I made it to Maui!!  But first I should tell you about my amazing last few days at the wildlife center.  Andrew made it with Jillian.  I took them around the center and they got to see the babes, do a musk ox bottle feeding, and meet Jewelie and Snickers.  Unfortunately it was cold, rainy, and super windy but at least they got to see most of the animals.  J.B. even stood up and opened his mouth for them.  That night us interns all went to karaoke in Girdwood.  It was a blast.  The next day Sarah, Scott, Jeremy, and I headed off to Palmer to go to the Alaska State Fair and see Big n Rich and camp at Sarah's Aunt's campground.  I finally saw belugas on the way headed to the point on the Seward Highway.  Once we got to Palmer we set up camp and headed off to the fair since the traffic was so bad.  The concert was so fun but really short.  After we walked the fair a little and the sun set with Pioneer Peak in the background was gorgeous.  When we got back to the campground Aunt Jenny and Uncle Ron were still up so we got to spend some time with them in their awesome camper.  After a bonfire we hit the sack only to wake up to a rainy day.

I also got a chance to take Andrew and Jillian to Virgin Creek Falls (Jillian wanted to see a waterfall) after work and get some dinner in Girdwood.  We walked through the Alyeska Ski Resort and a bit of Winner Creek trail but Andrew was being a big baby about walking through this upper class resort when we weren't staying there...just kidding Andrew ; ) checking to make sure you read this still haha. 

I couldn't have asked for better weather my last three days in Alaska.  Gorgeous and sunny.  My last two intern days were spent with Christina and Ian and just Erin and I my very last day.  Talk about relaxing!  Jeremy also made me a brownie cake with cream cheese frosting that Marcie, Pat, Scott, Christina and I ate right out of the pan.  It was a hard good bye thats for sure.

Today I arrived in Kula, Maui at the Surfing Goat Dairy.  Thomas the owner picked me up at the airport and gave me a beautiful fresh flowered lei (my first one!).  I can't believe I'm here.  He talked about the sugar cane fields and irrigation for Maui on the way and we arrived at the beautiful surfing goat dairy complete with palm trees and lovely pastures.  It's been a VERY dry summer I guess with only 2.5 inches of rain since November.  Quite the opposite of Alaska.  I came in around 11 am so Angela showed me around and I met a bunch of people I won't remember already haha then I settled in and moved into my new home for the next year.  I'm living in a rubbermaid shed next to two other interns/apprentices and get the shed all to myself.  It's pretty nice!  I can open both ends to get a good breeze at night as well.  It's definitely that awkward first day of me settling in and reading my manual trying not to pass out while everyone around me is busy working.  I'm looking forward to getting started and learning the ropes.  I hate the first week of a job...especially when it's so foreign.  But I'm staying optimistic...I can tell this will be a great place to work where I can really gain experience in the ag field.  Reading up on goats and health procedures is already getting me really excited to apprentice.  Another nice perk is communal dinners (one of which we'll be having tonight) and you can use the company vehicle for whatever as long as your communicate.  I'm anxious to see more of Maui.  So I have tomorrow off and then Saturday I'll start at 9 am by going on a Grand Tour with some visitors and learning the basics.  Below is a pic of a couple of goats who just loved to stare at me while I was in my shed reading.  Goats are so funny.  Tonight we all had dinner together as a "farmily" as Erin (one of the apprentices) calls it.  There's also Alicia (an intern) and Dan (head apprentice).  I think I'm really gonna like having dinners together, it was relaxing.  We also have 5 barn cats and 4 dogs.  I wanted to keep my shed open tonight but there's flying roaches haha.  The lei Thomas made me smells so sweet and amazing I wish I could just bottle it up.  Hopefully it dries out nice and I'll be able to keep it.  Off to bed!  It's only 9:30 but I'm exhausted...everyone else is going to bed too.  From my first impression and talking to the others this job isn't going to be easy but I'm looking forward to the hard work...and learning to drive the tractor ; ) 

Today was a pretty slow day.  I started off with a bus tour and Jewelie's feeding.  Then Kara and I walked Burt around the center.  He did so good!  He used to be so skittish.  He's castrated so we separated him since won't be going into rut as fast for his safety.  We also got a load of hay bales in today so we had to tape them all up.  I did a quick bear shift and some feedings and before I knew it the day was over.  After work a film crew came in and did some filming for a low budget film coming out that they predict will make it big.  I guess we'll find out.  Bruce Greenwood (National Treasure dad!) was the only actor I recognized but it was still pretty cool to watch them.  I only helped out with the bears and helped keep the females away so they could work with J.B. 

Yesterday was such a fun day of interning.  It was super nice out and sunny all day.  Erin, Sarah, and I interned and worked together for the day since we had a few big projects to get done.  The first thing I did was walk the bear enclosure looking for bears and trying to wake them up.  For the first time ever one of them met me in the back of the enclosure...I was about to give up when I looked over my shoulder one last time and Patron was sticking her head out of the brush.  I was so excited!!  And it was my favorite bear.  We got a HUGE donation of fruit from a store in Anchorage so we had to figure out where to freeze all the berries.  I packed blueberries in one of our freezers...which wouldn't be bad except for the fact that I had to pack them in a freezer with a dead musk ox.  It was gross.  Just another day at the center I guess.  Below is a pic of my berry packing job along with Sarah showing off her strength haha.  We also loaded up the bucket of the tractor a few times and Erin drove us to the elk and caribou enclosure to dump some strawberries in.  I love riding in the tractor : )  The black bears were also loving the strawberries.  I took a few cute pics of Kuma (one of our black bears) what a stud!  I finished the day with a behind the scenes tour with four women.  They just loved the moose calves.  It ended up being 2 1/2 hours long and we were able to see all the babies feedings.  I think one of the favorites though was Jewelie.  I'm so glad she's back on display.  I felt bad they had to trek through a field of bear poop bombs (she's in the old black bear enclosure) but it was worth it when they got to pet her and give her loving.  Sweet Jewelie.  After work Sarah, Scott, and I went to Cooper Landing to do the last Snicker's presentation.  Afterwards we went to the Russian River which I wasn't feeling at all since we didn't have any bear spray.  We saw SO many reds.

Today was a productive day of cleaning.  I gave the bunk house and bathroom a good scrub down and did some emails.  Rainy day.  I also got to watch a vet from Bird TLC (treatment and learning center) do a check up on our three birds (2 owls and bald eagle).  They were all healthy and looked good.  It was amazing to see their talons and watch her trim their beaks and take blood samples.  She'd even stretch their wings out to check them out and you could see their wing span (not common to see since they're gun shot or wind storm victims so you don't see them stretch their wings out.  They predicted Adonis's wing span to be about 6 feet or so!  

This post is dedicated to Jason Fortin...because I heard he actually reads it and noticed I've been WAY behind haha.  So lets see if I can even remember what I've been doing since I last posted.  Claire left : ( so I went with her for her last porcupine presentation in Cooper Landing.  We stopped by the Russian River on the way home hoping to see some bears since the salmon are in.  I saw lots of salmon...but no such luck with the bears.  It was still worth the trip though being with all the other interns and enjoying the river.  The fishers were having some good luck with all those salmon too. 

Claire, Jeremy, Melissa, Christina and I also went to meet Howie and Nicki with the Miller family at the Palmer Agriculture Appreciation Day at the sustainability research farm.  And I saw goats!! Haha also some cows...animals I'm much more accustomed too.  The goat farmer was pretty funny...Christina made some comment to me like "are you ready to deal with these guys for year?" and the goat farmer after hearing about Hawaii was like "why the heck are you doing that?" He ended up giving me his card after I failed to be there while he did a milking demonstration (he wanted me to help him out) and said to come to his farm and do some work to get ready for Hawaii.  Burt and Hershey, our two halter trained reindeer, went too so we could walk them around.  It was so great having a fun afternoon celebrating agriculture and even spending time with the boss and family...gosh those kids are cute.  On the way home we stopped at an orthodox cemetery someone told M.T. about which was beautiful!  SO many colors.  It reminded me of Mexico's Day of the Dead and felt more like those that have passed away's loved ones were celebrating their lives more than just mourning.  The sun set on the Seward high way was beautiful.  If only pictures did Alaska justice. 

The next day Amanda (my cousin) picked me up so I could spend time with her and Bethany at Luther's fishing lodge in Happy Valley.  We stopped at Bethany's house which was more in the woods and drove through Soldotna (where Amanda lives).  I absolutely loved their places...cozy and reminded me of being up north like with Kev and I go to the U.P. to his family's cabin.  The fishing lodge was super nice as well..I would definitely have loved to stay longer and fish for halibut with them but the summer really flew by and everyone was so busy.  I can't believe I only have 9 days left here!  Little Lucian (Bethany and Luther's babe) was so stinkin cute I wanted to kidnap him.  What a personality.  It was definitely really hard saying goodbye after walking around the center with them one more time.  I plan on coming back to Alaska at some point but I'm also hoping they make it to Hawaii ; ) 

That night we had our end of summer staff party at Mike and Kelly's.  It was a Hawaiian themed party so there were leis and games and of course awesome food which Claire helped prepare.  Pretty much everyone on staff made it.  We even played a little volleyball (which made me miss sand vball with the Fortins even more!).  When it got dark and chilly we went in the house and watched an end of summer slide show Erin made...we even watched Mike and Kelly's wedding video haha.  It was a great weekend overall.

The week was pretty uneventful.  The silvers came in so a few of us went fishing.  Again I had no such luck!  The caribou are also going into rut (along with now the elk) so I got some pretty cool pics of them shedding their velvet.  

This last weekend Marcie, Alexis, Christina, and I went to the Cooper Landing area and hiked 3 miles to Barber cabin.  It was so awesome!! I wanted to stay there longer.  We had a great time taking the canoe out and having a bonfire late into the night.  One of the best parts of the trip was Alexis waking us up by thrashing around shivering like crazy and saying "I'm s-s-s-so c-c-c-cooolldd!!  It was hilarious...I traded sleeping bags with her expecting to freeze my butt of the rest of the night but luckily it was just her being a Texan and not being used to cold and I was warm.  I guess thats what happens when you live on an island in Texas like Corpus.  Then came more sad goodbyes as Alexis headed out to go back to school.  I've really made a summer family here and when your living and working with the same people for months you get real attached. 

Finally yesterday Uncle Brian picked me up after work and I got to go to their house for dinner.  I never thought I'd get the chance to spend time at their house with them in Alaska...just goes to show you never know where you'll go in life!  I also loved their house.  Dinner was really good and we even had cake to celebrate Caleb's 20th birthday.  I hope to spend more time with them before I leave : )  Well its off to do some work for my internship credit...hopefully I won't be so long till my next post again!! O and a couple pics from my walk around the center tonight...the babies are getting so big!