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!