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

Hello Alaska!

I'm finally here! It feels as though I have been waiting for this moment since I left Alaska last August. This past year I couldn't wait to return to Alaska...now that I'm here it seems so surreal. It feels so good to be here again but although I am excited to see friends again I actually realized that I missed the beauty of Alaska more than I thought I had. As soon as I saw the mountains poking through the clouds as I landed in Anchorage on Tuesday I was stunned and got so excited to be back here. On Wednesday, my roommates and I drove down to Homer and the whole way driving down there I was staring out the window in awe of how awesome and amazing it is up here.
I will post pictures soon...we haven't quite gotten the internet all worked out here but as soon as we do I'll put up some illustrations of what I'm talking about!

Goodbye Washington

So this is my last night in the lower 48 for a while. Tomorrow morning my Dad is taking me to the airport and I'm flying up to Alaska for the summer. This seems like the moment I've been waiting for since I left Alaska last August. I couldn't wait to get back to Alaska to spend time with friends. Now that this moment is here though, I am not sure how I feel. I'm nervous about how this summer is going to go...I had the golden summer last season and can't imagine having a summer so great this time that could top how perfect I had it. I had great tours, great drivers and great friends to share them with. I'm nervous about meeting new tour directors and drivers that I'll work with for the rest of the summer. I think above all, I'm just anxious to get my first tour done with so I can work out the kinks of commentary and get back in the groove of work again.
I'll keep ya posted on how things turn out once I'm up there...

Time Flies

The Blades (our blading gang) showing our allegiance

Laura, Andrea & me doing our 80's thing

Amanda, Alison, Me and Katherine all prettied up for Grad Banquet...they're leaving me next year. :(

Laura+Me+Erin= The 3 Redheads (I'm an honorary member!)

So I've decided that every year that passes goes by a lot quicker than the last. I am just about to finish my fourth year of university (although not my last year) and yet it seems like it was just last year that I was starting out university and just yesterday that I got into the nursing program. Weird. Plus the fact that I have to do one more year of school before I'm done and the majority of my friends are graduating this year and returning home...leaving me. :( I'm not ready for them to go yet.

I only have one more week of exams and then I'm returning home for a couple weeks, spending time with family and then I'm heading up to Alaska once again. I'll keep this page posted with my Alaskan Adventures this summer...there's sure to be many since Karissa and I are both going to be up there together again (and we all know how much fun we got into last summer...) plus our friend Traci is joining us...I can't wait to see what we get ourselves into! :)

So my birthday was this past week...I'm officially old now. I have the most amazing friends too. I not only had a little dessert party with my favorite girls on Tuesday night but then on Wednesday night (my birthday-day) my roommates got pies (so much better than cake!) to celebrate...and...as if that isn't enough...Andrea and Laura planned a WHOLE day on Saturday to celebrate my birthday through a surprise scavenger hunt finishing at Mary's Diner! It was so great! I have never felt so special and loved on my birthday!

Just so you know, the picture with the pretzels is me on my photo hunt. I had to find my favorite salty snack at Superstore...the oversized pretzels are my latest favorite! There are just too many pictures to put all of them online!

No big deal but...this is Karissa and me ice skating on the Caribbean. Happens all the time right? Yeah, no big deal. The ship that we were on was incredible!

So this is me in Costa Maya, Mexico. I just got back from my cruise two days ago and am already missing the sun and relaxation. So I've decided that I love the relaxation of a cruise but don't really like the ports very much. In Costa Maya Karissa and I didn't really enjoy the town at all so we pretty much just walked along the beach for a little bit, laid out in the sun for a bit and then got back on the ship where we could eat chocolate soft serve ice cream while swimming in the pool. Lame, but true.
We took a Western Caribbean cruise that stopped in Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel and the Grand Cayman. It was so much fun, hectic in the beginning when we missed the ship in Miami but ended up amazingly. I am definitely not enjoying being back in cold Canada going to classes again. :(

I don't know if any of you are as lame as I am and have moments of weakness when you impulse buy but...yeah, I had a sad moment of impulse buying this last summer. After our first tour, Karissa and I decided to buy rollerblades with our sweet tips from the week. Well, we didn't just go for the lame $30 skates...oh no, we had to get the super nice ones that were comfortable (yeah, because we rollerblade all the time and so that's a big deal!). Little do you probably know, I had never rollerbladed in my life and here I was spending a lot of money on something that I wasn't sure I was going to like, let alone use at all. Well, last summer Karissa and I used our skates once. That's it...one time use. So last night, Andrea and Andrew and I decided to go out and enjoy the beautiful night and...you guessed it...I broke out the skates! It felt great! Well, it was supposed to feel great but unfortunately Karissa and I had bought the same skates and didn't bother looking to make sure that we'd grabbed our own skates and so I had two right skates to skate with. I toughed it out (with a little bit of whining here and there with the arch of the skate digging into the side of my left foot). Andrea even took a picture of me on my skates to commemorate their usage once again! I am determined to get good at skating this spring so I can begin to feel better about this impulse buy. I'm still working on it.

So, I've thought about tattoos a lot lately since I happen to love the show Miami Ink that's on the TLC channel. I saw this tattoo (above) online somewhere and loved finding that someone else LOVES Ramona Quimby as much as I do! I have found a kindred spirit! I don't think that I would ever get a tattoo but this is one of the few that I've seen that I actually like. haha...Mom and Dad would love that, eh?!

Home Sweet Home

This is my little piece of home. This is the view from my bedroom at my parent's house.

Far from Home

8 months living in Canada + 4 months working in Alaska = My life being lived very far from home.