The final post?

Sorry to everyone who needs closure on the blog. I think that since we got back we haven't really wanted it to end so we just put it off. But I really wanted to put some last pictures and the narrative of our valdez trip before we forgot everything.

So as I said in the previous post, we were finishing up with the kids and going on a nice river boat cruise. The cruise food was REALLY good...quite a surprise for some reason. The kids had a lot of fun and it was a great way to end the program. After the awards banquet, we got back to the dorm and had everyone packing up their stuff. They all had to clean out their rooms and vaccuum and all that stuff that we had to do when moving out of the dorm. Pretty much everyone was out of their room by around midnight. So all the doors were locked and all the kids were down in the common areas either watching a movie or playing pool, or just hanging out on the floor trying to sleep. A lot of people were also going around getting yearbooks signed (the program puts out a yearbook for them). Amy and I were hastily trying to pack up the office because we were trying to get out of there once the kids were gone and we said we'd do a little extra work so we didn't screw the other RMs. THe first batch of kids left at 5am and once that started all the kids starting getting emotional and crying because their friends were leaving. I think it finally hit them that it was over and that they had to go home.

We were finally able to get out of there by 12:30 (much later than we expected, but that was alright). So we were on the road to Valdez by around 1:30 (still no sleep remeber). The drive down was (as everyone said) amazing. The coolest part was that our cheapo rental car got upgraded to a small SUV (Ford Escape) so we had a bunch of room and 4wd. So we were able to take some side roads couple of times on the way down to Valdez. That way, we were able to see some really neat landscapes. There was also a really cool glacier that we were able to go right up to and touch. I was trying to convince Amy for us to grab some glacier ice to put in our cooler, but she wasn't going for it.

Our plan was to get to Valdez and camp, but, our camping drive died as soon as it started raining and we realized we hadn't slept in 40 hours...so we bit the bullet and found the cheapest hotel we could, 85 bucks! And our room had a boston baked bean permantly melded with the carpet...not pleasant, but they had a soft bed. So we ended up sleeping until 12:30 on Saturday and woke up to and overcast, foggy, rainy day. But after being refreshed with sleep, we went out to start pricing some kayak trips. Valdez kayaking in one word...EXPENSIVE! to go to one of the glaciers cost 125 bucks! The two cheaper ones were 75 and 55...but those were essentially just kayaking around the valdez harbor. So we didn't get to go kayaking, but we did find a cool wildlife cruise that included lunch for 85 bucks, so we did that instead. It was very cool, we saw otters, puffins, bald eagles, sea lions, seals, and humback whales (pretty much everything on the list)!! We also went up to a glacier and were able to see all the icebergs and the ice field and everything...it was well worth it. I got ahead of myself though...we did all that stuff on Sunday, on Saturday after we booked out awesome boat trip, we went and did some fishing. The salmon were literally jumping out of the water...it was hilarious. It took Amy about 3 minutes to hook one. Who said fishing was hard? This things were just begging to be caught. So we caught about 10-12, but we only kept 6. Then we found out that it was going to cost something like 85 bucks to freeze it and ship. So we just had them freeze them and then we carried them on the plane. So we do have some fresh salmon here in Chicago.

After our wildlife cruise, we began our drive back to Fairbanks for our flight. The drive back from Valdez was a little brutal...there was a lot of fog and it rained pretty much the whole time. Plus, we didn't leave until 9pm and there was actually some darkness so it was hard to stay awake. We were able to alternate napping and driving though and we made it back safe and sound, although I did almost hit a rabbit, Amy almost hit a owl that was just sitting in the middle of the road and a moose was hanging out on the shoulder which was pretty scary.

So that's pretty much it...we ended our Alaskan experience in a great way. We saw some great wildlife and the terrain is just beautiful. The sad thing about Alaska is that it's pretty expensive so there are really no young people there. The expense is a huge part of why it's all cruises with old people. It's also kind of sad because there are soooo many cool things to see and do and a younger cheaper traveller could make it that much cooler. But alas, I don't see it getting cheaper any time soon.

Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting, it really made us feel loved and missed (whether that's true or not doesn't matter I guess). It's great to be back, but now the next adventure of moving to NY begins.

We're going to post some pics here, but the entire trip will eventually be posted at http://photos.yahoo.com/amyloufaust