I like pictures!

HERE ARE SOME OF MY RECENT ADVENTURES THAT I FORGOT TO MENTION AT SOME POINT:

We decided to go on a walk/drive over to Sandy Beach and look around. It was beautiful, but sandy! Haha! Jenny kept getting sand in her crocs so she finally decided to take them off. I thought she was crazy because that sand was COLD! Haley was helping her!

Here is the remains of the old Treadwell mine. This was one of the pump stations... at least whats left of it. It was the only part of the mine that was made with cement. It was so loud and moved so much that if they had built it out of wood it would have just crumbled. Its very spooky and has a Harry Potter feel to it!

We walked back in the old mine. The part that is above ground - don't worry! And I came across this pipe. When the mine collapsed in 1917 they basically just walked away. This pipe is stamped 1914. I thought it was so cool that something so old is still just sitting there.

This is my bum. Haley decided it was a nice shot so I wanted to share it with the WORLD! I wanted a picture of me inside the mine. I guess this is as good as it gets... ???

This the grinder thingy-ma-bobber. We went to the City Museum and there was a miniature version of this but I can't remember what it is. I think its funny thought - theres a sign on it that says "Please Do Not Touch"... its out in the middle of no where getting rained on ALL THE TIME! Whatever.

I rubbed Buddha's belly. He will bring me good luck! I know it!

We went to the Juneau Maritime Festival! I had the best pulled pork sandwich ever! It only cost me 9 dollars but whatever! It was a great day! I got to wear shorts! Its been so nice all week... until today. Its been rainy all day!

Man Can Ted Dance!

I finally got to hike to the ice craves! ADVENTURE! It was amazing! Except for the minor panic attack that I had as I climbed the sheer cliff. It was slightly embarrassing, but what can ya do. When you are scared of heights you're scared of heights dang it! Leave me alone! I am grateful, however, because I had the wonderful Becky and Kyle to help me to the top and then back down again. I was pretty sure I was going to die there. We did the 1.5 mile hike to the glacier and then me and Justice decided it was safer to stay on the NON-MOVING part! I watched as Andrew, Becky, and Chelsi all ate it on the ice. Good thing Justice brought his binoculars :) otherwise it wouldn't have felt like I was standing right there when they fell! On the way back I decided that it was better to just push through the pain instead of take fifty thousand breaks and make the hike laster forever! So whenever the others would stop I would just keep going. Kyle and Becky would keep up with me and we had an awesome "religion" talk. It was fun. I love these people! But I made it to the last hill (according to Kyle... and it was a lie!) when I laid on the ground and closed my eyes and said.... "Just let me die!" They wouldn't let me and I thought that was kind of rude!

I decided to ride back with Becky and we went to Fred Meyer because she wanted biscuits and I wanted cinnamon rolls. I still have the canister in the fridge. I should make those... Yum! Friday I got to do a charter for, I guess, Dennis' family. The only weird part was that he's white... they were not. I was confused at first then I found out they were his step family and their friends. They were AWESOME! And I ended up with a $60 tip - I only had six people in my bus. It was fabulous! 

Friday night was freakin hilarious! We went and saw Pirates 4 (I was slightly disappointed, mostly because of the lag in the middle. I wish they hadn't spent so much time on the mermaids. Who really cares?) I liked it, but it felt like it lasted forever. I was saving seats with Jenny and lucky me, I got to sit next to Brian and Andrew! It was great! Then we dropped off Andrew back at his hotel and we walked down to the Alaskan. Its the only place where you can have an Alaskan, served by and Alaskan, in the Alaskan. Its a bar. We ran into Shaner there and they all decided to go find a more lively place. So we walked over the to the Imperial (another bar - don't judge). I danced. ALOT. Ted was the only guy there so he looked like quite the ladies man withe five girls that were there with him. But I danced until I was beat then we left. At like 3 o'clock this morning I hear loud banging on my window. Haley and Becky decided to walk home after they were done. It scared the crap out of me. I thought someone was trying to kill me - I was very confused. And tired... But they got home safe and I got up to go to work the whole house was a stinky! 

No one could drive me to work and I woke up too late to walk so I called Andrew and ask him to pick me up.  He looked like he hated life at work today. I had a great day of nothing. I love it when they do that! Now its Saturday! Welcome to the end of the world! All week long Becky has been telling me that her husband is preparing for the rapture - mostly just so he can go steal everyone's stuff that was rapture-fied! Its 3:45pm in Alaska, which means its about 5:45pm in Idaho - the world hasn't ended yet. I wonder what it will feel like to have planned and prepared for the Second Coming only to find out they were dead wrong. 

Favorite rant of the day: "When I get home I'm gonna eat hamburgers, and ice cream, and hot dogs - I don't even like hot dogs but thats what I want! And candy corns, and cheese, and then I'm gonna need someone to cuddle with while I watch a really dumb chick flick. But no one will ever love me so I don't have anyone to cuddle with. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" - Erin (I was very tired at the end of that flippin hike!) :)

May 16, 2011

Quote of the day: “You’d feel really bad if I woke up dead tomorrow morning” – Jenny. 

Today has been a fun day actually. I kinda made that sound surprising, but really it was fun! We had to be at work this morning at 8:30am  (I decided the early call time is just so that all the late people have time to get to work before they get left, cuz we never leave when we say we’re going to) and then we went on the second Driver Family tour. The last one was last week and we went to all the hot spots we have to take tours to like the Glacier Gardens, Mendenhall Glacier, Era Helicopters, Eagle Crest, etc. This time we got to go to this weird hippy gardens place called the Green ____ Gardens. It was extremely hippy-ish. It is run by this lady and her husband and it’s a 1000 mile trail that they created to accentuate the plants of Alaska. I guess there’s like 50 or 60 different plants and shrubs that can be found there and each week she numbers thirty of them so that you can study and explore them. It was neat and very pretty. The trip finished off  with a delightful muffin. Thank you strange garden place. Then we went to the State Museum. That place is rockin and I love it! They even have a pirate boat. A PIRATE BOAT! Jenny likes to tell the story of the time she went there and then fell down the stairs and made the only loud noise I the whole building. We then went to the Alaska Beer Brewery. Not my favorite part of the tour but interesting nonetheless. It smelled like really old yeast, I’m still not used to the smell of beer – nor do I ever plan on being. But they had beer bottles from all over the world – hundreds of them! That was neat. I decided I’m going to go buy on of their sweatshirts just cuz I can! J And last we hit up the Chez Cooking School that is located over by the airport. Our lovely driver was Gernet (he’s from Canada and talks like it too!) and he kept pronouncing it how its spelled and not how the French say it. Just so everyone knows its pronounced “Shays”. Then we were done. It was time to go do wash crew. It went way faster than I hoped it would but thats ok, cuz that meant we could be done early! So uneventful. No epic adventures today!

Oy!

This has been one heck of a week! But so much fun!! Friday was our first ship day. They said it was going to be really busy and I guess it was but once I get going I don’t tend to notice unless its so bad I want to cry. Friday that was not the case. Our call time was 8:30am, so we all piled into the cute little red Ford Tarus and trotted over to the yard. As I was pre-tripping my bus, I found out that it wouldn’t start. That kinda stinks considering I  need to DRIVE IT! But they switched buses and I was put into 118! I don’t like the 100 buses that much. They look older than the 200’s but I think they might be newer. Anyway, I got all ready just in time to wait. I didn’t have to be at the dock until 11:30am. So I watched Hitch. It was entertaining and as the drivers were clearing out I started to get anxious and nervous. I couldn’t believe it was time for me to actually pick up tourists. It kinda freaked me out a little. But I was so excited that all that went away when I got to the dock. I picked up my tour (which means I had them all day) and headed off to Allen Marine to drop them off for their whale watching. I told stories and information and they loved me! I dropped them off and went on my way to do the rest of my transfers. 

I had to take people to Temsco so that they could ride the helicopters to see the sled dogs and the glacier. Then I picked up a bunch of them. I kind of anticipated a lot of waiting but I don’t think it really sank in until I had to do all that waiting! After all my transfers I went back to pick up my group from whale watching and take them to the Glacier. I still feel dumb because I was having a hard time speaking – I couldn’t remember the name of the channel so I just said “This water empties into the wet stuff over there” and they laughed! They kept making fun of me and teasing me! Then I accidentally took the wrong turn and I over shot my turn anyway so I had to back up into traffic. It was humiliating. I felt so bad then we had to turn around in a neighborhood. They were all fine with it, but I felt and still feel STUPID! They made the joke that they got an extra tour for free! I just teased back that it was on me! We finally got to the glacier and even after all that we were on time and we even beat Chelsi who left before us! They got their hour in the Visitors Center and I got to use the bathroom and rest for a minute. Then it was time to pick them up from that! As I was loading them on the bus, one of my passengers pulled me aside and actually “lectured” me on how to drive a bus. I thanked him and felt even more like an idiot the rest of the time. It didn’t help that one of the ladies on the bus said to me “We still have one minute left!” Not realizing what she was saying, I thought she meant you are taking us away before our hour is up, I responded in a very pleasant tone mind you that we could stay for another minute. Her face turned into a very angered look and she said to me “Don’t get nasty” (she was british, so make sure you said that with a british accent!)  and that kind of pushed me over the top and my humiliation volcano erupted. I wanted to cry. But I kept my smile and I finished my tour and I was expecting to get punched in the face as I let them off the bus, but I ended up getting $34 in tips! They loved me. They all thought I was funny and entertaining and cute! It was a tender mercy that’s for sure! I am so grateful that they were so patient with me and do feel bad that that lady thought I was being rude. I finally figured out what she was saying and  praised everyone for being back on time! I think they softened her heart a little. I really didn’t realize she was implying they were early. I was on auto pilot trying to get everything ready to go. Oh well, right? Stuff happens as Haley would say! Good thing we all got Saturday off cuz I don’t think I could handle another day of that!

Saturday we all slept in and then Jenny and Becky had charters to do so me and Haley went into town to turn in our time cards. Then she broke off and went hiking with Ted, Andrew, Charles, Kyle, ect. (they ditched Chelsi, which caused a lot of drama but its all good now!) and after her charter I went with Jenny to the Maritime Festival that was happening at Marine Park! I went to lunch there earlier but we walked around there and then went to all the shops in downtown. It was a way fun day. 

May 9, 2011

Hey Amber, I'm practicing being like Monday - CONSISTENT :)

This has been the longest day of my life. I am so glad the work part of it is over. I had a rough day! It was my first day of solo driving, and that by itself was nothing. I could have been solo driving the day I got here (except I hadn't the foggiest where I was going) but its a rule that you have to drive with someone who has driven before for at least 10 hours. It took my a few days to finally get them done but I did it and today I got to go by myself! I was very excited. So I walked out and I picked the bus I knew was going to take me places of excitement and I pre-tripped the crap out of that bus! By that I just mean I did what I was supposed to do and then I drove away in it. I should have known it was all going to fall apart just by the fact that when I started said bus of wonder and fascination it blew large clouds of smoke into my face and anyone standing within 100 yards of the thing. And proceeded to blow that smoke for like 10 mins. FINALLY it stopped when I got the engine warmed up and started driving through the beautiful town of Juneau, AK. 

I had been driving for about 2 hours when I decided I should try going up to Eagle Crest all by my lonesome. So I did. Sadly they were doing construction on the road RIGHT in front of the turn off so they made it practically impossible to turn, but I did it and on my way up the mountain I saw 4 deer. I love deer. They are so cute and friendly and only drive you crazy when they decide to jump in front of your car going 60 mph. Don't worry, that didn't happen. I'm pretty sure if a deer used my bus to commit suicide... it would work. I reach the top of this amazing mountain and I take a quick stretch break and head back down. I get to where that blasted flippin construction is and I realize the have moved down the road. Now the enormous digger guy is planted right in front of where I have to turn. You can't turn a 40-ft bus in tight places - it just doesn't work. But I had to get out of that horrible place so I turned wide, backed up and finished turning. The whole time the construction workers are laughing at me. I make it all the way around the corner and I didn't even  hit the construction barrels that were on the corner. But all the sudden I feel my back wheel start to slip into the ditch behind me and I panicked so I gave the bus some gas and it popped right out no big deal except as it came onto the road I head scrapping metal for a second or two and it was fine. I drove directly back to the yard to tell Kerry, but he wasn't there so I looked under my bus and at all my gages and everything showed normal so I went back out. I called Kerry a few hours later to tell him about "the incident" because my sensitive little conscience wouldn't let me not tell him. After that I felt bad, but better. It continued to drive fine. I decided to go try and see if I could do the Salmon back drop off without any problems.... HAHAHAHA YEAH RIGHT! There were a ton of people so I had to try to turn around in the T-shaped parking lot just a head of the drop off. I got trapped and I had to do like a 20 point turn in order to get out of my stupid mistake and my low air buzzer went off and I couldn't handle it anymore. I cried and drove back to the yard to give up. 

Now I'm home and have eaten dinner and Chelsi is asleep and the other girls aren't home. So its quite. I think I just needed to sit quietly and relax cuz now I'm fine. See... fine. Plus we might be going to Costco... I LOVE COSTCO! All this horrible no good very bad day stuff doesn't make sense because last night was so much fun!

 Zach and Kyle came over to our house last night and we played card games. Kyle decided it would be fun to try to teach me and Chelsi how to play Blackjack and Texas Holdem... with M&Ms. It was a blast! I won! OF COURSE! And I got to go to church. That was nice! So yesterday was good. I had a blast.

May 7, 2011

I am so exhausted. Don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast! This place is amazing. Today we went to Walmart AND Costco - there isn't even that in Rexburg! So great right!? I love Costco, more importantly I love the muffins at Costco. While hunting for samples, I found the "Ugly Stick". I know you thought it didn't really exisit - OH IT DOES! I have proof. But its not what you think it is. Its not something that you get hit with or anything like that, its a fishing pole. Yes, a fishing pole! The high light of my life!


I realized last night that my "epic adventure" blog hasn't really mentioned much about my epic adventures. So I figured I'd fill you in really quick like. On Thursday my roommate and I went on an adventure. We walked down to beach of Gastineau Channel and tried to find clams that we could pry open and look at. Mean I know, but they look nasty. Then Chelsi decided it would be a great idea to try to cross the great divide that separated us from the where the channel was dry enough to almost cross it. I refused to participate in such adventures, mostly because that river was huge and I didn't want to have to climb down vertical limit to get to the other side. No thank you! With my luck, I would end up rolling down that hill like a rolly polly. Sounds fun! So we turned around and decided to walk over the bridge and go look at some of the fancy colorful houses that are up on the hill across the river. They are really colorful - red, lime green, sky blue. Out of control!

Even though I was dying cuz I'm fat and have old smoker lungs, I made it to the park that is at the top of this neighborhood we went to go look at. In this park there was the glacier melt off river thing. It was clear and clean and nice and I just wanted to swim in it! Also there was a creeper smoker guy that just stared us and down and couple of awkward people... we'll leave it at that. Chelsi got way sketched out and I was oober tired so we started to voyage home. It was a fun adventure and a really pretty view!

On the way home it was pouring rain but we saw a seal. It was poking its head out of the water and just looking around. We decided it would be a great idea to make noises at it and see if it would do anything. All it did was look at us like we're idiots and swim away. And we continued our walk home.

One more adventure. Today I drove the trolley. That thing is trippy! The engine is inside the car and driver sits directly in the middle of said car. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever driven in my life. I had to not kill anyone while making sure I stayed in my lane. The guys made fun of me. Now they know they can't forget their helmet if I'm driving the trolley! It was rough, I tell you what! But now I am "trained" to drive the satan mobile and all is well! Thus finishes my 10 hours of dual driving. It only took me three days. I wanted to cry so  bad. But Dylan was my dual driving buddy and I knocked out the rest of  the 5.5 hours I had left today and BAM! done. So great!

May 6, 2011

After two days of driving non-stop, I got to experience my first taste of Alaska. Its nothing to brag about considering all I had was "Idaho potato" french fries and a weak looking hamburger - but I was in Alaska! I keep hearing about all these great places I need to eat at - Sushi, Chinese, Thai, Fish 'n' Chips, Fudge, etc, etc, etc. And I look forward to wasting my money at all of them! But today was "hanger burger" time. After we all got done with work, we decided to go celebrate Haylie's glorious accomplishment (she passed her dreaded CDL test with Christopher - an impressive feat!) and we invited what was left of the guys to join us, which included Zach, Kyle, and Eric. It was fun and the place was right on the water. I guess it was an actual hanger at one time. In the 1940s, it was the home to the Alaska Coastal Airlines. But it was bought out by Alaska Airlines, that was then bought out by Delta (I think). Anyway, as you walked in you are walking on sketchy looking floors with holes and junk. It kinda freaked me out but I got over it quickly once I sat down at my booth overlooking the Gastineau Channel. We got to see planes take off and land ON THE WATER! This is such a FREAKING AWESOME PLACE!

Yesterday I got to go grocery shopping - YAY!!!! Everyone scream with excitement!!! I HAVE A PILLOW AND FOOD! Yeah, its great I know! I also got to go see the Mendenhall Glacier for the very first time. I know it won't be the last, but it was really, really cool! (Not just cuz it was chilly outside, it was legit a sweet sight to see). I also got to go figure out ways to maneuver my 40-ft bus in and out of very tight places such as the Salmon Bake and the Glacier Gardens (which mind you has upside down trees. Yes, you heard right. Don't ask, because I don't actually know).

ADVERTISEMENT: 

If you ever have a chance, its worth it to see all the sights here. They are amazing and its worth every minute to stop and look around! 

ADVERTISEMENT DONE. 

Now, when you spend like 8 hours a day driving back and forth over the same 12 miles, it makes you really tired. So we came home and pretty much crashed. Now we're sitting in our not-so-fancy-but-much-nicer-then-everyone-else's front room going over our tour information. Its kind of entertaining. For example: "Oh my gosh we have wolverines in Alaska - I'm excited about that!" exclaimed my roommate as she read through our tour handbook. We have wolverines in Alaska? I always here about the bears and the fish - never about no wolverines! Sweet! Maybe after I try to pet a bear I could find a wolverine to befriend.

May 4, 2011

Today marks the beginning of my Alaska adventure. Its been a long adventure so far! Nah, I’m just kidding, its been great! Last night I went to the temple just to find some solace and hope in this decision to leave behind everything again and start over – at least for the summer. I know this is going to be a great experience. Heck if I can’ survive 18 months in NY, a week in Haiti and then another week in NY by myself, I think I can do this Alaska thing. It can’t be that scary. I think I’m mostly worried about the fact that it’s a completely new thing. I have never done anything like this before. I know it’s going to pan out and I’m going to make bank and have a amazing time, but like my dad said – it’s all about surviving the first few weeks. If I can’t do that I got this thing in the bag! It’s still freaking me out. With that said, let’s do this.

Today has been a long day of travel. After my trip to the temple last night I came home (after going to visit with the wonderful Sister Hodge) to pack and wash what I had worn but needed to still take with me. I mostly finished packing at about 12:30, but got up at 7:30 this morning just to make sure. I still had to go pick up my check from Rayboulds and go to Walmart all before I was supposed to be meeting dad at his office so he could drive me to airport at 11:30am. Needless to say, I was perfectly on time. No, I really was. I picked up my check, came home and finished getting ready. Packed up all my crap into the Escape and went to the bank to deposit said check. I hit Walmart and was out of that wretched place by 11:03. Now, driving in Rexburg is like trying to drive in a stampede of idiots. It doesn't work, so I got to dad’s office at 11:13. See I was on time. Just because I didn't get to his office until 11:20 doesn't mean anything. Anyway, dad drove me to the Idaho Falls airport where I got all checked in and then got to sit and wait.

My first flight – from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City took off at 1:15pm. Then I got to wait in SLC for about an hour. I got some food and woofed it down just in time for them to start boarding. My second flight – from SLC to Seattle took off at 3pm. Now, I am waiting. I have been for the last 2 hours. We landed at about 3:55 Washington time (which is an hour behind Idaho) and my last flight – from Seattle to Juneau doesn’t take off until 8:05pm. Its slightly aggravating because all these blasted flights are 2 hours long or less and I still don’t get to Alaska until 9:36pm their time. That’s like 11:30 in Idaho. Holy long day of sitting around in strange airports! Its ok, I got to be in a plane that was literally chalked full of Asians. I had to text Hannah and ask her if there are a lot Asians in Washington and she confirmed my fear. There are. Evidence is that plane I just got off of. But I think they were good luck. One, we got drinks and peanuts. And two, we didn't die. Those lucky Asians! Thanks for flying with Delta!

In all my waiting, I have been able to go to Starbuck, watching 20 minutes of Easy A (highly recommend it, its freaking hilarious), and roam aimlessly through the airport looking desperately for a plug so that I didn't have to spend the next four hours staring at the wall. Look, I found one! YAY! Thank you plug, I was able to get my Facebook fix AND talk to Ryan and Chelsea. Great people! I will miss them! But I’m on to bigger and better things for the summer. I hope that Kerry remembers someone is supposed to be picking me up. I think that’s my biggest fear. I don’t want to be stranded in Alaska. At least I have clothes and money so I could get home if I needed to abandon ship! OOO, I could just take a ship! Brilliant! I will let you know if I get left at the airport or not! Well, I think that pretty much wraps up my day one of Operation: Own Alaska…. Yeah it needs some work. Any suggestions? Pray about it, I’m gonna go find that Wendy’s I keep seeing! I LOVE WENDY’S!!!!