I seriously can't believe it! I was hoping for a bit more Fall before Winter hit. But everyone told me that Fall is extremely short here and I now believe! It was probably a good three weeks there and now gone...In other news, I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and post until now. I will try and put up pictures from the last few weeks in another post so hopefully you all won't have to scroll too much!
Let's start with the Road Lottery! Every Fall the Denali National Park opens the entire road up to personal vehicles to drive! You have to apply in May and your name can be drawn for one of three days in September. Well anyway, Jamie (the wonderful woman I work with that took me to Summit) won the road lottery for Sunday, September 14th and she invited me to join! WOW! It was an amazing experience. Usually, you have to take a bus into the park after mile 30 (or something like that) and can only stop if your bus driver decides to stop. Well not on the road lottery!! We got to stop whenever we wanted, take pictures, look around, pick berries, take more pictures!! We got up close and personal with some bears...it was incredible! We were probably 20 feet away from one, though safely in the car in case it decided to come our way. We saw 14 bears that day...and not to brag or anything, but I am now considered somewhat of an expert bear spotter ;)
That weekend was also the first night I spent in a tent. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be...the sleeping bags they have now are designed to withstand -20 degrees or colder and have pull strings to seal you in like a mummy! Kind of puts my small Disney Pocahontas sleeping bag to shame! It was so fun, sitting around a campfire though, roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. Took me back to when we would all pile in the camper to Mahoney with Grandpa and Grandma, play our crazy Camp Luther games, and roast marshmallows! Cousins, this is a shoutout to you that we need to plan another one of those weekends again soon!
Apart from the 14 bears, we saw a couple of bull moose, some caribou, dall sheep, and some other smaller animals...but Jamie has the whole list. It was so beautiful that day too! The Mountain was out (which is what people say when they can clearly see Mt. McKinley), It is gorgeous! I have been told that only about 30% of people have seen the mountain when they come to the park and usually they can only see part of it! That day we could see everything and it almost looks unreal, like someone photoshopped it.
Work is good and has been keeping me busy...lots of cases both new and those up for review. I participated in Childfind again which was once again overwhelming but fun experience working with those 3 and 4 year olds. I had a lot of firsts this month...participated in several SST meetings on my own, giving new assessments, and explained scores in an Evaluation and IEP meeting to parents. I also had the opportunity to give my first in-service presentation at the classified employee in-service day on Monday. I was definitely nervous for that as the longest presentation I had ever given in class was probably 25 minutes and this was supposed to be an hour. Hilary, my supervisor, is awesome and presented with me...even took a picture as proof I survived! Though that would be true if I didn't come down with strep throat the day after! :(
I can never really catch a break when it comes to getting sick...it happens once every Fall and then again every Spring. I have considered putting myself in a plastic bubble for maybe two or three weeks during these times to prevent this, but the logistics of being in a bubble for that long are too much for me to handle. Plus, I saw that movie with John Travolta and...hmmm I'd rather not!
Hope all is well with everyone down in the Lower 48! I will work on getting more pictures up soon!
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