Summer!

So this past semester absolutely flew by! I only took one course which was a seminar and met only once a week. The rest of the time I spent working on my thesis which is what I am still working on. It was a pretty uneventful semester fun stuff wise, but a highlight was when my boyfriend Brian came up to visit for spring break. We had such a great time! We went out to Chena Hot Springs, out to dinner to all of my favorite Fairbanks places numerous times, checked out North Pole and went to the Ice Park during the day and at night! It was a great break from the cold dark winter up here. He is working in Vermont this summer and we are both looking forward to seeing each other again and much more often. He has been an amazing support while being up here for my final semester!

Brian in the ice maze at the ice park!

MBP and BJC

The end is coming for my Alaska stint which I am very happy about! I am defending my thesis on June 9th which is coming up VERY quickly! Then Joel is going to fly out at the end of June and we are going to drive home together. We are going to take a car ferry from Haines, AK to Billingham, WA which will take about 4 days with a few short stops in a handful of Alaska towns including Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan. Then the plan is to head south down the Pacific coast to southern California to Arizona and Utah then back up to Maine. It will take a few weeks but we are going to take the opportunity to see what we want to see as we go until funds run out! It is getting hard to concentrate on my thesis with this amazing trip right in front of me!

The weather is finally nice and warm up here in Fairbanks after a very long, cold and dark winter. This week it has been getting up into the high 70's! Unfortunately for us here unlike the east coast this season, it has been very dry and we have only had a few sprinkles since the snow melted. There was already a small wildfire just outside of Fairbanks this past week and is predicted to be a high fire year.  I remember last summer there was a lot of smoke in the air by June so I am really hoping that doesn't happen again this year. I have started running again and it's not good to run with so much debris in the air. The leaves are finally coming out though and the grass is green! Sunrise is at 4am and sunset is around 11:30pm so I do not see any darkness anymore! The other day I woke up around midnight and it was so light out I thought I had slept through the night until I checked the time. It's hard to feel tired when it is time to go to bed, but somehow I've gotten used to it.

So the plan is to be back in Maine by mid-late July! I just ordered a new camera so keep checking for updates for lots of new pictures, especially while Joel and I are driving across the USA! I miss everyone back home and as much as I am looking forward to the drive, I really just can't wait to see everyone again!!