The Story of Cat's Life: Just a Little Hike....Little? Yeah right!

So yesterday I woke up and my roommates are gone, one flew out and the other was a driver for the newbies. I kinda wish this Welcome Wagon had some at least dinner plans, that way people can meet other people and work out something to do the next day. Instead it's find a driver or people to talk with and make plans with them. I kinda felt like a chicken running around with its head cut off. Well, so since no one was around I decided to go for a walk and get a feel for Anchorage.

Across from the dorms, where we are staying, there's a path for walking your dogs. It was so pretty and I met a woman who asked me if I wanted to play fetch with her dog for a bit and I said sure. So we got to talking and she asked if I was from Milwaukee (I was wearing my Brewers T-shirt) and if I was studying at the university. I told her where I was from and why I was in Anchorage. She was about to give me her phone number so she could take me around Anchorage. People are so nice here! Well I was leaving soon so I thanked her, but didn't think it was possible given my time frame.

So I continued my walk and decide I should head back to the dorms to see if Sara (my roomie and one of the drivers) was back to take me to the GCI store to get a cell phone so I can keep in touch with Dede and other important people ;) Well she wasn't there but another driver, named Amber was there with Eric (newbie), and she asked if I needed to go any where and I said yes I need to go to the GCI store and she did as well! Well, as it turned out yesterday was the day to go because they had a promotion deal going on that if you sign up for 2 year contract you get a phone for FREE! So I got a Samsung Galaxy, which is Samsung's version of the Android. So a $600 phone for free! It's so awesome! Oh and by the way the mall we were in had an ice skating rink! I wish we had more time I would have totally been all over that! After shopping we had lunch at Uncle Joe's Pizzeria. If you are ever in Anchorage go there! Really good pizza!

When we got back to the dorms there were more people and a group was heading to a trail to go for a small hike. Someone told me that the trail was relatively flat, yeah not the case. But getting ahead of myself we need to back up to the AWFUL car ride. Sara drove and it was not good. Let me describe Sara, she's one of these people that are all over the place in their heads and that spills over into what they are doing. So when driving she would take turns at like 25 mph and stop and go fast. So picture this, I'm in the back seat of a van and she's driving like that. If you know me, you know I get car sick. Well we're on a curvy road and mind you she's not turning the van in a smooth way she's making sharp turns on the curves. So I'm thinking: I'm not gonna puke, I'm not gonna puke, I'm gonna puke, I'm gonna puke! We get to the trail and I'm said, almost yelled, "Get out of my way I need to get out!" Poor Eric got one look at me and was jumping out of the van to get out of my way. So I run to the bathroom, thank God there was one, and puked for a good 5 minutes! Ok it wasn't 5 minutes, but felt like it. I'm so glad my new besties, Teresa and Jori, waited and made sure I was ok and stayed with me through the hike. So after I get done being sick the fresh air helped a lot!

We are walking and I start to notice this is not flat, this is a flipping mountain! Let me tell you that path didn't even look like a path in some areas. It was very narrow in spots AND there was a mountain to your left and to your right was a drop off. And to make it even better, a couple of spots were rocks, like gravel on the path. Yeah one slip and you head off the drop off. So yeah I'm a klutz and afraid of heights, this was not a good hiking trail for me to be on. But I'm very proud to say that I didn't freak out at all and fell once on the rocks, but I fell on my bottom so all was good! The plus side to this dangerous trail was it was so beautiful! Lots of picture moments.

After our hike we get back in the van and they told me to sit closer to the front, since Sara didn't know where she was going Doug had to sit in the front. Well, we ended up going the wrong way to go back because Doug wanted to take in the scenery. Ok I'm not a baby, usually, but I was getting very mad at this point because once I'm car sick I don't bounce back from that. It takes me a usually a night's sleep then I'm good. So yeah we are back in this stupid van and I still don't feel good and we are going the wrong way on a winding road! I just wanted to eat and go to bed! So we finally get back into town after this 25-30 mph U turn, grrr. And it takes another half hour to pick damn place to eat, by this point I was like just pick the next restaurant we see and I was telling Sara just go to Burger King, straight ahead! So we had Burger King, which is a plus, but still. Then there was talk of going to a store afterwards and I was like that is not happening for me I want to be dropped off at the dorms.

So I was dropped off and I laid in bed feeling like I was out drinking because I had the spins, and was feeling nauseous. So last night was not a good night, plus I had to fly out today to Unalakleet. I was a little nervous about the flight because of how I was feeling.