Really? Nobody's updated?

Well don't sweat it because I'd hardly have time to read your posts if you had updated. I do expect new posts by July 6th because frankly, that would be a long time for y'all to go without posting. Anyway, sorry about not posting before I left, my family came over early in the day than I thought they would so I did not get the time to post that I thought I would. For that reason, I'll compress the week leading up to the trip into one section because it can easily be done and the Alaska post might go on the long side, which isn't bad when you think about how long it will be before another long post comes, so you will have time to read it. Anyway, on to thee week.

Before the trip:
As I continued playing the force unleashed, I learned it only has 9 levels which angered me because I liked the game and that was really douchey to have it be so disgustingly short (6 45-minute levels and 3 20-minute ones). I'm already on the last level and I'll soon be moving on to my next game. Throughout the week, I worked on grandpa's shed during the day, then went to frisbee practice, then played DnD. In grandpa's shed, I found some cool stuff. I got some books of dialogues with Plato and people of that nature and I got a huge legal book and some other cool things that I'll have to post pictures of someday. DnD had been going well. I like this version much better than fourth mainly because my character is a huge beast (Davis had to nerf me because I'm overpowered). As for frisbee, it's been going....okay. We have good practices (with the people that actually bother to show), but the game didn't go so well. Christie actually surprised me with some good play for someone who had never played before. We didn't do as terribly as the last time, but we still lost and I think we're moving down to D league which was much needed. On Friday, my family came over and we hung out until it was time to go to my sister's dance recital.

Aunt's house:
This happened while I was on the trip, but the house pretty much sold. It was on the market for a week before we got an offer for 97% of the price we were asking for (which was really good because we apparently overlooked some moisture/water damage in places). Anyway, I got a comment on how lovely the grounds looked, so I was really happy to know my hard work paid off. Now we have to do the paperwork and transfer my grandpa's hosue to my aunt, which will be a bit trickier because we filed for a lifetime estate or something along those lines a long time ago, but the attorney (a friend of dad's from college who also did mom and dad's wills (and who now drives buses because he was disbarred)) never filed that all those years ago, so the house is under my grandma's name and she controls the property, which is a major uh oh, so we have to go to court and get this all settled out. Anyway yeat, on to the rest of the week.

Saturday:
We had to get up at a normal hour and we made our flight with plenty of time. Our traveling party was myself, my mom, my grandma, my uncle, my cousin and her 16 month old kid (who has the same hair that I did as a little kid and also might be left handed!!!) My uncle (groom's father) and aunt went up a day early because he was the comissioner for the wedding and he had to sort that out. At the airport, we met up with my cousin's sister and her 2 year old kid. The plane ride was uneventful because I spent the first half writing my character's bio for DnD and then I fell asleep to Fire Emblem. The airport we were at was right next to the hotel (3 minute drive actually, it was a Texas block). The rehearsal dinner was over in the next town, about 15 miles out of town. It was this strange brewery that was actually pretty cool. My little 2nd cousin enjoyed combing my hair with a fork when he got the chance. On our way back, the four of us (which hereby refers to my uncle (not the groom's father), my grandma, my mom, and I) went to stop at the pipeline viewing area. It was a strange thing to see because it looked fake. There was rust, cracks, and CIGARETTE BUTT CANS (smoking next to an oil pipeline? wth?) next to the pipeline. There was also a funny warning sign that I got a picture of. After that, we settled down at the hotel for the night.

Now the funny thing about nights in Alaska was that the night only lasted 2 hours the whole time we were there, so since it was right in the middle of when I was asleep, I didn't see darkness until I got back to Seattle. I missed the darkness, actually.

Sunday:
The wedding was that day. First things first though we had to get breakfast. We went to the northern most Denny's in the world and had good food there. I was very tired, so I drank copious amounts of coffee in honor of Godot. After that, we had to go change in our rental car because only one of the windshield wipers was working. After we got that settled, we went to North Pole, a city about 15 miles away from Fairbanks. It was a really chintzy little town and we didn't stay too long. After that, the wedding, awwwwww. It was in the botannical gardens of University of Alaska. It was raining right up until the bride arrived, then it started to stop and then we actually got some sun, so that was nice. It was a nice ceremony and very quick because the commish decided to not deviate from his script. After that, there was a reception dinner. The food was pretty good. After that, we had the midnight baseball game. On our way there, the four of us stopped at this Pioneer Park (like a mini-theme park) near the baseball park because we wanted to try out this -40 degrees farenheight room that they have. It's a cool room because you get to experience an Alaskan winter. Actually the -40 was a ballpark, it was closer to -50 when we were there, but I stepped up to the challenge anyway and wore just shorts and my sweatshirt, but then I stepped up to the cooler challenge that I saw on the way in and I took off my shirt and lasted about a minute and a half without it on before I absolutely had to leave. The three wearing parkas even had to leave before me. My uncle said he took video and he'll post it to youtube so I'll link when he does. Also, I have pictures.

The midnight baseball game was a heapin' helpin' o' local color. We named all the characters around us. There was Tipsy McDrunkerton, the guy that got 6 beers at once, came back about 5 mintues later for a diet coke break, then much later, stumbled down the stands, leaned on the rail and yelled "YOU SUCK" at the batter for no good reason before getting beers 7 and 8. Alcohol was sold up until the last moment of the game, they might have even given out ones for the road, I realy don't know. Another part of the show was the beach ball. The people in all the stands had beachballs flying around and at one point, Angry Red Hatticus got mad and grabbed it when it flew by him and put it forcefully on the ground at his feet. He got booed until Tipsy came and jacked the beachball back from him and sent it back around the stands. There was also tweed, who jumped over the rail after a baseball like a ringtailed lemur. Under the stands, where people threw their sometimes unfinished beer and other garbage dwelled the lords of the flies, a bunch of kids that were doing God knows what. Their leader, who could be seen wearing the most visors also wore a koala puppet on his fist and a camo hunting mask. He was followed by his personal guards, one of them was lazercats, who wore a cat puppet on his fist (you'd better believe I have pictures). They had some strange society going, doing "recycling" as we called it by stomping cans. They even tried to invade the bleachers at one point. I was about pissing my pants from laughing so hard at them. A couple other funny notes: the freebie they gave us was a visor from the 100th anniversary game that was in 2006 (so how were we on the 104th 3 years later?). Overall, the game was mediocre because it was the n0-leagues, but the people made the game great.

Monday:
The four of us got up early to take a small plane (a piper) to this town above the arctic circle named Coldfoot (can be seen in Ice Road Truckers). We drove along the Dalton highway (also in the show) up to a town called Wiseman, where the residents are self sustaining mostly. They go to the store maybe once every other month because the store is in Fairbanks, a 7 hour drive away. They hunt their own food, do pretty much everything on their own. They do have a TV and internet via satellite though, so they aren't too out of touch. I think it would be fun to live there for a couple months, although I couldn't do any hunting because I would need to live there for at least a year to become a resident. The guy we talked to was really cool and instead of doing a walking tour, we all accidentally were talking for too long, so we got a driving tour of the town. After that, we took the plane back and got back to Fairbanks at noon. After a nice lunch, all of us (except for my cousin and his wife) went to Chena hot springs, where we went to see this ice museum. The ice was only kept at 20 degrees farenheight, so of course I only wore a t-shirt and shorts. I think the cute tourguide was impressed, but my uncle (groom's dad) and I were just being our usual badass selves. After that, we drove back into Fairbanks and saw some moose along the way.

Tuesday:
We left Fairbanks around 9am to drive down to Denali. Denali is a very pretty place. It's like being in the Cascades, but 2 million acres of that. In the place we stayed at, there was hand sanitizer everywhere, much to my liking. The four of us went into the park a bit to do some hiking and see some sled dogs that were really cute and extremely athletic. After that, we had dinner at this lookout place up a huge hill from our hotel that looked out across that valley. My 16 month old cousin enjoyed waving at all the waiters, expecially the guy with the goatee.

Wednesday:
We drove back to Fairbanks and got to the airport 4 hours early. We were all ready to leave Alaska. Mom and I were able to move to row 6, where we got the side of the row to ourselves, which was VERY nice. Row 6 is the front row with nobody leaning back in front of you and more legroom. The flight back was uneventful. There were some nice views and we finally got to see darkness again. The family wound up not staying actually (except grandma (who just left an hour ago)).

Today:
Today I am busy. I have to catch up on classwork, get a bit ahead, do a quick dump run, drop Kathryn off at a party, buy my textbooks for summer quarter (I got into Geology and Accounting 202), go to frisbee, do some DnD, then pack before I leave early tomorrow morning. Ok well I'll post pictures on the 28th and 29th. I don't know if I'll have internet because I don't think my great aunt and uncle do, but my phone might be able to get it, so at the very least, I can communicate through texting. I get back sometime in the afternoon/night on the 27th, depending on whether I have to drive to Forks or not.