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!!

Ready for my final semester!

I apologize for not updating sooner! Last semester was very busy with school work and friends but it was very good. I have been back in Maine since mid-December and am headed back up to Fairbanks on Sunday the 16th. It is crazy, but I only have one semester left of graduate school! I am taking my comprehensive exams in February, finishing my research, writing my thesis and then defending it all by May. I have a lot of work ahead of me and I am looking forward to having it behind me! I am thinking about driving my car back to Maine when I am finished...it would be quite an adventure! As many of you know, Justin and I broke up but on friendly terms and are looking forward to being good friends this semester. Hopefully this semester will be full of adventures to share with you all but I am looking forward to coming back to Maine for good! I attached a few pictures from this past semester and from this break.

Thanksgiving dinner with some great friends.

My cousin Anna and I on Christmas Day

Emily and I on Door Mnt in Acadia a few days after Christmas

X-C skiing in Bangor with the family :)

JUMP!

Mom and Dad on Gorham mnt in Acadia after New Years

Winter is almost here!

Fall has come and gone very quickly up here in Fairbanks! I had a great trip home at the end of August and got to see a lot of friends and family. Since then, school has started up and now we are a month into the fall semester! I have been super busy lately with school work and meeting up with friends. I haven't even had time to make more bags!

Classes are going well so far. I am taking a biogeography course, seminar, tree-ring sampling and analysis and thesis credits this semester. The tree-ring course is more of an individual study with just one other student and the professor. I have a set of tree cores that I examine under a dissecting microscope and eventually we will measure the rings and input them to the computer where we can run statistical programs to help compare all the rings. For research, we have been plugging away at a paper and *hopefully* we are submitting it this week. I am excited to start on the next part of my research and get this paper out of the way.

Yesterday Justin and I went down to a woodsman competition put on by my school of Natural Resources. Everyone got to compete and try out all the tests if they wanted. Justin and I tried single person sawing, double person sawing and axe throwing. It was really fun to try, but I need to build up some more upper body strength if I want to be a real woodsman!! There was also log tossing, log rolling, boiling water with just three matches, an axe and one log, and burling (two people standing on a big log in the water trying to knock the other off to see who can last the longest). Those were all really fun to watch!

As always, here are a few pictures from some of my adventures!!

Polka band at the Pub. Yes we did the chicken dance :)

From the top of Ester Dome looking north of Fairbanks

Justin and I sawing some wood

Axe throwing!

My friend Hannah won this round! :)

More pictures on on Facebook! I will try to post sooner next time now that things are quieting down a little bit!

My summer in Fairbanks is quickly coming to an end! I will be home in Maine for the remainder of the summer and am really looking forward to seeing everyone! I will be home on Thursday and stay just over a week until the following Monday. Classes start up here September 2nd so it will be a quick transition! This summer has been pretty good. I have been putting in a lot of time at the GIS lab working on my research which is slowly coming along. We are submitting a paper to be published a few weeks after I get back so I will keep you all posted on when that will be published.

This past weekend Justin and I checked out the Tanana Valley Fair which was right in Fairbanks. I posted a few pictures from that below..

Me with the bunnies

Big dude

On the ferris wheel!

I have also been doing a bunch of sewing during the weeks but I have made surprises for people so I can't post pictures yet! Once I get back I will post a few more of my creations along with some stories from my trip home!

July

This summer has been different from any others I've had! It finally feels like summer in Fairbanks...this weekend it was in the 80's with sunny skies and it felt great! Justin and I went down to camp in Denali NP and took the bus into the park. We weren't able to see Mt. McKinley but we still had a great time! As always I went overboard taking pictures, but I have attached a few. We met up with my friend Leah and her friend Courtney who are both working in the park this summer. They are both coming up to Fairbanks this weekend for the Tanana Valley Fair which should be fun! I haven't been to a fair in a long time!

One of the two caribou we found walking along the road

The second caribou we saw tried to charge the bus!

Courtney, Leah and I on Mt. Healy in Denali NP

Denali Village down below our hike

Justin and I 66 miles into the park

There was a rubber ducky race down the Chena River through downtown Fairbanks. Justin and I both entered but neither of us won :( Quite a sight to see though!

In early July I took a soils field course up the Dalton Highway. This is the highway the Ice Road Truckers go up to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay. It was a very cool trip! Every day we looked at 3-4 soil pits. Since there is continuous permafrost north of Fairbanks, for most pits we had to use the jackhammer. We camped everynight except for the last two nights where we were able to stay at Toolik Research Station just north of the Brooks mountain range. All I have to say is that Alaska is BIG! It took us 9 hours to drive from Toolik Lake back down to Fairbanks and Deadhorse is another 3 or so hours north of Toolik Lake...and Fairbanks is only the middle of the state! It was a really cool trip and I learned a lot about Alaska soils!

Soil profile dug down to the permafrost before the jackhammer.

The mosquitoes were AWFUL!! I snuck this of someone's back....but we all had this many on us! Thank goodness for bug nets!

Me at Atigun Pass for all you Ice Road Tucker watchers!

At the Arctic Circle! Every night we camped we were above the arctic circle!

Me giving the jackhammer a try! It might look like I know what I'm doing but I couldn't control that thing for the life of me!

Me at the Deadhorse general store! I made it!!

Unfortunatley BP has the Arctic Ocean blocked off around that area so we weren't able to get that far. I guess it was about 8 miles away. It was so foggy and flat though there was no hope of seeing it from where we were.

For the rest of the summer I will just be working on my research. Justin is headed up the Dalton for the next few weeks so I will have some extra time to make more bags! I made another one which I will post pictures of at some point, but I made it for my friend Andy at home and she doesn't want to see it before she gets it! In 15 days I will be back in Maine for just over a week and I am SOOO excited!! I have a lot planned and I can't wait to see everyone!!! :)

Summer Sun

Midnight Sun!!
(12:15 am)

So far this summer has been pretty fun! My birthday was last week and so Justin and I went gold panning for the first time and out to dinner! I've been working a lot which has been going really well! Today I started a one credit field class today. It is a soils class and we will be traveling up the Dalton Highway (yes the same as ice road truckers) up to Prudhoe Bay looking at all the different soils! We will be camping along the way and will return next Wednesday. I am looking forward to it and it should be an awesome experience! I may actually get to see a polar bear in Alaska!! I will be sure to post some pictures when I return! Until then....

This piece of gold is worth $40,000!!!!!!

The gold I panned out....$6 worth!! :/

Happy Birthday to me!

At Chena Pump House

Alaska with the Family!!

My parents and brother came up to visit a few weeks ago and we had such a great time! We all met up in the Anchorage airport and went to dinner and straight to bed. The next morning we drove down to Seward which is on the Kenai Peninsula. In Seward we hiked to Exit glacier, we to the Sea Life Center and went on a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. On the tour we saw a ton of wildlife like killer whales, eagles, sea lions and humpback whales. We also saw a calving glacier into the ocean which was spectacular. After the tour we drove down to Homer which is on the other side of the peninsula. In Homer we did some sea kayaking and just checked the place out. After Homer, we drove all the way up to Denali National Park and spent a few days there. We took a bus 66 miles into the park and saw a lot of wildlife including grizzly bears! We did a short hike out there and rode the bus back. After a few days in Denali, we drove up to Fairbanks where I was able to show my parents where I lived and worked. We took a trip out to Chena Hot Springs. They were also able to meet Justin which was a lot of fun. It was a fantastic trip and we were all really sad when it ended! I have plane tickets to go back to Maine in August for just over a week so I am really excited about that!! Below are a few pictures from our trip but total we took about 1,700 so there is no way to post them all!!

All of us on the boat tour!

Us in Seward

Us in Denali!

Joel and I in front of the famous Salty Dawg bar!

Joel and I sea kayaking

My parents at Portage Glacier

Mom and Dad in front of the glacier on the boat tour

Some sheep we saw in Denali on a hike

I hope you enjoy the pictures! If you want to see more, I have posted a lot more on facebook and can be seen at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2295330&id=5800348&l=225b527047 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2295335&id=5800348&l=58d2c91446 .

I will hopefully have more exciting things to post about shortly!