The mountains are calling and I must go. - John Muir

Here I am! Otter sitting again. Right now they are sleeping floating in the water and its so cute that it hurts. I am back at work today after an almost two week adventure! Carolyn came up to visit! It was so bizarre having someone from home here in Seward. It also made me realize just how much I love this place. I wanted to show her everything but there just wasn't enough time.

She came in on Tuesday morning! The weather was pretty cloudy and slightly rainy. Pretty much exactly how I expected when someone finally came to visit- the weather would suck. But of course that didn't bring us down! She was able to come watch me feed the otters than tube feed the seal! Then of course we had to get chinese buffet (all you can eat chinese for $10, we always stuff ourselves until we feel sick. but its so great.) Next we biked down to the tonsina point trail head in the rain. I was completely covered in mud from head to foot from the mud splashing up on us. The hike was nice and it was only raining a little bit. We saw some eagles and saw the salmons swimming upstream to breed. 

It was a sort of awkward time for her to visit because we were losing our housing in AVTEC and the other stranding interns were heading home while I was transfering to a new apartment. buttt I couldn't move into the new apartment because a boy lived in that one and I wasn't allowed to be there until he moved out. So we were kind of stranded with all of our stuff and had to move it next door to our neighbors. We slept on the floor there for our next couple of days in Seward. Luckily our neighbors were happy to have guests, because we pretty much took over their living room. 

The next day me and Carolyn hiked the harding icefield trail! I have never hiked it in the rain so that was cool to have a different perspective. unfortunately it was also very cloudy at the top so we couldn't see the whole ice field like I could last time. We had scheduled to go home on 4oclock shuttle, thinking that was plenty of time to hike the trail. But we took our time and stopped to take pictures and eat snacks so we were really behind. I knew that we couldn't make it for the 4 o clock shuttle but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to just hop onto the 5 o clock shuttle. We ran into the glacier guides heading down (where we took the shuttle from) and they were with a group of thirteen people. They informed us that there was definitely no room left on the 5pm shuttle. That was the last one that ran. We had 10 minutes. So we started sprinting down the mountain (not easy). after we were thoroughly exhausted and nowhere near the end of the trail we accepted the fact that we had missed it. We planned on calling my roommate to pick us up when we got to the bottom. No service. We went into the visitor center to use their phone. No phone.

Harding Icefield Trail

Luckily some guy we had met on the hike was walking by and we started chatting with him. 10 minutes later we were sitting in the back of his truckbed on top of his firewood getting a ride back to town. It was raining and the raindrops were slapping us in the face but we couldn't stop laughing at the whole ridiculous situation. The next day was a whale watching cruise! The weather actually turned out to be really nice! we visited two different glaciers and saw tons of humpback whales and porpoises and much more wildlife. It was a really good cruise.  We also got margaritas made out of glacier ice!

me and carolyn by Aialik glacier

On Carolyns last day in Seward I took her on the hike up Mt. Marathon. Somehow the weather had turned completely and it was a gorgeous sunny day. The views were spectacular off marathon and we spent time identifiying wildflowers and playing by the river. That night was our train to anchorage! The views were gorgeous! we passed glaciers, mountains, lakes and streams. We also saw a black bear eating berries by the river!
Denali itself was a great adventure as well. After our train trip there and some confusing shuttles we made camp at riley creek campground. We spent four nights there and its just a blur of hiking, nature, laughter and happiness. We did almost all of the trails near the entrance of the park- the rest of the park is trail-less. Its just route finding. On the second day we took a shuttle down the only road to the end- 92 miles. The terrain changed so much during that time and everything was gorgeous. We saw 7 grizzly bears including a mom and her cubs, herds of caribou, countless moose, and dalls sheep up on the rocks.

Our campsite

Caribou

Dalls sheep

one of the nights at our campsite, we were looking up at a cute grey squirrel climbing in a tree when all of a sudden it leaped out of the tree towards us and spread its legs. We had to duck to avoid him hitting us in the head. He sailed over us into the next tree. it was a flying squirrel! Totally unexpected and awesome!
The trip seemed to fly by but we had so much fun and had great weather in Denali! We actually even got a glimpse of the mountain, Denali. Only 30% of the people who come to the national park get to see the mountain because its most of the time covered by clouds.

Denali mountain in the background!

It was such a great trip. I never want to leave alaska!!!

Freedom and Uncertainty

Its 10pm. I'm at the sealife center in the IseaU and otters are screaming next to me. Tonight marks my last otter shift before Carolyn comes to visit! They have been rowdy tonight leaping out of the water wrestling and screaming. I have been on seal duty for the past several weeks and care for the otters has changed drastically in that time. Before we got to hold them and groom then and nuzzle them (this was frowned upon but seriously impossible not to). Now we get to watch them play but can't interfere. As they get bigger they will get more aggressive and unsafe to handle. Its hard to imagine the little girl otter being anything but sweet, but when I hear stories of otters ripping peoples faces off I grudgingly oblige.
Tomorrow they are releasing Dipper, Lyra and Draco three of our harbor seals that have been with us most of the summer. Unfortunately I have to work in the morning and will not be able to attend the release. I'm a little dissapointed that I don't get to see them reintroduced to the wild. With all the hours of tubing them and temping them and fish schooling them it would be nice to watch them waddle their way back into the ocean. But at least I'm comforted in the fact that I was here and I did so much in their rehabilitation, plus im sure there will be pictures and videos I can watch. So heres to you Dipper Draco and Lyra! Go be free!
Dipper is getting a satelitte tag so we can track his progress and see where he goes. This has been very successful in the past and has shown our rehabilitated seals travel great distances.
In rehab there is still Andy- our pitifully small harbor seal with a bad case of megaesophagus, the fur seal who has not been doing well lately and we have seen several regurgitations during feedings and blood in her stools, and scotor the stubborn duck who doesn't want to swim. I love them all, especially the fur seal which I have become alarmingly attached to. I'm scared for his future as the vets and supervisors are starting to get concerned about his declining health. Hes so cute and helpless. I'm not sure how I will take it if he keeps going down the same road.
I have been offered an extension on the internship and subsequent housing. I will be staying for an extra month helping out with anything I can, though tomorrow we will be 3 seals less and the work load will be lightened again. I'll continue working in the gift shop and enjoying Seward while I still can. I'll be sad to see my roommates and co-workers, Maggie and Katie go. Its hard to think about if I will ever see them again. We had so many fun times this summer and I would not have enjoyed it half as much without them.
I haven't thought about it too much but lately with the days getting shorter and the rain getting heavier I know that my time here is nearing the end. Earlier in the summer I looked forward to coming home to see everyone. I miss my family and my friends so much sometimes that it hurts and it will be great to see them. But everyone has lives at home, jobs or school or plans in general. I have nothing planned except the next 6 weeks of my life. This has become an increasingly daunting thought. I still have no idea what I really even want to do with my life. I am applying to vet school but is that something I even want? or am capable of? I don't know anything anymore. The only things I know are that I love animals, I love traveling and I love hiking. I just need a job that combines all three. A tall order. The mystery is intriguing and terrifying, I can do anything I want, where ever I want.
Enough of the boring woes of me. I am very VERY excited to be spending more time in Seward. I have fallen in love with this town and the people and the sealife center and the mountains. Definitely my favorite place. Carolyn is coming this week and we are going to Denali. After I finish working at the center I am visiting Alyssa in Washington. I CANT WAIT. and then home where me and Katie are planning adventures aplenty and I get to see all of my other close friends. Then of course there is my cousin, Julies wedding in Pennsylvania and my family. This is the longest I ahve gone without my parents at one time. While I only have the next six weeks of my life planned out, they are some pretty damn good weeks.

On a completely different note, I ran in my first 5k yesterday! It was a fundraiser for the rehab department! I loveeee running in organized races Ive decided. So much fun. I finished 3rd in my age group and got a time of 25:40. Yay. fun things. I wonder what my time would have been if I had trained even slightly.
Also the sealife center softball team that I joined got 2nd place in the playoffs! Better than they have ever played! (Not that I helped with any part of that, I am completely terrible at softball and know it. But it was great fun to play on the team anyway. we even all got little silver medals.)