AK day 2

   And it’s day two!
   To conclude day one’s activities, I:

• Walked down the street and ate a slice of delicious pizza bigger than a dinner plate. By myself.
• Hung out in my room and tried not to fall asleep watching House Hunters.
• Went to a meet-and-greet type thing at a restaurant called the Snow Goose and mingled with my competition (weird)
• Got scared because there was a tsunami warning! What?! I’m not in Montana anymore…
• Stared out my window at my fantastic ocean view
• Attempted to do some homework
• Succumbed to exhaustion at about 9:30. Best night’s sleep ever.

   Day two’s itinerary consisted of six hours at the Anchorage Zoo for an informational session, some team activities, more mingling, and, of course, animal viewing. It was pretty darn chilly walking around the zoo, even in my marshmallow coat and furry snow boots! Oh, Alaska. But talk about a beautiful day! Sunny, cloudless, and crisp.

   The group activity consisted of a Lego challenge of building a haunted structure and coming up with a creative story to describe it. I popped off with an idea to make a haunted tree and we just ran with it! We called it the Adam’s Family Tree (ha!) and this was our story:

“The Adams Family Tree is a very special tree hidden deep in the Alaskan forest! The leaves only fall on All Hallows Eve (aka: Halloween night) and depending on which branch they fall from, possess special powers! BUT! In order to get to the leaves, you must get past the scary fire-breathing SEC dragon! (Accounting humor…I apologize). The leaves from the white branches represent the spirit of Wednesday (the sister in the Adam’s family) and they are a magical stress reliever used for tax season! The leaves from the black branches represent the spirit of Cousin It and create a remedy for accounting-related baldness.”

   Pretty darn creative, right?

   Well we didn’t get first place. Or second. Or third. And there were only four teams. I think I might have gotten a high-five, though. I guess we missed the part where it had to be a “tower” and that height was one of the criteria…

   But still! We made a freakin’ tree! Whatevs. Rigged.

   After those festivities, we toured the zoo and I saw all sorts of critters! My favorite parts were:

• Going into the petting zoo and asking why the ducks kept running away from us. The petting-zoo-lady said “they don’t like to be pet”. In the petting zoo. Riiiight. Totally makes sense.
• Being peer pressured by one of the senior audit managers of KPMG to get the wolves to howl. Our whole group stood there and howled at the poor guys for ten minutes. Pretty amusing. No, they didn’t howl back.
• Watching one of the grizzly bears roll around on his back, grab his feet, and let his tongue hang out. So cute! Well, so scary…but so cute!

  

  Back to the hotel to submit an assignment online then it was off for a tour of Anchorage with an awesome girl I know from high school (hi Bri!) that lives here, followed by a delicious dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. I’m still on Montana time so when 10:00pm rolled around I was ready to crawl right into bed. Which I did! Another magnificent night’s sleep in my memory-foam king-sized bed with perfectly plump pillows. Oh the joys of being recruited!