City Slickers Meet Small Town

We had a couple days at Glacier Bay to enjoy what the small town of Gustavus had to offer. And let me tell you, it had some fun lined up! On Sunday night, we trekked it down to the local K-12 school (the Gustavus Foxes, where 2 people graduated from this year) to a dance. Yup, we infiltrated and got our groove on to actually an awesome blues band! So we mingled with the townies, shook our butts polaroid style, and listened to some "rad" music. A fella by the name of Thomas also decided to rock out while the band took a break. He was great! So I of course struck up a convo with him outside. Whilst doing so his uncle, Skip (fantastic name), came over and started chatting. Soon we got to talking about the parade that was happening the next day... 

I say "I'll be there!" And Skip being the smooth, old man talker he was says, "You'll be in the parade!" To which I say, "what? as the newbie?" His response, "no you'll be on a float as the Princess of Gustavus." While I laugh and think hmph I think I could like it here, an extremely drunk girl goes, "I am Princess of Gustavus." And I answer, "why yes you are, the title is yours." Skip didn't like that, so I had to ask the girl to be the Queen while I am the lowly Princess. At this point, I knew we were in for trouble. So we make some friends and eventually call it a night, anxiously awaiting what on earth 250 people could come up with for a parade. 

Next day = 4th of July

Innocent City Slickers (waiting for the parade) meet...

Pirates...

Represent!!!

Woman in a shoe... 

Belly Dancers... 

Amazing Blues Band!

Puppets...?

And lastly, Wonder Woman.

The parade was a success, I mean one local man fainted, a dog was almost run over by an airport vehicle, and Kathryn had a pretty substantial sugar high with all the children around her. 

After the parade though was where the small town got to meet the city slickers. So since the 4th of July is the king of all holidays here, we decided to enjoy it. We made our presence known...no not by drinking too much or being loud, or even donating money to the community. No, we made our presence known by participating in the events held. The events such as the egg toss, pop the puffin (our given name), the sack race, and the three-legged race. Kathryn (K-Rex) had apparently packed her competitiveness and had packed enough to share with me as well. 

So first...

Egg toss - lost this one, although I believe it was rigged. A faulty egg landed in these hands...literally.

Next, pop the puffin...I suppose I should explain the rules.

You have to fill up a large tube with water until the puffin's head pops up. I think you'll get it. 

The football player, K-Rex's team lost but not without some good form! 

Now the main event, the sack race...

My quizzical look...or disgusted/judging look. I probably didn't agree with the rules (of course)...

But as always, in it to win it! And I was! The heat was on!

We were duking it out! Go big or go home! I wasn't going to go down without a fight!

But then that's what happened...I went down. And hard. 

[I have another picture to put here that is of me eating it (and it's fabulous), but I am waiting for it.] 

In fact I went down so hard, the announcer said "Clean up in Aisle 5" into the loud speaker. Believe me, the town got to see all of this city slicker. And the city slicker got to see all of the town's dirt (some of which is still on her jeans). 

But hey, it's all fun and games right? Well, until K-Rex decides to traumatize some poor, innocent, new friend of ours. "Three-legged race?" he asks to K-Rex. I laugh and declare good luck...K-Rex says yes. 

Friendly. 

Cruising!

New friend falters aka Rob...

No pity, K-Rex drags on...literally drags new friend. 

Now here is where I would also insert a picture of the bruises on new friend's leg. Yup, 5 mins after the race they were in full bloom. They were pretty ridiculous too. K-Rex's leg you ask? Unscathed. Of course. 

So after the festivities, city slickers - 0, townies - 4. I suppose the title of this entry should have been, small town eats city slickers. 

But then again, my ego is still bruised as well as my knees. 

Alaska, the kingdom of Plantae

Here thee, here thee, come one, come all! Come thee landscape architects, thee avid gardeners, thee plant killers, and thee with a green (or almost green) thumb and test your knowledge! Since I have devoted a blog to the animals seen in Glacier Bay, it is now time for the plants!

Time to spruce up your botany skills (pun intended) and give it a whirl! 

What are we?

Now if any of you know what these are, fantastic! I haven't a clue about a single one! Ok, I know one I do believe. But if you're looking for answers, I suggest google. :) 

Now, speaking of plants, here is your fun fact of the day as told to me by my boss: in Alaska, you are allowed to have up to an ounce of marijuana and it is no penalty. Yup, no fine, jail time, etc, they just don't care. And they say Oregon is progressive. 

I see a huge lens looking at me!

Once upon a time, there were 4 girls who went on a day cruise ship to see some glaciers. However along the way they saw more than they bargained for. No, they did not find their princes and no, they did not slay a dragon. No one draped their hair over the ship's ledge to rescue a drowning person and no, no one rode a carriage led by horses. But they did see some amazing stuff (and luckily captured it with their cameras aka Cheryl)!

Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

I see mountain goats looking at me!

Mountain goats, mountain goats, what do you see?

I see a black wolf looking at me!

Black wolf, black wolf, what do you see?

I see a bald eagle looking at me!

Bald eagle, bald eagle, what do you see?

I see black oystercatchers looking at me!

Black oystercatchers, black oystercatchers, what do you see?

I see a kittiwake looking at me!

Kittiwake, kittiwake, what do you see?

I see sea lions looking at me!

Sea lions, sea lions, what do you see?

I see a puffin looking (flying) at me!

Puffin, puffin, what do you see?

I see a sea otter looking at me!

Sea otter, sea otter, what do you see?

I see a harbor seal looking at me!

Harbor seal, harbor seal, what do you see?

I see a porpoise looking at me!

Porpoise, porpoise, what do you see?

I see a humpback whale looking at me!

Humpback whale, humpback whale, what do you see?

I see humans (aka a Kathryn, Kelly, and Larissa) looking at me!

Humans, humans, what do you see?

I see a calving glacier looking at me!

Calving glacier, calving glacier, what do you see?

I see a giant lens (borrowed from the National Park Service) looking at me!

The End!

P.S. click on the photos to make them larger! Totally worth it!!

Ahoy Ghosts and Ghouls...and Slimers!

Oh hello all! I am sorry I have been on a hiatus! I was out of service for a week, which is crazy for me...I do love my phone and internet. But I was in Gustavus, Alaska! Well specifically Glacier Bay National Park.  It is located in Southeastern Alaska by Juneau!

Sorry Shannon Dore, we were just in the airport. Well scratch that, we were at a Mexican restaurant this evening in Juneau (how fitting a mexican restaurant on the 4th of July). But sadly we had a Corona and had to run to catch our flight. Anyway, yes, Glacier Bay, amazing place. There for work but it felt like a vacation. So how do I start this off? Well, our place of work was here.

We looked out onto this water. So the first story has to do with Kathryn Sears (many of you know her, if not, she is a fellow U of O student) and I deciding we were going to find our own trail back to our house from work. This was a great idea until we realized walking along the coast (on the right side of the picture) was not as pleasant as it sounds or looks. Oh I mean we had fun frolicking around for a bit. 

And we admired its beauty. 

But then we hiked into sand that attempted to eat our feet. After hopping over small water creeks, we discovered beds of grass where most likely bears had been laying. Kathryn did have her bear whistle, which surprisingly looks and sounds exactly like a regular whistle... However, these things didn't frighten me as much as this did. 

I mean what is that?! All I kept envisioning was a spider's GIANT cocoon. And for those of you who don't know me, I am terrified of spiders. 

Then we stumbled across (yes, I mean stumbled) this overpowering smell. The source of that said smell?

Yup, we stank. Our boots were disgusting. We trekked through this muck for a good 5 minutes. So our typical 10 minute walk home took about 40. But really I just wanted to share this story because of the scary slimer ghostbusters junk. 

Uncanny! Raymond Stantz would be proud.