My Labor Day weekend was awesome. Yes, awesome. Some of my friends and housemates took a road trip to Valdez, Alaska: the site of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. While the spill is cleaned up, it's still pretty historic to be in that town. Valdez is about a six-hour drive from Anchorage. You have to drive north, then east, then south to get there by roadway. There's about 3500 people living there. And it's beautiful.

First of all, the drive down was gorgeous. It's already autumn in Alaska. In fact, in about three weeks, I suspect, it'll be winter. So, it's the perfect time of year for a nice long drive. The trees were turning, the air crisp, and there's still snow-capped mountains.

The best part of Valdez and the area we were at were the waterfalls. The mountains and runoff have created lots of scenic and beautiful waterfalls. We took a nice hike into one of the valleys near Valdez. Aside from Troy running over Matt's bookbag with his Jeep, and almost dying when Troy semi drove off a cliff (seriously, half the Jeep was off, Misty was screaming for her life, and it was STRAIGHT DOWN)...it was great. We picked salmonberries, which are larger raspberries, and watermelon berries (they taste like little watermelons), and being in awe of the prodigious mountains, we hiked up this muddy, rocky incline, scaling the side of a mini-mountain to get to the top of a waterfall. It was a waterfall with layers of rocks that you could walk across to get right in and next to the waterfall. Words can't express the beauty. Seriously.

Fortunately, Bev took lots of pictures (she just got to Alaska a few weeks ago and is obsessed with documenting everything, which is great for me to share pictures...). I'll post some of them later when I get them. Oh, and we had to walk across this plank to cross a mini-river of glacier water. Mini-river of glacier water equals cold water rushing at high speeds with rocks equals "Fall off the plank and if you don't die, you're hypothermic and probably in for some brain damage from the rocks...".

The town of Valdez was cool. We hung out at "Club Bar Valdez" where pool and darts were played. And then onto the Pipeline Club where shuffleboard was played. While most of my readers have no idea who my current friends are, let's just say that 5AM nights are few and far betweenin my old days, but it was fun nonetheless to stay up late with my fun Alaska friends. Sarah hooked up with a Turkish guy named Baris (pronounced Bearishe), whom she called Boris. And who didn't like deodorant, apparently. It was good times.

Other highlights included seeing bear feeding upon the thousands of dying salmon that were trying to spawn, which smelled pretty much like thousands on dying salmon. :) But, the bear, fish, and the Northern Lights that made an appearance while camping are typical Alaska, and why I'm still up here. The camping experience was good. I'm glad I bought an air mattress, but need a better sleeping bag, considering my head and feet were so cold I'm convinced they were approaching frostbite. Unfortunately, it was only in the low 40s, so winter is nowhere close to being its coldest. Only autumn.

And while there were six of us, we were sort of spread out...we had three cars, but it was a great bonding time for my housemate Sarah, Bev (the new girl), and me. Lots of car/road trip games and inside jokes to be had:

"Shut up. I love that shirt on you."--Reference to Mean Girls, which apparently we love.

"One fat hen. A couple of ducks."--the beginning of a long memory game, and the end of quoting things that are only funny to me. and sarah. and bev.

BUT. I'm so excited I only have four days of work this week. Oh, and on the topic of work: it's going well. It's sort of like a second-year JVC placement. I'm just training and doing orientation stuff right now. I shadowed two child sexual assault cases, which involved a 12 y/o boy and a 4 y/o girl. It's pretty insane when you connect that victims of sexual assault have to not only cope with the experience, but with the difficulty of reporting and healing from what can only be an unreal, hellacious experience.

OH MY! I forgot. Guess what. ? I have pink eye. HAHA. How could I forget! Bev and I somehow got pink eye. And guess who's not insured!?! That's right. Me. Fortunately, the unethical person Bev and I are...she got it before me...went to the doctor...and then lied and got another prescription for me. It's actually not funny. It sort of sucks that the short term I'm not insured, I get pink eye of all things. Go figure. But go Bev who's helping me evade the 200 dollars on the doctor and Rx bills.

I think that's about it. Oh, I went to the REI Labor Day Sale and now I'm 250 dollars poorer. Yeah. I might be employed, but I haven't gotten paid. I think I need another Economics lesson. X in, Y out. Not Y out...I guess I'll ignore X. :) But I totally got some great hiking pants, and a great rainjacket. I guess that makes it all worth it. :)

Pictures to come. Can't wait to share. I love Valdez.