On an aeroplane

Emma: Whilst Chris is sound asleep next to me I thought I'd take the opportunity to make a post while we are on the plane from SeaTac to National. Wifi on the plane?! If only my laptop weren't almost out of charge it would be perfect. Technology never fails to amaze me.

Speaking of technology, the past week in Alaska has left both Chris and I intrigued with regard to the Kindle, whether I could bare to give up spending hours in a book shop looking for what I want I'm not sure - that's half the fun of it right?! Although it would be useful what with moving a lot and the storing the number of books we've accumulated. Plus, it's a gadget which are always fun. And it saves the trees. But is this the beginning of the end for bookstores? Perhaps. That makes me sad.

Anyways, they're about to bring me a cookie so I shall sign off for now - at an altitude of 35,000 feet! Eesh that gives me the heebie jeebies.

Summer Vacation Part 1

Chris: The journey started at 4am on Monday. Our flight left DC at 8am and we landed in Seattle at 11am. After taking the light rail into downtown Seattle, we met up with Eli and Becca and spent the day with them. We saw the big touristy sights (Pike Place Market, Space Needle, original Starbucks) and had a great time there. For pictures, see facebook. We made our way back to the airport and took off for Alaska at 9pm.

At midnight, we arrived in Fairbanks and immediately headed for the midnight sun baseball game (we arrived on solstice). Tuesday was day of relaxing and a little orientation of Fairbanks. We had a big dinner with Missy, Kes, Patricia, Daniel and Charles and prepared for the upcoming adventure.

Emma: Wednesday morning was dedicated to preparation for our stay at the cabin, we packed bedding, baked corn bread, prepared sandwich fillings and generally organised ourselves. Or rather we were organised by Missy. After a brief stop at Fred's for essentials (s'more ingredients and the new Janet Evanovich book) we were on our way to Chena River Cabin where we arrived to news from the park rangers that there were lots of moose travelling through the area and whilst no bears had yet been sighted, there was plenty of bear poop around. The rangers had also told us that if we crossed the slew that was right near our cabin, we could easily get to the river. Deciding that it would be fun to take a quick look at the Chena we donned our shoes and headed to the slew.

2 hours later we returned with sodden shoes, scratched legs and muddy shorts. What we thought would be a 10 minute stroll had turned into a much longer (and far more fun) ramble up the road, through the slew, through the trees, through the river and through the river again. After a dinner of chili and an evening learning how to play rummy we retired to our bunks.

Next up was a day at Chena hot springs. 1/4 of a mile up the road from the cabin was our first moose sighting, a mummy (pictured above) and a calf in one of the ponds on the side of the road, of course on the day I forget my camera but Chris had his so we managed to get some shots of them. Wondering what it would be like to swim in natural spring water my thought was 'it'll probably be like swimming in a warm pool.' Wrong. The springs are called 'hot' for a reason. After 15 minutes of soaking we couldn't stand it any longer and had to get into one of the hot tubs to cool off. The rest of the day was long and sleepy although napping was out of the question when there was Eqyptian Rat Screw to be played.

This morning we woke up early (although I couldn't tell it was early as my phone was turned off to conserve battery and the sun was - as always - up and shining), packed up the cars and said goodbye to the cabin. Whilst it was sad to leave it was fantastic to get home to a shower and soft couch, and having seen 6 moose in total we decided it wasn't too shabby of a trip.

For more pictures see our facebook pages.

These little bits - Emma and Chris

In an attempt to keep a log of our adventures and ensure everyone remains informed of what we're up to, we have decided to start a blog.

As it stands right now, we will be traveling to the UK in late August to study in Swansea with a month or so for visiting and getting settled before university starts at the end of September. Still in the process of finding somewhere to live, but we're in contact with a few people and have the names and numbers of some landlords so have faith that everything will work out. Fingers crossed. Also still waiting to hear back from Swansea re the criminology courses that Chris has applied for, another reason to cross your fingers for us.

We hope that these things will have started to resolve themselves within the next couple of weeks before our vacation month begins. On June 21st, we are flying to Alaska. That trip includes a 10hr layover in Seattle in which we are taking the train into downtown Seattle for a few hours and hopefully seeing Eli and Becca there. Once in Alaska we will be spending our time with Missy, Kes, Patricia and Daniel. As to what we're actually doing there, I cannot say. We return from Alaska on the 29th. We have a couple days to unpack, wash clothes, repack and head out again. Early on the 2nd, we depart for Florida by car. We are there with Emma's family until the 17th when we drive to Texas to see Margaret. After a few days in Texas, we'll start the long drive back to Virginia and plan to be home on the 22nd or 23rd.

Once we get back it'll be a case of deciding what to pack and what to leave behind to either catch up with us when people come visiting or to await our return.

And now to venture outside into the beautiful sunny afternoon before babysitting this evening.