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.

.

We saw this sign after about 2 hours of driving.

.

.

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.

.

.

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.

.

.

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.

.

.

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.

.

.

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.

.

.

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),

.

.

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

.

.

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.

.

.

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

.

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

.

.
And then we drove home.

This is a teaser.

I went to Alaska today. What?

I'll post more, with photos, tomorrow or Monday. Just know that I've been Hyderized.

Ees about time!!!

I am a licensed driver! I will finally be having my sweet sixteen party now, you can all come to disco bowling and we'll have pizza and cream soda. I can fit, like, twelve people in my parents' mini van, if you double-up on seatbelts.

Ok for real, though. After twelve years of being That Girl, the one that you always have to pick up, I can drive myself to come visit you now. Except I'm in Terrace. Which was looking suspiciously like Victoria this morning between 8:30 and 9:15, cyclists around every turn. But I didn't hit any of them! And I only ran amber lights when it was too dangerous to stop, and I shoulder-checked like a shoulder-checking dervish, and I only forgot to take off the e-brake once.

And THEN, as I'm pulling out of the parking lot on my first ever solo drive I almost get nailed by a senior citizen coming in to be recertified. Circle of life, my friends. For every license given, one must be taken away.

Pups!

Life goes on, I suppose

Sad face, my friends. If I weren't typing this on my wee iGadget I'd go look up a very sad .gif to put here. My laptop is le broke. I know! And I was having such a good run of blogging! With pictures!

Fortunatemente for you (and mostly for me, since I'm in Terrace for another ten days) I have this iDoohickey. The intarwebs in my hand! So I will perhaps continue to blog? Sans photos. Which is EXTRA sad today, because I went to the lake with one of the doctor's wives (who is also the mother of one of Joel's classmates who is dating a friend of mine) and her two sausage-dogs and these dogs are UNRELENTINGLY hilarious. They run so fast and their legs are so short The lulz!

It was clouded over and doom-ish looking as we left town but I wore my swimsuit in good faith and high optimism and the sun broke through and it was positively roasty. The dogs chased squirrels and Diane gardened and I went for a bit of a kayak through some feeds that made me feel Amazonian. I wish you all could have been there.

We did not think this through ahead of time.

Auntie Lois has been teaching me to drive so I can take a road test in Terrace where, if I make a mistake, I will not automatically kill a cyclist (I am looking at you, Victoria).  There's this hilarious blind corner going up a hill where there's one of those mirrors up on a post like they have in grocery stores so they can see you stealing things, and that's how you're supposed to see around this corner and I shriek every time and Lois never does.  She has nerves of steel.

ANYway, this evening Joel had to get to the hospital but I had to learn to park so we drove him to work and then jaunted off to the Walmart so I could pull in and out of stalls, and then we trundled off home to where Lois' car was parked before realizing that we had to get the car back to the hospital so Joel could get home.

...


Fortunately, this is Terrace and even though the hospital is across town and some ways out, it was only a 20 minute walk in the late June sunshine to get from there back to my house and Lois' car.

Joel and Rachel go to the moon

Everyone complains that there is nothing to do in Terrace, and I can see how that's sort of true once you've eaten at the Taco Bell, like, six times. But there are a mazillion things to do AROUND Terrace. Like visit the lava beds.

Lava everywhere!  It's like being on the moon!

 I am a moon-explorer!

Careful!  There is no gravity on the moon!

You know what else is on the moon?  Waterfalls! 

Teeny museums!

Bears!  [Bear not pictured because we were too delighted and terrified to get a decent shot.]

Good PR

Ok so.  Today is Joel's day off AND it's Seafest in Prince Rupert and everyone says you should go to Prince Rupert if only for the drive.  So we went to PR, and drove all the way there in this.

But!  We drove home in this:

It absolutely dumped rain during the parade, but it was still totally worth sitting through if only for this guy:

And it's not a festival unless you're eating something on a stick.

Also, there were free donuts.  What?

[Not pictured: second go-round of free donuts.]

Also, Joel got some delicious (allegedly) salmon

and I got a delicious crepe.

And Joel got to stand by some shiny cars

And I got to pet a horse

and Joel ended up in the dog house

but I ended up in the naughty chair

So, you know.  Fun for everyone.

Aliens watching me pee.

Our landlords are super-sweet but also olderish (is 70 still old?  Or is 70 the new 20?) so when they ask me what I'm up to for the afternoon I don't always feel like 'dickering around on the internets' is a viable response.  So I tell them I'm going to the coffee shop to 'get some work done' (where 'work' looks suspciously like googling my own name for an hour).
ANYways, so I've been sitting at the Elephant Ear every afternoon with a coffee and a book and a laptop and a glass of water and maybe a homemade granola bar that our landlady packed for me, and the washroom is kind of dingy with pipes, but then it has these light fixtures:

Pretty?  Made of aliens?  Made of pretty aliens?

In which I finally get some Vitamin D

Okanagan of the North!  You are so rainy. 
.

Today was the first gloriously June-y day and Joel got off early so we went for a walk around Ferry Island, where the trees are full of faces.

Tree face!

With hand-beards!  (Hand-beards not included.)

Also, the scenery is not terrible.

And then I had bottomless chai at the Hot House, which is apparently the Thing To Do (I recommend) and had a lovely chat with my lovely aunt, and it was uncannily like quasi-chatting with my mum because they have TWIN MANNERISMS much like I imagine me and boo do.

Aside: Jeans were a bad choice.

Surprise! There is internets in the sticks.

Intratubes!  Hello.  I am in Terrace.  Which is small, but not Yarrow-small, which is what I was picturing.  So color me pleased.

Also, I ate crab.  I ate crab.  I ate crab.  I ate crab.  In my defense, if crab is really fresh and dipped in garlic butter, it mostly just tastes like garlic butter.

That's not me, that's Peter.  Peter caught, cooked, and shucked the crab.  Alls I had to do was dip it in the butter and then cram it in my mouth.

Also, I should be bored, but I went out for coffee twice today and have a date with my aunt tomorrow.  Busy doings in small towns.

Busy day, this.

Needless to say, no blogging.

Continuing my non-streak of non-posting.

I forgot to not post yesterday because I was having lunch with my in-laws and dinner with the wedding party, and fake-marrying Boo off so we all know where to stand on Saturday.

I'd blog today, but we just took Grandma out for Thai food and then ate a pack of turnovers while they were still so hot you couldn't taste them without burning your tongue, and now I need to lapse into a sugar coma.

I probably could have blogged today...

...but I didn't, and now I can't because I have a date with this gal.  And this one.  And this one.  And possibly also this one.

Compensatory hat photo!!

Try and burn me now, sunshine.

I clearly cannot blog today.

I'm busy turning this:

into some hundred-plus-odd of these

with a sprinkling of this for good measure.

I can't blog now either.

I'm busy attending a sub-par Eat! Vancouver festival, severely lacking as it is in Kozy Shack pudding, cheese tasting, and 2-for-$5 BBQ sauce, and where the only snack worth repeated visits were these red pepper jelly and cheese snacks.

It was not as good as this time, or this time, or that time I forgot to blog about, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a toothpick.

I can't blog now.

I'm busy eating this cinnamon bun.

Continuing my scattershot recap of last week

Here's the card my sister got

and doctored

for my birthday.  I laughed at this for ten minutes, and then showed Robyn later and we both laughed for another ten minutes.  That's twenty solid minutes of laughing.  Thirty, if you add Robyn's.  Good card, boo.

Also, here's a cute metal yard guy we saw on the way up to buy my iTouch (ALSO a story, for later) that we took a picture of to show mom, and then forgot to show mom.  Look, mom!  So cute.

I try

I keep meaning to write you a wrap-up of my Time At the Parents' House but I was there for almost a week and many things happen so I'm just going to start stabbing at bits of it.  I brought home five extra pounds of Raych because me and boo had strawberry turnovers for lunch and then made dad make us tater tots for second lunch even though we knew we were going to Gillian's for chocolate fountain later, and then we went to Gillian's for chocolate fountain later and ate our weight in gold.  Chocolate fountain gold.

And also, dad brought home many Tim Tams and no one was around to eat them and watch The Rundown except the parents and I.

And also, I threw boo a panties party (more about which another time, unless I forget [likely]) and baked many treats and I'm really into sampling my own wares.

I forgot to take a picture of them later when they were all plated and nice and when the cupcakes were filled with the lemon curd, because I was busy making wine spritzers, which are my new go-to party drink.  They are elegant and festive.

And also, we took mom to the Cactus Club for Mother's Day and everything we ate was extra-fried, except for the bellinis.  Which we didn't technically eat.  So.

Now I'm trying to detox but it's going badly because my house is full of chips.

I have entered my later-late twenties!

I am now 28.  Revel in my adulthood!

Ok so, because you will all want to know, yesterday morning I lolled around in my sweats and read a book about vampires and it was skeeery and then Joel was going to take me for a picnic:

but it rained, so we had a picnic in one of the study rooms at school.

It rained just long enough to ruin our picnic, but not long enough to ruin our bike ride, so we borrowed some bikes from friends and spend an hour dithering around in a cul-de-sac before venturing down a teensy trail and then I crashed into a fence.  Bike ride over.

Joel had to study in the evening because it's been a busy week, so Chelsea and Shannon took over birthday-sitting me.  We had 'book club' which largely centers around gossip and snacks and a movie that VERY LOOSELY ties into the book, and I drank only wine spritzers because those hydrate you while they dehydrate you and I had to run 10k today.

I'm an adult now (again? still?).

Oh and also, Joel and I as a Marital Unit turned 3 on Wednesday, which we celebrated by going to a musical and having dinner at the Cactus Club.  Joel had a duck club on fruit toast, strongly evocative of Mitch Hedberg's banana bread, pastrami and cottage cheese sandwich.  I had a brazillion, which never sounded any less dirty the more we said it but which was actually a mojito with kiwi.

 The end.