Exploring Independence Mine

 

Earlier this summer the bestie, the kid, and I all went up to Hatcher's Pass to explore Independence Mine. I'd only been once, and they'd never been. here are images from the day. I'm not going to bore you with a lot of text. If you want to learn more about the area check out Adventuring Alaska's blog post. 

See more under the cut. 

30 Days of Me: Day Twenty

Day 20: A Hobby

I have several hobbies, and they all seem to be linked. Photography leads to scrapbooking, and most of my photography (hobby) and scrapbooking revolves around my travelling. You probably see where I'm going with this.

I have officially hit the 24 hour mark until I'm on a plane watching the Flight Attendants do the emergency procedure demonstration. To say I'm excited is an understatement. I love to travel, but my body hates to fly. My stomach is normally in knots and the barfbag is always the first thing I locate when I get to my seat. Dremamine is going to be the experiment this time around. It doesn't do anything for me when I'm on a boat in the ocean, but I'm going to give this extra strength drowsy kind a try. It's adult chewable orange flavor. Yeah, that's all Fred Meyer's had ha ha!

Hopefully it will work because I REALLY don't want a repeat of my last time on an airplane where I basically threw up for three hours. Yuck.

So this blog is going to be pretty much quiet for the rest of the month. I get back on thanksgiving so I should start blogging soon after ( not that anyone really cares about my schedule ). However, Erin and I will try to blog from time to time while on our trip. We have our own travel blog which you can find here - http://originaldorktwins.blogspot.com/ - and we'll be updating our facebooks. I will also try to twitter when possible - http://www.twitter.com/tonichelleak - so there's no excuse not to know what we're doing! Favorite our blog, follow me on twitter!

In other non-meme news: My parents go to view the potential new Casa for Tonichelle today at 11. I'm really hoping this comes through. I'm praying that a job opens up and it is a total possibility. I really hate that this will be decided while I'm travelling, though. All because dad took forever to actually do some investigating on the place. Oh well, it'll all work out.

I better get off of here and actually finish packing, or this trip will never get off the ground!

Double Digits Dance!

Erin and I have 98 days until our road trip begins on November 7! I cannot wait. So excited.

And, since our main destination (Walt Disney World's Coronado Springs Resort) had a birthday yesterday I leave you with this video.

Back to the grind.

Obviously mom and I made it home Monday night without incident. The weather was fantastic in Fairbanks when we left, and stayed that way until we hit the MatSu, where we basically drove into a sheet of RAIN. And it stayed that way all the way home.

Overall I loved our trip, the skating was fantastic, the company was - of course - awesome, and mom and I got to unwind. We did a whole lot of nothing and I have no problem doing that. Decided I want to make the trip again at least by next summer. Will definitely do so if certain skaters get to come back (wink, wink) at the same time of year, but then again I don't know if I wouldn't come earlier before the tourist season rush.

I will be giving a full review of our resort this weekend, when I have more down time, right now all I've been doing is work, catching up on sleep and editting my MANY photos, of which I will also share at some point. I will say this about the Wedgewood Resort: I will stay there again and I recommend it to all of my friends. It is great service, great rooms, and it's affordable. I also suggest going on the weekends as they are less crowded/cheaper because that is when they are recooping from the influx of tourists Monday-Thursday. Just a little hint, I'm sure other hotels are similar.

 Nothing else to really report. Still working on photos. Will have to post some eventually. Night, all.

Watch the SUNBURN!

Today was, for the most part, relaxing. We stayed at the resort until 11:30 just chilling, and then headed to The Pump House for a “brunch” buffet. We met up with the Lees and Melissa and Denis and ate outside overlooking the Chena River. The sun was out and warm, and aside from a few pesky bees, it was a fantastic time. We spent two hours just gabbing and enjoying the wonderful weather. Getting to know the Lees better was a treat, and I have to say their kids are a kick. Andrew is just ENERGY all the time, and Grace is such a sweet young lady.


The weather was just fantastic; Warm, sunny, and perfect for giving me a sunburn. Which I am now suffering from because it is mostly on the back of my neck. Sleeping should be interesting tonight. We saw speed boats, float planes, and the famous paddle boat pass by while we chatted. It was just a great way to close out Melissa and Denis’ week and mom and my weekend.

After filling up on all the yummy offerings and saying our goodbyes (so hoping Melissa and Denis get to come back soon!) mom and I headed out to North Pole, AK which is about 11 miles away from Fairbanks (if that). We were on our way to The Santa Claus House, and somehow managed to miss it not once but twice. Don’t ask me how. If there’s one thing about this trip it’s the fact that we can’t navigate worth a darn! Haha! Finally drove into their parking lot – it was HOT outside – and spent a couple of hours wandering around the gift shop before going out and seeing the Reindeer and taking photos of the large Santa’s on the property.

Then we headed back to the hotel and stopped at McDonalds on the way to get us some well needed soft serve ice cream. It was just insanely hot in the truck. We crashed at the room for a couple of hours (mom napped and I edited photos. Can’t wait to have time to edit them and post them!) , and then had dinners over at Gallo’s Mexican restaurant. My stomach is so stuffed it’s not even funny.

Now we’re back in the room. Mom is snoring away and I am watching Law & Order SVU (thinking of you, Heather! It’s not skating without chatting with MelDen and watching Law & Order! BD Wong is hot!). We have to leave in the morning and I am not looking forward to getting back to the real world. I have really enjoyed being away, but I do miss my pug. So that’s something to look forward to!

Gotta pick up a few things from the depot for work up here and then we’ll be on our way! Check out tomorrow morning is at 11am, so I don’t expect us to get moving quickly at all. It’s 9:30, though, so if I want to be well rested for the drive back I better sign off for now.

I've missed watching Melissa and Denis skate.

Mom slept for twelve hours last night. It’s really no surprise as she’d been up since 4 am and even though we didn’t do much but drive, it takes it out of you. We were in bed by seven, and mom CRASHED.


Woke up to not so fantastic weather, it was pouring down rain, but by 10am it was over and done with. We ate at Denny’s (which boasts being the world’s furthest north Denny’s) for breakfast, and then we headed up to what we thought was the ice arena. No such luck, it was the wrong one, so then I just decided to take a gamble and head up college road. Found UAF all on my own (easy to do with all the signs) and made it to see the tail end of the ice dance testing. We got to see Denis take the girls testing through the proper steps. It was like watching Compulsory dances at nationals all over again; thankfully Midnight Blues was not one of the testing pieces. We had the Viennese and Golden Waltzes and the Paso Doble… and one other one that I don’t remember. Seeing Melissa and Denis working with the students got me excited for the show tonight.

After watching the kids go through their testing we headed back to the room to try and make a game plan. Sadly we have NO idea what’s going on that isn’t incredibly touristy – and by that I mean expensive – and the rain had returned. We just decided to suck it up and go for a drive. Then dad called and we spent about 15 minutes in the lobby while mom talked to him on the phone. While we sat in the lobby the rain stopped, we decided to try to find the “real” Fairbanks – which translates to downtown. It was the Golden Days festival and we wanted in on some of the action. It had rained during the parade – and we spent that time in doors at the rink anyway – but now the clouds had parted and the weather was pretty good.

We figure-eighted around until we finally made it to first street where all the action was. Made the mistake of trying to see the rubber ducky races, but they were late in getting started and mom wasn’t feeling well, so we made our way away from the races, only to have not waited long enough and they crossed the finish line not five minutes after we left the river. Go figure. Oh well, there’s always next trip! We toured Treat Street, for a while anyway, and visited the Yukon Quest “headquarters”. It’s pretty much a mini version of the Iditarod Race Headquarters in Wasilla. After walking around a bit more we headed for the truck to freshen up before the ice show.

The show was pretty good, it was all the local talent, and some of the skaters are surprisingly good for not having a solid program up here right now. Some of the older skaters really put on a good show, and every skater brought their game. The highlight, of course, was when Melissa and Denis closed the show with their program. Melissa rocked the jeweled eyes, and they both were just so smooth. I had forgotten just how much I LOVE watching them skate. I didn’t think I had, but I had shivers. Makes me want to go to Nationals or any skating event that much more. So thankful they made it up here, definitely worth the drive!

After the show we met up with them, and I figured we’d chat and then be on our way, but like always that didn’t happen! It was so much more. We did a little catching up and we will be going to brunch/lunch with them and the Lees (big into Fairbanks Skating club) tomorrow (well, today once this is posted). It’s just like old times, I suppose!

Mom DID embarrass me, though, when she met Melissa and Denis because she took one look at Denis told him she loved watching him because he was just “SO CUTE”. I literally tried to die right there. They were really good sports about it though. Gotta love them! And I guess I gotta love mom, too.

After that we grabbed some KFC and came back to the hotel where we are now just watching some TV before going to bed. Will be shutting her down pretty soon. I took pictures tonight and will have to edit them some other time ha ha. Just not into it tonight. Tomorrow after meeting up with MelDen we are planning to head to North Pole and visit Santa Claus House. I am so tempted to yell out “SANTA! I KNOW HIM!” but I won’t. Gonna go see me some reindeer and play tourist. Yup, sounds fun.

So not ready for our trip to be over, but it’s been fun. I’m going to enjoy the next two days, then it’s back to the grindstone.

Hope everyone else is having a great weekend.