Marc and Me

The first week of September Marc came to visit me in Alaska. I have been looking forward to this for weeks and have been very excited as you can imagine. I picked him up in Anchorage at about 2 on Sept 1st and we headed to the Alyeska resort about a half an hour south of Anchorage. It was absolutely beautiful we had a great time. They had a great pool, awesome landscaping, and the hotel restaurant was wonderful.

The next day we made our way further south to the coastal city Seward. We went to the aquatic center, which was pretty cool. They take in rehab animals from the bay area and set them free when they get better, so we got to see all sorts of animals. Later that
night we took a little hike in Kenai Fjords National Park up to the Exit Glacier. I tried to get Marc to climb

These fish were super cool they held onto the glass
with their fins it was crazy

on it with me but there were signs saying not to go up there so Marc wouldn't let me go. Oh well, he missed out on an awesome experience. That night we tent camped in the park at their little campground. It was a pretty cool spot to camp, there weren't many people around which was a plus. The next morning we got up at 6:30am because I had a surprise event for Marc. I planned a sea kayaking trip to Caine's Head, which is an old WWII base. We kayaked to the beach and then took a hike short 2mi hike to the base. Our tour guide's name was Tramp he was really great and told us all sorts of stories about the stupid questions people ask him. (This is something every person working with tourists can understand.) One of my favorite ones was how people want to know when the smoked salmon run is...you know that is where you get smoked salmon from, right? ; ) We had a lot of fun. We saw a harbor seal, a sea otter, jumping silver salmon, and lots of sea birds.

Then it was off to Denali National Park and Preserve. It took us about 6hrs to get there from Seward (now that may seem like a lot, but in Alaska that really isn't that bad of a drive. For example it takes me 4hrs just to get to Anchorage.) We camped in the park upon arrival and tried to have a little fire, but for some reason the fire just wouldn't take well. The sky was really clear at this point and it was getting late so it just sucked all the heat away. I was freezing at this point so I just climbed into my sleeping bag and tried to think warm thoughts. But it was fine layers is the trick, and a really really nice sleeping bag. The next day Marc and I set off to look around the visitor center at the park and then onwards to a hike. We had lunch at the visitor center and this guy got all excited because I was wearing my MSU rowing jacket. He talked to us for awhile and when he was leaving he told us to have a good trip, make love, and stay together forever. Haha I didn't really know how to respond to that, um thank you? After that we took a hike to try and see Mt. McKinley. We had to hike up this little mountain side, or more like a tall hillside. Marc was struggling a little bit to get up the trail, but he did it eventually. I was so proud of him. Plus it was worth the hike up because we did get to see the mountain way off in the distance. Which apparently only about 30% of people who visit the park actually get to see. (Denali is so touristy, it was crazy. We saw more people in the morning just walking around the visitor center than I think I have seen come into Wrangell-St. Elias. I mean I don't really interact with guests here, but still. I can't even imagine what it would be like to work at Yellowstone, that would suck!)

Marc halfway up

Me halfway up

Same spot hahaha
I love you honey. (He is going to be so mad at me)

 

After our fun in Denali, it was off to boxtown just to hang around for a couple of days. We went fishing and one of my co-workers had a little hangout at her place, I cooked some salmon for Marc, and we watched some of the Office. All in all it was a really great vacation, I am so glad Marc was able to make it out here we had a lot of fun exploring Alaska together.