State fair in alaska

Hello hello!
Short day in the lab today--the 4 of us(me, John K (my advisor) John P, and Casey) began packing up our machines and equipment at 8am in the UAF lab and were out by 10:30am. After that we picked up identical pairs neoprene gloves at a sports store and 2 bottles of DEET (yikes!). We will fly out of Fairbanks tomorrow for the desolate town of Deadhorse. Our flight is at 7:45am and we'll need to get our things at the lab and then be at the airport at 5:45 to check our things into the cargo hold. Bedtime is fast approaching!! I'm so excited to head out for the field!! We'll be on a 55ft boat for 3 days out on the Beaufort Sea. The 4 of us plus another USGS guy named Chuck and the boat captain will all share some pretty cramped quarters but gosh I couldnt be more thrilled! I mean, seriously, this king size bed I'm in now at the Hampton Inn is just too much ;). I'll enjoy it while it lasts..but I'm really really looking forward to being out on the water!! Plus, I'm getting along really well with John P and Casey, who is my age and really really nice!
The Johns had important research proposal work to do, so Casey and I took the shopping list for the crusie that our USGS coordinator had sent. There is this giant supermarket called Fred Mayer here, and thats where we went..Casey is lots of fun to shop with and I got to pick out my fav things for snackage: Ezekiel bread, natural peanut butter, brown rice cakes, and Ak-mak crackers. John P needed a mouse pad, too, and we got him one with a kitten on it :p.
There was a Coldstone in the shopping center so we went there afterwards! There arent many recognizable chains here so we were surprised. I was successful in recreating Ben & Jerry's chunky monkey witha choice of banana ice cream, walnuts, and chocolate chips while Casey played it safe and went with the oh-so traditonal combinatioj of mojito sorbet with chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles. Did I mention I like this kid?
But I save the best for last!! I was kinds iffy on going, but Casey was so for it that I said sure...We went to the fairbanks fair! It was so great!! After screaming our heads off, we completely forgot about CRDSs and valve sequences and calibration methods! Actually, Casey laughs instead of screaming like I do..the highlight was a bungee slingshot ride we impulsively looked at each other, said YES! and plunked down cash for...oHMAN biggest thrill Ive ever gotten I think..So glad I took off my glasses and flip flops because we were flipped upside down several times as we were slingshotted into the big blue Alaskan sky..Watching the footage afterwards from the video camera attached to us was so funny!
Well, wish me luck out at sea and I'll blog as soon as I have internet later this week :)