to the Mathes' house and hungout there for a little bit, where Doug showed me the racket mosquito zapper! LOL! Ended buying a couple of those for my family :o) Then Doug and I made plans for him to take me on a hike up Mt. Baldy later in the week. Definitely wanted to get some hiking in while I was up there, and I've never been up Baldy before! After we left the Mathes' place, we went over to another one of Debbie and Dana's friends place. They have a house on a small lake, and cabins around the lake that they rent out to people. Gorgeous area! Hungout there for awhile and headed back into Eagle River for the night. Just relaxed, had a couple drinks and played some more pool.

Sunday, we (Debbie, Dana and I) all got up and lounged around in the morning. Then we finally decided to go shoot some golf balls at the driving range at Moose Run, by the army base. On our way there, Debbie realized she hadn't been golfing all season, so she called the course to see if we could make a tee time, and we got one, on Father's Day! So we turned around, grabbed all the clubs, carts, and geared up for a round of golf! The course was gorgeous! We had such a blast! Debbie coached me on my terrible swing haha! I got a few good shots in though and played some good holes, so I was pretty pleased!! I was totally exhausted by the end though, it's been awhile since I've played 18 holes of golf! After golfing we went back to Eagle River for dinner at Danae and Jesse's new house. They just bought a house in Eagle River that is so nice and cute! They have a nice creek behind their house, and an awesome back deck. The house is great for entertaining! They grilled out some mean burgers too! Danae's philosophy, make the burgers big enough to where you only have one! LOL! Dinner was great, and also had the chance to meet Jesse's family as well. Headed back to the house where we played some more pool, and made plans with Doug to go hiking Tuesday.

Monday, Danae and I had made plans to go into Anchorage and do some shopping and meet up with Debbie for lunch. Danae was supposed to pick me up around noon. At about 11:30am, I started to hear all of this banging noise, weird! I thought maybe Danae showed up early and was running around the house or something. Then everything started to shake! Earthquake! I thought, "sweet my second earthquake! wait, it's still shaking...ummm...what do I do again? Where do I go?" hahaha! The quake registered at 5.3 (I think) and was centered closer to Willow sweeeeeet!!! Danae showed up and we went to the mall in Anchorage to do what girls do best :o) After lunch with Debbie (which was amazing!), Danae took me to a couple of really neat shops! One was a consignment shop where I ended up getting my cool new shoes for $10, and another one was a funky store with crazy fun stuff in it. After that we went to the beauty supply store where Danae hooked me up with $4 OPI nail polish sweeeeet!!! :o) Went back to Danae's and hungout there for awhile, watched "Fanboys" which was hilarious! All Star Wars fans must see it, even Star Trek fans too, haha! Headed back up the mountain to Debbie's and Dana made an awesome dinner with grilled lamb and asparagus! Yum-o! I told them I wanted to make them dinner sometime while I was there, and since Doug was taking me hiking the next day, Debbie wanted him to stay for dinner as well...and so it begins!

Tuesday morning, woke up a little late, which was ok since Doug was running a little late getting into town. Didn't look like the best day to hike because Baldy was kind of clouded over, but we were still determined to go on the hike! Get to Baldy and start going up, which by the way, totally kicked my butt! I had to make Doug stop a few times for my out of shape butt to catch my breath! We finally got to the top of Baldy, and then all the clouds lift! We could see Eagle River and Anchorage below, see back into the Chugach range and all around us. So I pull out my camera and start taking pictures until my batteries die, DOH! And of course the extra set I had with me weren't charged :o( So as we're standing at the top looking around, it's starts hailing on us! hahaha! I figured, at least it wasn't rain and weren't getting soaked, because that would suck even more! Doug and I start hiking further back and it was so gorgeous! It was so much fun hiking around and chit chatting it up with Doug. Yeup, something is starting here! :o) We found a nice little rock ledge to sit on for awhile to relax a bit and take in the killer views! Started heading back to Baldy, and once we got there we met this guy who just RAN up Baldy...way to make us feel like lazy slackers! And of course, the decent is always the hardest part of the hike, in my opinion. I was slipping and falling all over the place because the rain made the trails so muddy! Doug ended up finding paths in the mushy moss stuff and with limb holds so I was less likely to slip and fall...although that was pointless! hahaha! We finally got to the bottom, and Doug offered a celebratory beer and lunch! He takes me to this super yummy pizza place with sandwiches and pasta. It was sooooo needed after that hike! After lunch, we head back to Debbie's and hangout for awhile before I start making my masterpiece zesty-lemon-white wine chicken with mushrooms! Everyone loved dinner :o) which made me very happy! I think after dinner, Doug's original plan was to go back to Willow. However, Dana thought it would be more fun to feed him drinks so he couldn't leave, and he was invited back to the house on Wednesday for another dinner party! It would be easier just to stay anyways, LOL! We all go downstairs and play around of pool, then Debbie and Dana decide to go to bed after one game. So then Doug and I stayed up talking, drinking, playing pool for the rest of the night :o)

Wednesday morning, after having a wonderful night and waking up with a bit of a hangover, Doug and I get up, and I decide to be nice and make him breakfast (obviously I'm trying to impress this kid LOL!). We just vegged out all day and afternoon at the house. That night I was going to Danae's to play Bunko with her group. That was so much fun, I've never played before! Her Bunko ladies are hilarious! After that, I went back to the house and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Thursday- I had a lazy day! I slept in, lounged around the house for awhile, and got ready to go to Wasilla for the evening to watch my younger cousins soccer game. My uncle Mike picked me up and drove me to his house. They have done so much work to the house and yard! Last time I was there, there wasn't really much of a yard. Now it's all pretty grass, they have a fenced in back yard with a nice garden. Mike built a deck on the back, and a nice shed. He also did some house work inside, put in some title on the floor and around the fire place. Last time I was up, they only had two girls, Cassandra and Monica, and my aunt Jenette just found out she was pregnant with August. And my how they are all growing up! It was crazy to sit there and be able to talk to all of them! We headed to the soccer fields, and since I haven't spent much time with Auggie, I went to her game. It was so cute watching 3 and 4 year olds play soccer! After the game we went and got some ice cream, then Mike took me back to Debbie's and I just chilled out for the rest of the night.

Friday was a fun filled day! Jenette picked me up (3 hours late) and we all went to Indian Valley on Turnagain Arm (one of my favorite places in Alaska) to go gold panning. We ended up finding a lot of flakes, some fool's gold, and some really pretty gemstones! We had dinner at some place I can't remember the name to, and I got a moose burger that was HUGE! And since I had plans to go out with Danae, Jesse and Doug that night, Mike took me back to Danae's house and then the drinking was on haha! We went to Chilkoot Charlie's, which is such a crazy cool place! This place has about 12 different bars in it, all different themed and different music! I guess I had been there on my 21st birthday, but I don't remember much of that night :o) We had so much fun, as you can tell from the pictures! We played a game of shuffle board, and just walked around and hungout, it was so much fun! Then we went back to Daena's and watched "Getting Over Sarah Marshall" which I fell asleep about 30 minutes into, and crashed out for the night. It was a great night!

Saturday, I had plans with my cousin Doug and Celeste (yes, are two Doug's to this story, but please don't get them confused because that's illegal, except for in Arkansas). They came and picked me up and we drove around Anchorage for a bit and went to the Anchorage Zoo. We had a lot of fun there, I love the zoo! It's a pretty nice little zoo! Picked up some souvenirs there. The original plan after the zoo was to hangout with Doug's friends and go out. However, they never called us back and we were just bumming around their apartment. So the other Doug (not my cousin!) told me that him, Danae and Jesse were going to go see the new Transformers movie in Eagle River. So my cousin Doug took me back into Eagle River, dropped me off at Daena's and we went to the movies. Transformers was pretty good too! :o) Kind of long, the spinning camera angles were a little annoying! We get out of the movie at 12:30am and were trying to figure out what to do. In Alaska, on the weekends, liquor stores don't close until 2am! Jackpot! Picked up some beer and went back to the house and watched another movie, and stayed up until about 5am. It was a great last night in Alaska! :o)

Sunday, the day I left :o( My plane didn't leave until 9:30pm, so I had the whole day! Doug and I finally got up and spent the day running around Eagle River so I could buy everyone gifts from Alaska :o) About $200 later...we went back to Debbie's and hungout. Started to get everything packed, yes I was getting emotional and depressed. Everyone came over to the house for one last BBQ. Danae and Jesse, my cousin Doug and Celeste, my Doug, and Debbie and Dana. Then that was it! Said my goodbyes, and Debbie took me to the airport and I left on a jet plane. My flight back to Minneapolis sucked! Obviously I was on the red eye and was hoping to get some sleep, however I got stuck sitting next to a 300 pound man who snored like a chainsaw! UGH! Thankfully the kids where at my parents house when I got home, so seeing them and the rest of the family made me feel a little better. Everyone loved their gifts! :o)

It was the best vacation ever! :o) I was able to do what I wanted to do, relax, think about things, get focused on the things that are most important to me, and managed to meet someone incredible (ok, I wasn't planning on this happening, but sure happy it did!) and I'm not going to let slip through the cracks! We will see where things will go, but one thing is for sure, I am moving to Alaska once I finish school! Alaska is my home, and as Doug kept saying, "You're an Alaskan girl, this is where you need to be!" He's so right! From this point on, I'm focused on school, on my job, saving money, getting things taken care of. Doug just got into the Air Force Guard, and he's getting ready to go to Loadmaster school down here in the Lower 48 for about 8 months to a year (which just found out today, he'll be down here at the end of the month!!!). We are planning on seeing each other whenever we can, and whenever he gets free time outside of training. He also served 8 years in the Marines as an embassy guard, and a chemical compounds specialist...he's been to 29 countries! (I think? More than me at least!) I'm so excited to see how everything plays out over the next couple years! I only have 2 more years of school left...then I'm out of here and going to Alaska permanently. I'm so excited for the future!!!