An Alaskan Adventure: Part 1

Also entitled "Alaska The Last Frontier" or "The Most Strange and Fun Trip of My Life".

Yes, I just got back from Alaska. Ya, that funny shaped state above Canada over by Russia. (I saw one of those amusing signs there that read "I can see Russia from my house". It made me laugh.)

Any of you watch any of those Alaskan shows on tv theses days? Cause I do (well my mom does and I get forced into watching them). Well my brother met this girl at college from Alaska and they got married last week. In Alaska. Which is a really long ways away. (Did I mention its a really long ways away?) And of course when I heard they were getting married and we were obviously going to their wedding in Alaska I immediately thought of every crazy Alaskan tv show where there are bearded mountain men and people get eaten by grizzly bears or freeze to death in the snow. (I've really got to stop watching reality tv. I don't like it anyway.)

But look! I lived! :D haha

And the most evil thing I encountered all week was some ferocious mosquitoes. (They've got some insane biting insects up there. like what even.)

But I'm getting off on rabbit trails; back to the story.

My dear brother of twenty was marrying a lovely Alaskan girl of the same age. And for the past several months our time has been consumed with helping them plan their wedding. Part of which was that I was happy to be asked to be one of her bridesmaids. (thank you!!)

Which then led to the adventure of finding a dress, but that's really a long story for another time. I did eventually get it two days before I left. (hehe oops) (no fault of my own) (seriously, I did try!) And the color theme for the wedding was lavender with cowboy boots, which was super fun! (hurray for not having to wear heels!)

So a week before the wedding date we climbed on an airplane for the 8-10 hour flight to the Alaskan wilderness.

As soon as we landed we were met outside security by our now Alaskan relatives and ushered into different cars so we could make our way to where we would be staying out on their "homestead".

The homestead being a generational property half way up a mountain and five miles down a dirt road in the Alaskan wilderness. Which obviously began our first adventure of the week.

I piled into a car with Kaylee (my bros girl and now my sister-in-law) and a few of her other bridesmaids while the rest of my family got into another vehicle. (actually both sets of my grandparents went on the trip which was so cool!) And as we drive halfway to the homestead we see what I would describe as a homeless/hitchhiker/crazy person beside the road.

Now where I am from it is illegal to pick up hitchhikers beside the road, but in the last frontier it is not illegal but in fact is encouraged. (Something about people being stranded and freezing to death when its 40 below...)

So when Kaylee sees the person she starts to pull over. Now this obviously inflicted a bit of, how shall I put this, freaking out on my part. And as I found out later, a lot on my parents part who watched the whole thing from the Yukon behind us. (my poor grandparents!) (yes, their car was called a Yukon which I found kind of funny) But as Kaylee pulled to the side and the "guy" got in the car I realized that he was wearing a mask and it was really Kaylee's younger brother. Turns out her family likes to play pranks and jokes just as much as mine does. Of course my parents didn't find that out until we got to the house 20 minutes later, but I was laughing pretty hard over the whole thing. But I'm pretty sure my parents thought I was about to be murdered by some insane gold prospector or something...

 

Anyways, I knew then that these Alaskan people were going to be pretty fun. They've got a great sense of humor!

 

I'm pleased to say we made it to the homestead in one piece. And the house they have up there in the mountains is pretty nice. I see why they like living there so much. And let me talk about the view! Talk about gorgeous! Alaska is one pretty place. I am now obsessed with their trees. If I had it my way I would have spent the entire week taking pictures of them. Most of the trees were Birch which have white bark. Basically fairytale trees.

 

But anyways, this post is already getting long so I think I'll write up a part two for later.

 

Until then!!