When summer hits Alaska, people up here tend to get a little frantic. "It's all we've got," one six year resident told me. "We've got to utilize every minute of it."
Having a penchant for adventure, I've easily been swept into this mindset. Suddenly, a lazy Sunday seems like a total waste-- I could be hiking, kayaking, fishing, etc! And with so many new people, the pressure to form bonds and make friends leads to an eclectic collection of get-togethers and parties. Moreover, it doesn't help that I know my time here is limited. My summer here is extra precious as it's probably going to be my only one.
So today, I'm bringing down the pace a bit and just relaxing at home. The rain outside keeps me from feeling too bad about blogging instead of biking. And I'm just going to count myself lucky for getting to experience so many cool places through work.
On Thursday and Friday, we drove south of Anchorage to Kenai Fjords National Park for a grass identification class. As exciting as lemmas and awns may be, I think my real memory from this trip is the glacier. I had never seen a glacier before coming to Alaska, and up until Thursday, I had only seen them from a distance. We got up close to Exit Glacier (we still couldn't touch it though. It would be dangerous to get that close to this huge, yet fragile and moving hunk of ice). The massive power and density of this natural occurrence is something that just can't be conveyed in pictures. But here are some anyway :)
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Where the glacier was in 1917. A lot has changed since then!
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