Bam!

Okay, so lots happened over the last little while, mostly to do with my parents visit (hi mom and dad!) coinciding with my sister's conference/visit (hi C!).

Mom and dad spoiled us with lots of delicious food and awesome visits and one semi-eventful drive out to Haines Junction where our car, which we have owned for a whopping 7 months, came up with seriously freaky bad engine sounds. I believe that R and I have not owned a car together that has been on the road for more than 8 months. We take it for a second opinion Thursday, wish us a tolerable damage report!

Anyway anyway, the reason for this post: pictures. I would like to say that fall has come and gone and it is currently snowing outside, and the snow is sticking.

I would like to repeat that IT IS CURRENTLY SNOWING OUTSIDE AND THE SNOW IS STICKING. Time to separate the southern northerners from the northern southerners, y'all.

So anyway, I took Monday afternoon and Tuesday of last week off to hang with my sister before she headed back to sunny Ontari-ario. We went to Miles Canyon, about 10 minutes form town and saw eagles and beautiful vistas and the aquamarine of the fast flowing Yukon River. I would talk more about it except Tuesday was so awesome the relative awesomeness of Monday was DEMOLISHED.

Tuesday we woke up and after spending an invigorating 45 minutes walking the National Rental girl through the exact same process as we went through the night before booking the car (since the no one picked up the phone) We hit the Alaska Highway. [She made the exact same mistake both times, tried to charge us for 2 days both time and needed help both times. Less than 12 hours apart. ]

We drove to Skagway which is truly a scenic drive, the mountains get pointier and awesome, you pass through alpine regions above the treeline, an you pass though valleys and lakes that are emerald in colour. You go through the US border which is not really near anywhere. The drive is about 2 hours.

W get to Skagway, a port town and it is abandoned for the season (almost). All the shops are shut, the last cruise ship went through yesterday, the last ferry was that day, it was also the last day for the diner in town. There were no tourists and it was sunny and beautiful with no clouds in the sky. We had planned to do a hike up a hill past a historic graveyard to get a good view of the town and surrounding close pointy mountains.

Until, as we wandered around, C asked, "hey I wonder if there are any sightseeing tours still running"? She didn't mean the trolleys pulled by horses, narrated by seasonal workers in period costume (true fact). She meant: airplane.

We walked to the airport (3 blocks away) and chatted with the wings of Alaska Ladies and they said," Oh we'll call Pilot Paul and see what he says!"

45 minutes later we were in a 5 seater plane with pilot Paul, two people from Haines Alaska, having our minds blown. We had an unforgettable, unbelievable trip. Here are the verbal highlights before I get into the pictures:
- When we called Pilot Paul was 15 minutes away from taking off from Haines with his passengers, we would have missed the whole thing if we hadn't called when we did
- the Other guys paid for the 1.5 hour flight, we paid for the 1 hour and got the longer trip (yes!)
- It was the only fully cloudless and sunny day for a week and since then too
- there were only 2 seats left, and 2 of us
- it was the only time of day we could go since we had to drive home that evening
- keep in mind the following are not screen savers, not fake, and were taken from like 14000 feet
- also keep in mind that my sister and my minds were blown immediately and from emailing her, I can say our minds have not unblown. We went over Glacier National Park and saw mountain goats and a whale! And on the way home on the road we saw a damn huge black bear which doesn't even matter since the rest of the day was so unreal. THE BEAR ALMOST DIDN'T MATTER, PEOPLE.

Check it.

BAM!

BAM! (Glacier at 14,000 ft)

BAM!