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?

Long Drives and The Format

I love long drives, there's something sort of romantic about them. (Not "romantic comedy" romantic, more like "appreciation of bygone eras" romantic.) Sun shining in the windows, music turned up, scenery speeding by...sigh. It most certainly is one of my favorite things.

That's a temporary tattoo on my arm. Not a weird skin disease

I had never been on a plane until I was in 7th grade. (When our America Sings! show choir went to Washington DC to sing at Washington Monument.)

Side note about that trip: I distinctly remember the teachers having us line up at the gate with who we wanted to sit by and then just handing us any ticket. That certainly can't happen anymore.

My lack of plane travel was not because my family didn't go on vacations. Oh no, it's because we drove everywhere. We spent lots of vacations driving to Minnesota and Michigan, along with various other locations in the upper Midwest (even once all the way to North Carolina), so my sister and I got really good at being in the car. On one trip to MN we saw something like 30+ state license plates and 4 or 5 of the Canadian Provinces. We kept track, of course. Our vacation destinations were almost always a campground somewhere and almost always involved a trip to a roadside attraction. My family loves Americana at its finest, bottle houses (see header photo), world's largest/smallest, large fiberglass statues (e.g. Paul Bunyan, animals, etc), funny signs, actually all signs, etc. and we took at a picture at all of them.

We still take pictures in front of stuff. Mom and me at Exit Glacier

I even do it without prodding from my parents

 We also had a tendency to eat squirt cheese on crackers (or not on crackers...) Say what you will about processing and chemicals and preservatives, but it's a road trip must.

Probably due to all those long drives, I became a sign reader. I read every sign I pass when I'm in the car, and it keeps me occupied for amazing amounts of time. Sometimes they are funny. For example, the "Landfill Campground" sign in Eagle River, AK. Apparently the landfill and campground are actually not related at all, but the sign makes me laugh every time. Most of the time I'm the only sign reader in the car, so when I start laughing and repeat the sign to the other people in the car, they never think it's quite as funny as I do. It's the unexpectedness of the weird and funny signs that makes them weird and funny. So let this be a lesson to you, start reading the signs, you might be amused.

Two years ago my friend Adrien C. Mooney and I made the road trip to end all road trips. We drove from Jackson, WY to Anchorage, AK.  Driving the Alcan (Alaska-Canada Highway) is what I think roadtripping was probably like 60 years ago. The road is bumpy, gas stations are few and far between, there is some of the most amazingly beautiful scenery, and there are no billboards (good work, Canada).

The trip was almost 2800 miles and we did it in 4 1/2 days. We made it to Anchorage with only one tiny crack in the windshield and one near-miss with a caribou. Next time I drive the highway I want to take at least a week and a half. There is so much we didn't get to see because we had to get to Anchorage. But that didn't stop us from stopping at all funny signs and the few roadside attractions on the way.

Hot jam of the week is She Doesn't Get it by The Format. The Format is one of my top 5 favorite bands. They opened for Something Corporate when I was a junior in high school and I've loved them ever since. She Doesn't Get It is a fun, poppy song with fabulous lyrics. I'm tempted to post them all because I love them so much, but if you really care you can go look them up yourself.  But some of my favorites are:

-All the girls pose the same for pictures/all the boys got the same girls' hair
-Four books look across your sofa/I thought your coffee table was more clever than that
-Suddenly between sheets and eyelids I am reminded why I don't do this/I fall in love far to quickly/I never want you to forget me

I've seen them play live a bunch and they are always great, unfortunately The Format has since broken up. (But you can still hear Nate singing in his new band Fun.)

A lot of The Format's songs involve synchronized clapping and this is one of the reasons I think they are producers of hot jams.


Fun fact: In high school my friend Sarita and I did our senior English project on Tie the Rope by The Format. I sent an email to Nate to ask him about some things in the song and he emailed me back right away with an answer and told me he hoped I got an A+.