Summer Goal Accomplished=Visit Valdez

So Eric and I decided to visit Valdez last weekend. It was a Saturday and he was dying to get out of Anchorage...me, on the other hand, I was just dying to make it down to Valdez at some point this summer. No one so far had been up for the 6 hour drive (one way) to go there so...it took a desperate Eric to bring about this opportunity for me. Let me just say now that Valdez is one of my favorite places here in Alaska. It is so amazingly beautiful. It definitely helped that we ended up going on a day that had great weather and we could not only see the beautiful waterfalls but also the glaciers and mountains as well. Yep, the only word that can explain the place is: amazing. Love it.
So, the following are pictures from the trip. There's a picture with Eric and me in front of the Worthington glacier (above), another view from the glacier we walked up to and me conquering the glacier (below). Last, but not least, is the bottom picture of me licking a glacier. At this point in the day I was dying of thirst and had a real hankering for a snow cone...the glacier was obviously the next best thing at this altitude.

Family Portrait

Here we are...thugs with no cause. This is a picture of my roommates in Alaska. We live in the ghetto so it only seemed appropriate to get a gang picture in sketchy-ville, AK.
So there's 6 of us total (if you're over the age of 4 and can count that high I am sure you figured that out already!). From left to right they are: Jesse, Abe, Tanner, Me, Traci and Karissa.
Some things that I was unable to capture in this picture that are typical of this neighborhood: police sirens, swearing neighbors, screaming children that never seem to be clean, and my scary neighbor that creates enough drama to keep us all busy. Love the madness.

Big Happenings

I just finished my week off from work. I got back here to AK late last night and start up touring again tomorrow. I just spent the last week at home in Washington for a bit and then went down to California for a couple days for Alison's wedding. It was a good week overall but definitely full! For starters, my sister-in-law and brother had their son, Thacher James while I was home (great timing, eh?!) and then Alison got married (obviously)! Crazy!

I leave you here with a couple beautiful pictures of Alaska. Oh gosh, how did that picture of Karissa and me get in there? How embarrassing!...Well, I guess that's a part of Alaska's beauty right there! haha.
Tomorrow I leave Alaska for about 10 days! I am headed back home to spend time with family (and hopefully meet my new nephew if he chooses to enter the world while I'm home) and then I head down to California for Alison's wedding! Fun times are to be had in the next week!

Now Entering: The Wild

So there's this tour that we have to accompany our guests on and it's called the Tundra Wilderness Tour...it's a 6-8 hour bus ride through Denali National Park.
Normally, I am not a big fan of this tour but, being the good tour director that I am, I went on this tour last week. Usually you don't really see much wildlife (maybe a caribou, some Dall sheep and a ptarmigan or two) but this time we saw grizzly bears super close. It felt like I was living inside my tv on the discovery channel. So here's a picture of the Alaskan wildlife (much anticipated, I'm sure).
Oh, and I almost forgot: the larger bear definitely went poo out there in front of us...thus answering the long-time question of "do bears poo in the woods?" (I know you were pondering that question for decades...you're welcome for answering it for you!)

Scavenger Hunt = Teamwork!

So my boss decided that the tour directors and drivers needed to bond and get to know one another better this year...their brilliant idea: photo scavenger hunt through downtown Anchorage. The following are illustrations of what 'fun' my group had.Accomplishing the goal of standing next to the statue of Balto on 4th Ave where they have the ceremonial start of the Iditarod each year. (I'm covering up his private parts because having them in a picture is distasteful don't you think?)

My group getting a picture by the Darwin Pub accomplishing the goal of getting a picture by a place where you can get a local brew.

-Please take note of who is the most advanced in the evolution chain...haha

This is one of my favorite photos...we're standing by Captain Cook looking out over the inlet.

Me doing my best aquatic pose next to the whale mural.

Pictures!!!!

Me in the 'girls' room hoping to have some connection with the outside world via the internet...Jesse spitting on the Homer Spit!

Traci enjoying the cloudy view in the morning in Homer

The view in Homer...so beautiful...one of my new favorite places