Narration

I have completed my first full day in Alaska here in Denali. Far far from civilization- the closest grocery store is a two and a half hour drive to Fairbanks. This is wilderness. I am surrounded by beauty and spectacle but I have lived in cities- major world cities and small towns too. But not small enough towns that the population doubles when the summer workers came into town.
This is different.
The midnight sun is confusing and although days are long and weary, I'm not tired. Even after a full day of plane, taxi, and bus rides yesterday, when it came to 11pm I wasn't wishing to sleep a wink.
Yesterday my five hour bus ride from Anchorage to Denali felt shorter than my three hour flight- probably because it was guided and narrated. And listening to that narration and information I learned quite a bit, which I will share with you all now.
1. The five types of salmon, by common and specific name in size order and how to remember them.
2. How to react to moose and bear attacks.
3. Who Mary Carey was- and met her daughter.
4. The strategy behind the placement of huskies in dog mushing.
5. The story behind why the Iditrarod ends in Nome.
6. How to model the shape of Alaska with my hand.
7. How northern lights are created and when and why we can see them.
8. The two types of spruce trees in Alaska.
9. The watershed that causes rivers to run North or South in Alaska because of the continental divide.
10. How to make a latte.
11. That Houston, AK tied to old oil Houston, TX.
12. A man's fascination with doll goats basically created the Denali National Park.
13. 1 in 6 people in Alaska has a personal pilot's license
14. Ne means land, and na means flowing water in an old native Alaskan tribe.
15. The identification stickers on whether something was Alaskan grown, made, or made by an Alaskan native.

.One day in, spent a lot of time in HR. I have my first shift tomorrow- with a nine hour shift out of the 41 I was scheduled this week.

Oh and I already saw three moose today.