Denali National Park and Jesse and the Rippers

For those of you not up on the workings of Denali National Park, you can't just drive in like other parks, you have to go on a bus. Except for one weekend a year. Every year the NPS holds a lottery for the chance to drive into Denali and lucky for me, Maggie J entered and won! So Friday afternoon, Maggie J, me, and 8 of our friends loaded up our borrowed 15 passenger and hit the road. It was amazing.

Here are some my favorite things from the trip:
1. Friday night we got a pretty sweet, unexpected northern lights show. Gotta love solar flares!
2. Sunshine - only 30% of visitors to the park ever get to see Denali because it's almost always covered in clouds. But we had several hours of clear skies Saturday morning, meaning we got some sweet views of The Mountain.

Denali/Mt. McKinley is the beast covered in snow in the background. It's ~30 miles away in this picture.

3. Lots of animals (even though they were mostly far away.) Including moose, bears, caribou, and dall sheep. The park is 6 million acres so it's pretty amazing that animals are ever anywhere near the road.

Or on the road, like this grizzly bear.

We even got to see a bull moose trying to get the attention of a lady moose. (It's rutting season.) But she wasn't having it. Maybe because there were 20 people watching on the side of the road or maybe his rack just wasn't big enough. (Or it could have been the van of ten adults shouting things like "Yeah moose go get some!" and "Oh girl, he is not good enough for you!")

4. On our way home we stopped at 2 of the Parks Highway roadside attractions: Wal-Mike's and the Cantwell Igloo. Wal-Mike's is a super weird permanent garage sale? I'm not even really sure how to explain it, or who Mike is. But it's on the side of the road in Trapper Creek and they sell all kinds of weird stuff. For example: Musk ox pelt, old 3-wheelers, a jar of turkey feet, old Playboys, used oil filters, political yard signs, fake street signs, etc. The Cantwell Igloo is an abandoned building shaped like an igloo. It was apparently supposed to be a hotel, but because of some code violations (like no fire exits) it never got finished.

This week's hot jam is Forever by Jesse and the Rippers/John Stamos. Yes, from Full House. I realize I could have used the original version by The Beach Boys, but it just doesn't have quite the same effect. I'm presenting this without comment, because, honestly, what words could I even use to describe how amazing it is?

Actually I have one comment: how much would it cost to have John Stamos perform this at my wedding?