Alaska!!!

We weren't going to go to Alaska because it's quite far and we figured we'd probably just be doing it to say we had, but then Joel's buddy Mark, who is doing his rural rotation in Kitimat, emailed to ask if we wanted to take a trip out to see the glacier, which is further but WAY more awesome, and goes through Alaska.

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We saw this sign after about 2 hours of driving.

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Y'anyways, we got to Hyder, Alaska and stopped at a knickknack store because the sign advertised a free pound of fudge with the purchase of every dulcimer.  What?  We bought no dulcimers but picked up some chocolate-mint fudge, and I hugged a dog.  Obviously.

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Despite warnings and promises that we'd see LOADS of bears, we only saw the one just out of Terrace.  We also saw one ptarmigan, one grouse, and one marmot.  Slim wildlife pickings.

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We stopped at the 'toe' of the glacier for a picnic.  The roads to get there were thin and winding, but the roads that followed were thinner and windinger still.  I have never in all my born days been so nervous in a car.

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The glacier was suitably majestic and awe-inspiring, and went on for MILES in every direction.  I don't think the photos accurately portray how scarifyingly high up we were.  Trust me, kids.  Eet was high.

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The Bear Man, who lives at the lookout point and sells homemade postcards out of the back of his truck, told us there might be bears if we kept driving a few miles, but all we found was this random bunker.

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We'd been driving for about 7 hours by the time we hit the bunker, so we turned around and headed back home.  We stopped in Hyder, Alaska again because we were told to do two things while we were there: eat at The Bus (it is a literal bus),

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The food was surprisingly non-toxic, for bus-food.

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And then get 'hyderized.'  That's 150-proof moonshine in them thar glasses.  It was potent, and burned behind the solar plexus, but I have definitely drunk worse things in my life.

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Afterwards the bartender tips the shot glasses upside down and lights the alcohol fumes on fire.  It's rad.

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The moonshine made me wobbly on my pins for maybe half an hour, but the greasy bus food helped soak it up.

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And then we drove home.