As summer comes to a close, I wanted to look back at what I've done in the past few months, and what's coming up.
It was a summer of travel, albeit expensive, it was awesome! The first trip was late June to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a friend's wedding and stayed a couple extra days to hang out with my good friend Kate and her gorgeous little girls. It was a great weekend reuniting with friends I hadn't seen in a while.
I returned home for just enough time to unpack, do laundry, and repack for what would turn out to be my favorite vacation I've ever taken. My mom, stepdad, and I met up with my mom's best friend and her husband in Vancouver for a couple days before we boarded a cruise ship for Alaska. Vancouver was great! It's beautiful! I wish we had more time to spend there. Our cruise took us to Ketchikan where we went ziplining through the Tongass National Forest, Juneau where we went whale watching, visited our first glacier, and spotted a little black bear. We then made our way to Skagway where we boarded the White Pass Train which makes its way up through the mountains and features the trail people used in the Klondike Gold Rush. I biked back down the mountain back into town where I met up with my mom and John for a (rough) boat ride to the Davidson Glacier. Once in the area, we had a picnic and then boarded a bus up to the glacier made lake/stream. Along the way we spotted a big grizzly bear. We got to stop and watch her for a while. It was one of the highlights of our trip. We then boarded a canoe and paddled our way towards the face of the glacier. After a few minutes our guide turned on the motor and stopped paddling and just took in the view. We got to get out of the canoe and actually walk on the glacier. It was our first up close view of the melting/calving of the glacier, it was pretty cool and sad at the same time. On our way back we got to see the grizzly bear again... she was chowing down on some plants. Our guides took us to see a bunch of stellar seals on the boat ride back to Skagway.
Our next stop was Glacier Bay. We spent the day on the boat watching glacier after glacier go by. We spent an hour in front of the Margerie Glacier watching it calve. That was awesome!! The noises that it made as the ice shifted and broke away plummeting into the water really cool. It was such a thrill to see, but at the same time sad. It's amazing/sad to see how much of the glaciers have receded over the years. As we left Glacier Bay we got quite a show of humpback whales. At one point it seemed like they were everywhere. Spouts were coming up all over and there were a few whales breaching over and over and slapping their tales. It was so so cool! Another highlight for sure!
We had a couple days at sea, then disembarked the cruise ship in Seward. We took a long bus ride up to Denali National Park. The scenery can't be beat in Alaska. I never slept on any of our long drives because I didn't want to miss anything. I was on constant look out for animals. We got to Denali in the evening. Night time is weird because it never gets dark, only dim. You never really see the sunset and it pretty much seems like it's about 7-8pm all through the night. This was most apparent in Denali, although it was only the first night or two of our trip. We only saw one sunset, and the only time we couldn't see the scenery was on a day with crazy fog. The ship had to blow it's horn every 5 minutes or so during the fog. It was a little creepy. We couldn't see two feet out our door. Thankfully that only lasted a half day or so. Back to Denali... the next morning Mom, John, and I took a small prop plane up to the top of Denali (Mt. McKinley). We were nervous that we wouldn't be able to see it, but we got lucky. It was the most beautiful, breathtaking, spiritual experience I've ever had. Words and pictures cannot do that experience justice. It was truly remarkable and something I won't forget. We were supposed to do a glacier landing with the flight, but the pilot decided against it due to poor visibility. He mentioned that a plane had gotten stuck on the glacier the week before and couldn't safely leave for THREE DAYS!! Considering that we were not prepared for a prolonged stay on a freezing glacier, I was quite alright with his decision to keep us safe! The flight was well worth the money regardless. We took quite a bit of time weaving through the peaks and valleys of the mountain range and got to see great views of how vast the glaciers are.
After the flight we grabbed some lunch, then boarded a bus that would take us on an 8 hour tour of Denali park. I was expecting herds of animals, which was not the case. This was probably my only real disappointment of the whole trip. We did get to see 3 grizzly bears, 3 caribou, and 3 doll sheep. The scenery was beautiful despite not being able to see Denali (Mt McKinley) as there were too many clouds. Only 30% of visitors to the park actually get to see it. We were thankful we had taken our flight.
The next day we boarded a train for a scenic 8 hour ride to Anchorage. The train was awesome. It was spacious and was all glass on top so you could basically seen 360 degrees around you. We spotted 3 moose, eagles, and swan families. Once we got to Anchorage we grabbed dinner and took a walk downtown and did a little shopping. We grabbed a drink at a cool bar, which we had to cut short due to a bar fight. It got pretty heated, but thankfully no one was hurt too badly. The nurse side of me does not appreciate seeing a man thrown to the cement ground. Head+cement=no bueno. We flew home out of Anchorage the next morning. I didn't realize it was a possibility, but we did get a full view of Denali from the plane. It was awesome... far away, but an unexpected bonus. The first 45 minutes or so of the flight was over a mountain range covered in glaciers. I don't know if you've pick up on it yet, but I am obsessed with glaciers now. It's amazing how beautiful, powerful, and huge they are. I think the lady sitting next to me on the plane thought I was crazy taking a ton of pictures out the window of the plane. Little did she know I had taken nearly two thousand already on the trip... what's a hundred more??
Everyone should take the trip once in their lives... at least everyone that appreciates nature and beautiful scenery. I look at my pictures ever couple weeks and get sad I'm not still there. I definitely want to go back!!
The weekend I got back I went to the Basilica Block Party. It's a fundraiser for the Basilica featuring 3 stages and two nights of shows. This year's headliners included Matt Nathanson, Goo Goo Dolls, and Matchbox Twenty. Quite a throwback to the 90s, and it was fantastic!
A week later I took a long weekend trip to Chicago. I hadn't been there since high school, so it was fun to go back and be a tourist. Got a chance to catch up with some good friends as well. The highlight and original purpose of the trip was for the Justin Timberlake/Jay Z concert. It was fantastic! My only disappointment was that JT didn't dance as much as he usually does. Instead it was a lot of jumping around. I'm hoping when he does his tour by himself later this year he'll bring back some dancing! I'm set to see him again in February. :)
Two weeks later I flew to DC to help host a baby shower for a good friend. It also happened to be a going away party weekend for a friend, so two birds+one stone=great weekend! I always wish I had more time in DC. I have so many great friends there that I never have enough time to see everyone. I'm very thankful for my time spent living in DC. It is a great city that treated me well. I only wish it were closer to the middle!
Two weeks later my former roommates Steph and Kala came for the weekend. It was fun to spend so much time together. We ate, we drank, we ran, we shopped, and we sang karaoke. Fun weekend!!
The following weekend (this past weekend) my brother, Brian came for a visit. I took him to the great Minnesota Get-Together AKA the state fair. Brian tried cheese curds for the first time, and I think it changed his life... as they often do. We had a great time! It was nice getting to spending the time with him.
This week I start preparing for my next move: Denver. I will move out of my place on Friday, store my stuff and my moms and gather what I need for the next three months (probably the hardest part of travel nursing). I'll drive back up to Minneapolis next week to work my last three shifts and stay with a friend. I finish work Friday morning. I'll drive straight to my moms, take a nap, then load up my car, and drive to Omaha. I was lucky enough to get a couple tickets from some friends for the Nebraska-Southern Miss game, so I'll stay in Omaha until Sunday morning when I make my way to Denver! I start Monday at my new job. Pretty crazy! The move is definitely bittersweet. I've been in Minneapolis for 15 months, and although it hasn't always been ideal, I've made a life here. I love my job and have made a couple really good friends. I love being close to home. But, all this traveling this summer has made me realize I'm not quite ready to stop yet. I love exploring new cities and doing all the touristy things. I'm so excited to meet Denver. I've been through the area many times, but never stayed in Denver. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with some friends I haven't seen in a long time, and being close to my step-brother and his family as they welcome a their 3rd child into the world. I'm excited to live near the mountains, to hike, check out breweries and learn to ski again. I can't wait to see my first show at Red Rocks. I'm also a bit nervous. I hate starting a new job. This place will have a totally new-to-me charting system. I hate the first two weeks of not knowing where anything is and how their unit/providers like to do things, and I most certainly hate having to prove myself. Also, I suck at names. I'm so happy we have to wear badges, but I wish I could remember names. It would really help when I have to ask a million questions and not just say "hey you... how do I...?"All in all though, I'm pretty excited for this next adventure. It's a 13 week contract so that'll take me a week into December, then who knows?!
Anyone have anything I need to put on my Must Do list for Denver and the surrounding area?
Also, if your looking for pictures of Alaska, check out my fb album. It's worth your time, promise! I'm too lazy to pull some highlight pics off my external drive.
