Righteous. For real, for real.

Well I think the best way to start off this post is through the words of the great John Muir...

"But just as we entered the famous Prince William Sound, that I had so long hoped to see, the sky cleared, disclosing to the westward one of the richest, most glorious mountain landscapes I ever beheld -- peak over peak dipping deep in the sky, a thousand of them, icy and shining, rising higher, higher, beyond and yet beyond one another, burning bright in the afternoon light, purple shadows in the hollows, and great breadths of sun-spangled, ice-dotted waters in front. The nightless days circled away while we studied, sailing among the islands, exploring the long fiords, climbing moraines and glaciers and hills clad in blooming heather -- grandeur and beauty in a thousand forms awaiting us at every turn in this bright and spacious wonderland. But that first broad, far reaching view in celestial light was the best of all."

Followed by a picture to reinforce the message...

Things have been really crazy over here. We've been trying to get all of our stuff together for opening day today, the 20th, working sunrise to sunset... oh wait... the sun never sets. :) It's been really great. Gotten to know my fellow guides really well, really quickly. My hands look more like man's hands recently due to all the construction work we've been doing. At the same time, I'm learning a hell of a lot about everything, especially how to fix things. I got my nose pierced while clipping the rutter wires on the kayaks today on the dock. Pretty hilarious. Sprang right up off the pliers straight into my nose/lip region. Hurt like hell but was a good laugh. People have been calling me the stove girl recently. Anna and I (the other intern) dissected all of the camping stoves today, flushed and scrubbed them with WD40 and then tested their abilities. With all the propane and WD we were smelling, we were feeling pretty loopy! It was an adventure for sure. We constructed our day and multi-day trip tents the past few days. This involved pulling random boards out from under the shop and then trying to figure out how they make a structure with purpose... Ha. Took a few screw guns and the reverse switch and we were good to go!

Setting up the day-trip tent.

We haven't yet been able to move into our "village", right now we are all shoved into areas around the homestead until the snow melts. Myself and two others are upstairs on the living room floor, quite cozy actually! Ha. We got to do some exploring around the neighborhood, which is beautiful. We're a quick jaunt to the coast and when the tide goes out, we can walk pretty far out into the seaweed. Popweed is a pretty cool seaweed! We try not to step on it as much as possible, but when you do it pops! So it's quite fun :) Today was absolutely spectacular. Not a cloud in the sky, beautiful weather, mountains rising up from the sea. Ooh baby! Looking like perfect weather to set up our village within the next few days, the snows on her way out and the suns drying up our platforms. It will be nice to have my own space. Here's a picture of the homestead, the tall building is the home of my boss Duff, our captain Max and Shelley (a fellow Fort Collins chicka) who's the office manager. The garage, or the Garage Mahal as we call it has the guide bathrooms/showers, living room and kitchen. It's nice to be able to hang out together and yet we still have our own spaces.

The homestead!

My boots and I chillin in the popweed!

We just got back from a 4-day training trip throughout the northeastern corner of Prince William Sound. We toured Shoup, Columbia and Mears Glaciers. It was absolutely phenomenal. The weather was a bit wet the first day but by the second day we were all fried. We saw about 6 whales, 5 porpoises, a colony of sea lions off of Glacier Island, sea otters swimming around holding their pups, harbor seals, probably about 6 bald eagles, and all sorts of other awesome birds.

Black legged kittiwakes! All those little white dots are birds!

I only wish yall could experience a little piece of this. Alaska is unlike any other! We camped in different spots each night, a little more difficult than just parking the boat though. We had to worry about tides because we were constantly having to move the boats either back or forth depending on which way the water was moving.

One night I got to skip stones on the water with some sea lions. They were so curious! We played for a while together. Everything went smoothly, we ate like kings and queens and then we ran out of gas... Ha. But that's ok we putted our way back to Valdez going 2 mph. :) Made for more wildlife viewing! Here are some pictures!

View from my bathroom!

Sea Lion colony off of Glacier Island

Eating lunch looking @ Mears Glacier in the distance.

Today was opening day, we didn't have any trips but we all were working on things to continue getting the shop up and running (repainting the signs, rebuilding our kayak racks, repairing boats, making sure all our equipment for our multi-day trips works properly. Tomorrow we have a trip scheduled to Duck Flatts. A shorter tour through the harbor and around the bend to view some wildlife. Only 2 clients, an older Australian couple, but almost all of our guides are going as shadows to learn the ropes. Should be interesting! The season is just starting to kick off and I can't wait to see what it has to offer me! Valdez is an awesome place with a lot of cool/interesting folk. We even went to the local party spot called the Pipeline. Karaoke and dancing. Deadliest Catch was playing on the televisions. I don't know how much more Alaskan you can get! Ha.

Whale out in the distance

We work hard out here though. 8am to 8pm. Plus all of our extra time recently to get the show up and running. Hopefully I will have more time to blog this week. The internet is pretty slow so my pictures still aren't loading yet.. but this blog eventually will be up and you can hear about my life. I love you and miss you all. I really do. :) Can't wait to get my phone working and more reliable (thanks MOM!) and hopefully have more time to hang out and communicate with yall.

Love from the motherland.

Oh and send love to my pops! He just had his hip replaced!

Anchored down in Anchorage

WOW! I made it. I swear it feels like just yesterday that my boss, Duffy, called me and told me I got the job. I remember thinking May was so far away! I've been in Anchorage for a day now and I leave for Valdez tomorrow evening. I'm laying in the sunroom at the Anchorage Guesthouse resting my knees. What a beautiful day it has been! Well I'll go ahead and give a little recap of my past shinanigans. Becky dropped me off at the airport Saturday morning. What a trooper! She was out celebrating her graduation and was still willing to take me to the airport at 7am. :) Thanks Becky! I think I hugged the girl 50 times before I let her leave me. Got my luggage on the plane and I was ready. I sat next to an older couple on their way to see his 98 year old mother for Mother's Day! Now that's a trooper, haha. As we got to talking, I was quickly informed that he had been on a sea kayaking trip once as well! What a coincidence! :P He was messing with me and made sure I knew that I better not kill anyone because he thought he was going to die on the beginning of his trip. They were very intrigued in what I was doing but the woman couldn't quite figure out why I would want to sleep in a tent for four months. Ha. I'm sure some of you are thinking the same. Then, in front of me was a guy my age reading a guidebook of some kind and wearing a Patagonia t-shirt. I knew he was off to do something cool, I was just too involved in my discussions with the couple to get a chance to ask. We landed in Seattle and flew over the mountains. It was beautiful and reminded me of my NOLS trip. I love Seattle. Memories rushed into my head and I wished I was able to get off the plane and stay for a day or two since I was there already. I've gotta figure out how to do that next time. Quickly changed terminals and I was on the plane to Anchorage. AHH! Sat next to a family and a guy who was in the window seat. He refused to open the window until the last 30 minutes. I was like it's not like we're flying to Iowa or anything. We're going to ALASKA! If you could open the window so I can see the epic-ness... that would be awesome. He opened it a little for me and then when he had his eyes closed I reached over and lifted it up a bit more... two times. Next thing I knew when I turned back around from looking on the other side of the plane he had completely shut the window. I felt like a bad dog. When he finally did open the window... this is what I saw.

I cannot tell you how beautiful it was because words can't do it justice. This picture is definitely not even close to worth a thousand words from what my eyes saw. Hopefully one day some of you will be able to witness this. That's when I realized... It's really happening. I'm actually here!

I got off the plane, got my bags and headed for the information desk to check and see if there was a bus map. I told the woman at the counter that I was looking to get onto bus #6. I then proceeded to find out only bus #7 comes to the airport. Well crap, I guess I won't follow the hostel directions anymore. I walked out to the bus stop and there was the guy who had sat in front of me on the way to Seattle. He and his friend must've had 7 backpacking bags of gear. I told them I felt like I was stalking them and they told me it was because I was. Naturally :) So we exchanged our stories and they took a picture of me and my "excited to be in Alaska" face and I did them as well. They were on their way to climb Moose's Tooth, a really awesome climb near Denali. If you're interested you should Google it. It's awesome. They both live in Crested Butte and are just a year or so older than me. We had alot in common and they also had no idea where they were going... we were gonna get along JUST great. Tried hopping on the first bus but it left without us before we could even put our bags on... what a jerk. Next time, we were ready. Exchanged e-mails on the bus and parted ways. I got dropped off in the general vicinity of where I was going thanks to the bus driver. Stood around there for a while trying to figure out which in the hell direction I was supposed to walk from here and started walking. Finally I made it to the guest house.

Later on I decided to go to the Bear Tooth, named for the climb next to the Moose's Tooth. My boss and friends who live in the AK told me those were the faves in Anchorage. They brew their own beer and I was in definite need of one. But there was something missing... someone to share my beer with! I picked up my iPhone and e-mailed Chris and Andy telling them my location and that they should come get a beer and share my chips and salsa. Little did I know the shinanigans that would follow... let's just say it was an AWESOME first night in Anchorage. I even have a bruise on my head and scrape under my eye to remember it by. Oh did I mention margaritas were involved. Thank GOD the Mexicans made it all the way up to AK.

The shinanigans do not need to be explained in full detail but involved were gay bars, karaoke, crazy natives, darts, shuffleboard, big white work vans, and a nice old lady who let us borrow her darts and then proceeded to steal my wallet. She decided she didn't want to do that actually so she gave it back to the bar tender, said sorry and left. Nice... crazy natives. How awesome was it that the sun didn't go down till about 11PM. AWESOME. You can party all night here! This summer is going to ROCK! Who needs sleep?! ;)

Walked my butt back to the hostel after I parted ways with the mountain climbers. I owe them a beer or 5, by the way. Woke up, went to REI and the Alaska Mountaineering & Hiking shop, grabbed a coffee and some freshly squeezed juice and made sure to stop back by the bar to retrieve my debit card.. :) I spent all day walking around downtown Anchorage. It was a beautiful day. All the locals kept making sure I knew how nice it was that the sun was out. They said they LOVE to soak it up! And let me tell you... everywhere I turned there was some one just laying on the ground literally soaking it up. I made sure to take some pictures.

Well it's off to Valdez tomorrow... The final destination. Much love to you children. I'll talk to you next time.

(Anchorage in the background)