three

We have had awesome weather for the most part this week. I took my camera on the course with me and got some decent footage of the last zipline on the course. I love the view on this one. I don't think it's going to look quite as pretty once the snow melts.













This is one of the two sky bridges on the course.















I feel like a true Alaskan now that I got my xtratuf boots!
Not to mention it was not an easy process to get these.
Long story....but I did get them for quite the bargain!















The boys repelling at the end of the course.















This is Kokanee, my managers dog.
She likes to hang out with us at the site.









This is the glory hole from which the zipline course goes over. It once was the largest gold mine in the world before it collapsed due to the flood in 1917.






We had our first real tours this weekend for the locals. I had a lot of fun and had great groups to work with. Our first cruise ship comes in tomorrow. We only have one tour though. We are still waiting for the season to pick up, but once it does we will be doing up to 4 tours every day of the week. So I'm trying to enjoy the days off we have now. All of us had a bonfire last night after work. We had a blast. The weather was perfect, and the sunset was gorgeous!

























































































































This week will probably be pretty low key. Hopefully I can explore some hiking trails, and I still have yet to go see Mendenhall glacier. I'm just praying the weather stays as nice as it has been the past few days! It's been glorious. Have a great week everyone!

two

It's hard to believe that I've been here for 11 days already. This summer is going to fly. We finished training this week. It was fun, but exhausting. We had yesterday and today to recoup though. This weekend we have our first tours for locals before the cruise ships start coming in. I've had multiple people asking me what the heck I'm doing in Alaska. I did not realize I had not explained what my job is. My job title is a canopy tour guide for Alaska Canopy Adventures. The course is a series of 9 ziplines, 2 sky bridges, and a repel at the end. So, what I do is take people (mainly groups coming off cruise ships) through the course. I'm responsible for getting them geared up, teaching them how to zip, and clipping/unclipping each of them at every platform. Basically I get payed to play on ziplines all day long. In Alaska. In the rain forest. It's awesome. I have a short clip from when I did it last summer of vacation, but keep in mind this was in August. Right now it's April, so there is still lots of snow. I'm ready for it all to melt. It makes the hike up to the top not much fun. But this gives you a small taste of what I'll be doing every day this summer.




I work/live with some of the coolest people. We still have about 3 people moving into our house sometime within the next week or so. There were 8 in my first training group, so there will be many more coming within the next couple weeks. I find it amusing that of about 30 guides, there are only 8 girls. Whatev. I'm also the only one from the "south." Apparently Kansas falls into that category to the people here. Never have I been made so much fun of for saying "y'all." There are several people from Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, ect.

It blows my mind how crazy expensive everything is here. Even walmart. It's ridiculous. I spent 12 dollars on milk and cereal. I spent 6 dollars on a latte downtown. I make my own coffee every morning now, thank you very much! And get this: there isn't even a dollar menu at McDonalds. It's the McValue meal and everything is a $1.50. Then at subway it's not the $5 footlong, it's the $6 footlong. Bogus.

We have really lucked out with the weather since we have been here. We have had little rain, which has made training so much more pleasent. This is a video I took on Easter Sunday from my balcony. It was gorgeous.




Yesterday was beautiful outside too. We exlpored all around Juneau, though we spent most of our day on the bus because none of us knew where we were going. Last night I went down to the beach along the Gastineau Channel at sunset and got some pretty sweet scenery pics. I'm sure by the end of summer I will have millions of pictures of these mountains. I can't get enough of them. Why have I lived in Kansas all my life? Lame.
























































































































That's all I got for ya now, kids. Keep it real.

one

Yesterday was long. I finished packing at 5 am and had to be at the airport shortly after 6 am to catch my first of many flights. I only had one 4 hour layover in Seattle where I had to switch airlines, but was in a total of 6 cities in one day. I started in Kansas City, then from there to Denver, to Seattle, to Ketchikan, to Sitca, to finally Juneau. I got into Juneau at about 7:30 pm Alaska time, so 10:30 pm central time. 16+ hours of traveling = exhausting.







About to depart from the Seattle Airport.












Flying into Ketchikan.











Another from Ketchikan. It was rainy when I got into Juneau.








It feels good to be settled into my new home. I love my house. It's kinda 70's-ish, but it's cozy. However, I'm the first one to get here, so I've had the place all to myself. The house is divided in two. So, five people on each side. I'll have a roommate eventually, but she won't be here for a couple weeks. The house is in an awesome location. It's about a 30 minute hike to the canopy site, or a 7 minute walk to port to take the boat to work. I'm keeping my eyes open for a cheap bike to buy at a garage sale. Apparently there are several garage sales every weekend around here.








my living room.














check out that fireplace.












i have an awesome view of the gastineau channel.












On my balcony you can see downtown Juneau.












Kitchen.













my room.














i have some serious decorating to do.















bathroom. Exciting, i know.













It's been nice to have the place to myself so I could get settled in and catch up on lost sleep, but I'm anxious to meet my roommates. I'm hoping to go exploring the town tomorrow. Alright, well happy Easter weekend everyone!